What mountains of gold did he promise to
our Lady of Walsingham if he ever got safe ashore again!
our Lady of Walsingham if he ever got safe ashore again!
Warner - World's Best Literature - v10 - Emp to Fro
Thither he had gone to seek solace from ill health and pro-
tection from enemies, with his old friend Froben, the renowned
printer. His grave in the cathedral there remains a place of pious
pilgrimage, and Holbein's portrait of him, in the neighboring mu-
seum, a revelation of much in his work and character. '
•
·
In summoning up the work of Erasmus it is first of all needful
to clear our minds of cant. Cant on this subject has taken various
shapes; but its most usual statement is, that while Luther was brave,
Erasmus was a coward. This is one of those superficial antitheses,
popular in all times, but especially in periods of strife and struggle.
That Luther was brave the whole world knows; that Erasmus was
brave any one may know who will study his writings. He showed
this bravery by fighting the strong army of ignorance throughout
Europe in his books, and by telling unpalatable truths to the great
men of his time in his letters.
It also unjust to say that Erasmus was wavering. That his opin-
ions showed varying moods and developed new phases, is true; but
from first to last he stood consistently by his fundamental idea,-
progress by evolution rather than by revolution.
It is foolish to say that he had no convictions. He had deep con-
victions; and among them a conviction as to the great value in reli-
gion of what is permanent, and as to the small value of what is
transient.
It is trivial to say that as he became old he grew weaker. Most
men do. Even Luther did at times. That is in the order of nature;
but even in Erasmus's last days we have noble exhibitions of strength,
even as we have them in Luther's last days.
mer.
It is shallow to say that Luther was open, and Erasmus a trim-
Each thought and fought in his own way. Luther soon thought
it best to fight the Church from without; Erasmus thought it wiser
to renew the Church from within.
1 For special details of the last days of Erasmus at Basle, see M. de Ram,
in the Bulletin de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de Belgique,' 1843, pages
462 et seq.
## p. 5519 (#85) ############################################
ERASMUS
5519
It is simply unhistorical to say that Erasmus was "false both to the
old Church and to the new. " He sought to save the old Church; to
renew it; to revive a better life in it. He sought to moderate the
new Church; to prevent the monstrous riot and unreason which fol-
lowed, the ages of Protestant bigotry, far less excusable than Cath-
olic bigotry, the carnival of fire and murder which lasted through
two centuries. He sought to weld both Churches into a new force-
into a higher form of Christianity. He sought to clear and clean the
dominant Church of its noxious growths, and hoped that in the air
of new knowledge and right reason it would grow into a Church
new and comprehensive, suited to the new and regenerate world.
He foresaw justly that Protestant dogmatism would soon become as
violent and unreasoning as Catholic dogmatism.
He cared no more for Luther's dogma, justification by faith,
than for the mediæval dogma, justification by works. To him the
one thing precious was the simple teaching of Christ and his im-
mediate followers; all the rest was sound and fury, signifying
nothing. What he labored for was not to establish a new Church
and new growths of dogma, which he rightly believed would soon
become an incubus upon the weary earth; but he sought to promote
an evolution of righteousness, which is rightness. To find fault with
him because he and his work were not like Luther and his work, is
like finding fault with Emerson because his make-up and methods
were not those of Garrison. ¹ One class of minds will always prefer
Erasmus, and believe in his work, and lament that he could not have
had his way.
Another class will prefer Luther, and believe in his
work, and rejoice that he had his way. But it should be remem-
bered that before Luther was heard of, Erasmus began, in political
affairs and religious affairs, a course of astounding boldness, setting
reform in motion; and this course, in spite of reproach and attack
from both sides, he kept during his entire life.
But it may be said that Erasmus's idea of a peaceful evolution
was not the right idea; that what was needed was revolution.
Alas! history confirms this view too thoroughly. Just as Turgot,
the greatest and wisest of French statesmen in the eighteenth cen-
tury, proposing rational and peaceful measures which would have
saved the ancient monarchy and developed liberty in France, was
met by fierce opposition and unrelenting hate on both sides, so that
the work had to be done far less satisfactorily, at the cost of millions
of lives and billions of treasure and generations of sterile revolt and
turmoil; just as Henry Clay, one of the wisest American statesmen
-
1 For a very full expression of Erasmus's view regarding Luther, see his
letter to Cardinal Wolsey, given by Jortin, Vol. i. , pages 130-1. It must be
confessed that this view differed in Erasmus's differing moods.
## p. 5520 (#86) ############################################
ERASMUS
5520
of the nineteenth century, proposing rational and peaceful measures
which would have gradually extinguished slavery and compensated
the slave-owners at a paltry cost of twenty-five millions, was met by
fierce unrelenting opposition on both sides, so that the work had to
be done by a civil war at a loss of a million of lives and many
thousands of millions of dollars: so Erasmus, seeking concessions
from the old Church and moderation from the new, met opposition
bitter and unrelenting from both sides; and the work of reform had
to be accomplished by a schism which cost two hundred years of
frightful war, with the loss of millions on millions of lives and of
billions on billions of treasure.
Such was the price paid that the Teutonic, Scandinavian, and
Anglo-Saxon countries and their colonies might be saved from the
fate of Spain and her colonies.
The question now occurs: What was Erasmus's work in its sum?
What did he for Christendom in general and for Germany in par-
ticular? The Roman Church answers in the old saying, "Erasmus
laid the egg and Luther hatched it. " Erasmus answers in the com-
parison of his work to the breaking of dikes. Luther answers in
these words:- "Erasmus is very capable of exposing error, but he
knows not how to reach the truth. "
All these estimates of his agency in the Reformation concur in
making him a critic and satirist; a forerunner of reformers and revo-
lutionists. But if we consider him merely as a forerunner, we shall
form a judgment sadly inadequate. In a letter to Jean Gachet,
Erasmus says:·
-
HERE, to sum up, is what I have done in my books.
I have raised my voice boldly against the wars which for so many years
we have seen shaking all Christendom.
I labored to bring it
Theology had degenerated into sophistic niceties.
back to its sources, and to its ancient simplicity.
I endeavored also to restore their first lustre to those sacred authors of
whom men generally have only fragments. I taught literature, which before
me was almost pagan, to speak of Christ.
I have aided, so far as I was able, the revived study of languages.
I have censured various foolish claims of men.
I aroused the world which was sleeping in ceremonies almost Judaic, and
called it to a Christianity more pure; never condemning the ceremonies of the
Church, but showing that which is best.
Although this claims much, every thoughtful student of the six-
teenth century must now acknowledge that it claims too little. Let
1 For a thoughtful estimate of Erasmus's work from the moderate Roman
Catholic point of view, see Döllinger, Die Reformation' (Regensburg, 1848),
pages 1-20.
## p. 5521 (#87) ############################################
ERASMUS
5521
us sum up rapidly the work of Erasmus in the light of the history
developed since his time.
First, he did much to develop a better education, and to instill a
fruitful scholarship into the minds of the younger thinking men
throughout Europe.
Second, he contributed more powerfully than any other to the
spreading of the Revival of Learning, and therefore to the awaken-
ing of reform ideas.
Third, he did more than any other to prevent the Revival of
Learning in the North of Europe from degenerating into mere dilet-
tantism, as it did in the South of Europe.
Fourth, more boldly than any other, he wrought to mitigate the
tyranny of princes.
Fifth, a great service in which he was far beyond his time,-be-
yond the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, beyond the leaders
of the Protestant Church,- he declared always for toleration.
Sixth, he planted in European statesmanship a most beneficent
germ, which has since come to great growth, in showing at all times
and in all places the futility of attempting to crush thought by force.
Seventh, centuries in advance of his time, he labored to discour-
age war and to substitute for it arbitration.
Eighth, he stood at the beginning of the critical study of the
Scriptures-of all that great work going on in our own time, which is
giving religion new and broader foundations. With good reason has
an eminent modern scholar said:-"Luther made the Reformation
that was; Erasmus, the Reformation that is to be. "
Any one looking at contemporary portraits of Erasmus, and espe-
cially at that painted by Hans Holbein, will at once see that we have
no right to expect in the great scholar a leader in the rough work of
revolution. There is a delicacy in the face, a play of sarcasm over
the features, a bright light from the eyes, which all remind us at
once of Voltaire's portrait; but there is a quiet depth in it which we
find in no portrait of Voltaire.
So, too, his work in many respects was strongly like the work of
Voltaire. Both exposed wrongs and satirized wrong-doers. Both
reminded rulers of their duties. Both stirred the common-sense of
their own times. Both spurred on bold thinkers of after times. Both
fought bigotry. Both wrought powerfully for a thorough change in
the world's thought and action: one, without designing it, for the
Reformation; the other, without designing it, for the French Revolu-
tion.
And as Voltaire, the critic, satirist, and scholar, preceding the
French Revolution, is to Mirabeau, the fearless orator of that Rev-
olution: so is Erasmus, the critic, satirist, and scholar, preceding
X-346
## p. 5522 (#88) ############################################
ERASMUS
5522
the Reformation, to Luther, the orator and warrior of the Reforma-
tion.
Yet there was a deep difference between these two greatest of
European men of letters. Erasmus's is the more profound nature.
Out of it grew no things more brilliant than out of Voltaire's nature;
but out of it grew things more beautiful and noble.
Finally, as to the sphere of Erasmus's influence. He wrought, as
we have seen, on all Christendom; but most directly and fully upon
Germany. His letters show this amply. Under all temptations he
refused to break with German thought. He saw that in Germany
the soil was deep, and that it was the garden where his ideas were
to come to their first and perhaps their fullest bloom and fruitage.
He himself has told us:-"I did my best to deliver the rising gener-
ation from the slough of ignorance, and to inspire them with a taste
for better studies. I wrote not for Italy, but for Germany and the
Netherlands. "
And D. White
NOTE. The collected works of Erasmus were finally published by Le
Clerc in 10 vols. folio, Louvain, 1703-6. The few selections here given are
taken from his most popular writings.
FROM THE ADAGES'
[The first edition of the 'Adages' was published in 1500. A great num-
ber of successive editions were issued, the number of proverbs dealt with
being steadily increased until 1517, when an edition greatly enlarged was
given to the press. See Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe,'
especially Vol. i. , Chap. iv. ]
I. ADAGES RELATING TO MONARCHY
L'
ET any one turn over the pages of ancient or modern history:
scarcely in several generations will you find one. or two
princes whose folly has not inflicted the greatest misery on
mankind.
I know not whether much of this is not to be imputed to
ourselves. We trust the rudder of a vessel, where a few sailors
and some goods alone are in jeopardy, to none but skillful pilots,
## p. 5523 (#89) ############################################
ERASMUS
5523
but the State, wherein the safety of so many thousands is con-
cerned, we put into any hands. A charioteer must learn, reflect
upon, and practice his art; a prince need only be born. Yet
government, as it is the most honorable, so it is the most diffi-
cult of all the sciences. And shall we choose the master of a
ship, and not choose him who is to have the care of many cities,
and so many souls? But the usage is too long established for us
to subvert. Do we not see that noble cities are erected by the
people; that they are destroyed by princes? that the community
grows rich by the industry of its citizens, is plundered by the
rapacity of its princes? that good laws are enacted by popular
magistrates, are violated by these princes? that the people love
peace; that princes excite war?
It is the aim of the guardians of a prince, that he may never
become a man. The nobility, who fatten on public calamity,
endeavor to plunge him into pleasures, that he may never learn
what are his duties. Towns are burned, lands are wasted, tem-
ples are plundered, innocent citizens are slaughtered, while the
prince is playing at dice, or dancing, or amusing himself with
puppets, or hunting, or drinking. O race of the Bruti, long
since extinct! O blind and blunted thunderbolts of Jupiter! We
know indeed that those corrupters of princes will render account
to Heaven, but not easily to us.
Let any physiognomist, not a blunderer in his trade, consider
the look and features of an eagle,- those rapacious and wicked
eyes, that threatening curve of the beak, those cruel cheeks, that
stern front: will he not at once recognize the image of a king-
of a magnificent and majestic king? Add to these a dark ill-
omened color, an unpleasing, dreadful, appalling voice, and that
threatening scream at which every kind of animal trembles.
Every one will acknowledge this type, who has learned how ter-
rible are the threats of princes, even uttered in jest. At the
scream of the eagle the people tremble, the senate shrinks,
the nobility cringes, the judges concur, the divines are dumb, the
lawyers assent, the laws and constitutions give way; neither right
nor religion, neither justice nor humanity prevails. And thus,
while there are so many birds of sweet and melodious song, the
unpleasant and unmusical scream of the eagle alone has more
power than all the rest.
## p. 5524 (#90) ############################################
ERASMUS
5524
Of all birds, the eagle alone has seemed to wise men the apt
type of royalty: not beautiful, not musical, not fit for food; but
carnivorous, greedy, plundering, destroying, combating, solitary,
hateful to all, the curse of all, and with its great powers of
doing harm, surpassing them in its desire of doing it.
II. ADAGES SHOWING ERASMUS'S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
PRINCES must be endured, lest tyranny should give way to
anarchy, a still greater evil. This has been demonstrated by the
experience of many States; and lately the insurrection of the
German boors has taught us that the cruelty of princes is better
to be borne than the universal confusion of anarchy.
III. ADAGES RELATING TO THE MENDICANT FRIARS
THERE is a wretched class of men, of low degree, yet full of
malice; not less dingy, nor less filthy, nor less vile than beetles;
who nevertheless by a certain obstinate malignity of disposition,
though they can never do good to any mortal, become frequently
troublesome to the great. They frighten by their ugliness, they
molest by their noise, they offend by their stench; they buzz
round us, they cling to us, they lie in ambush for us, so that it
is often better to be at enmity with powerful men than to attack
these beetles; whom it is a disgrace even to overcome, and whom
no one can either shake off or encounter without some pollution.
NOTE. - For full information regarding the above passages, with specimens
of the original Latin, see Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe,'
as above; also Jortin, Vol. iii.
-
FROM THE CHRISTIAN'S MANUAL›
'ENCHIRIDION MILITIS CHRISTIANI'
E
VERY tree is known by its own fruit. Although you watch,
fast, attend Divine service, sing, or observe strict silence
and the like ordinances, I value them not; nor shall I be-
lieve that you are in the Spirit except I behold in you the fruits
of the Spirit.
The generality of mankind place religion in ceremonies or
creeds; a certain appointment of psalms, or in bodily exercises.
## p. 5525 (#91) ############################################
ERASMUS
5525
If you examine them about spiritual matters, you will find them
merely carnal.
God despised the burnt-offerings, new moons and Sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies, and the appointed feasts of his people,
while they were evil-doers, although he himself had commanded
them; and will any man dare to compare his own paltry institu-
tions with the Divine precepts? You may read in Isaiah what
contempt and loathing he expresses concerning them. When he
speaks of rites, ceremonies, and the multitude of prayers, does he
not, as it were, point at those men who measure religion by
psalms, prayers, creeds, or other human institutions?
Christ is nothing else than love, simplicity, patience, purity,-
in short, all that he himself is; and the Devil is nothing but
that which draws us away from these ideals.
NOTE. See Crowther's translation of the
Enchiridion' under the title of
"The Christian's Manual,' London, 1816, Rule v. and elsewhere; also the ex-
cellent book of Kuno Francke, Social Forces in German Literature,' page
145; also Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers,' pages 175 et seq.
-
FROM THE PRAISE OF FOLLY'
'ENCOMIUM MORIÆ'
THE
HE next to be placed in the "Regiment of Fools" are such
as make a trade of telling or inquiring after incredible
stories of miracles and prodigies.
And these absurd-
ities do not only bring an empty pleasure and cheap diversion,
but they are a good trade, and procure a comfortable income to
such priests and friars as by this craft get their gain. To these,
again, are nearly related such others as attribute strange virtues
to the shrines and images of saints and martyrs, and so would
make their credulous proselytes believe that if they pay their
devotion to St. Christopher in the morning, they shall be
guarded during the day following from all dangers and misfor-
tunes. If soldiers when they first take arms shall come and
mumble over a set prayer before the picture of St. Barbara, they
shall return safe from their engagements; or if any one pray to
St. Erasmus on particular holidays, with wax candles and other
fopperies, he shall shortly be rewarded with plentiful increase of
## p. 5526 (#92) ############################################
5526
ERASMUS
wealth. The Christians have now their gigantic St. George, just
as the pagans had their Hercules: they paint the saint on horse-
back, and drawing the horse very gloriously accoutred, they
scarce refrain in a literal sense from worshiping the very beast.
What shall I say of such as cry up and maintain the cheat
of pardons and indulgences? that by these compute the time of
each soul's residence in purgatory, and assign them a longer or
shorter continuance according as they purchase more or fewer of
these paltry pardons?
. By this easy way of purchasing
pardons, any notorious highwayman, any plundering soldier, any
bribe-taking judge, shall disburse some part of his unjust gains
and so think all his grossest impieties atoned for. So many per-
juries, lusts, drunkennesses, quarrels, bloodsheds, cheats, treach-
eries, debaucheries, shall all be, as it were, struck a bargain for;
and such a contract made as if they had paid off all arrears and
might now begin a new score.
There are a thousand other more sublimated and refined
niceties of notions, relations, quantities, formalities, quiddities,
hæcceities, and such-like absurdities.
But alas! those
notional divines, however condemned by the sober judgment of
others, are yet mightily pleased with themselves, and are so
laboriously intent upon prosecuting their crabbed studies that
they cannot afford so much time as to read a single chapter in
any one book of the Bible. And while they thus trifle away
their misspent hours in trash and babble, they think that they
support the Catholic Church.
•
Next to these are another sort of brain-sick fools, who style
themselves monks and of religious orders, though they assume
both titles very unjustly. For as to the last, they have very
little of religion in them; and as to the former, the etymology
of the word monk implies solitariness, or being alone; whereas
they are so thick abroad that one cannot pass any street or alley
without running against them.
Though this sort of men
are so detested by every one that it is reckoned unlucky even to
meet them by accident, they think nothing equal to themselves,
and hold it a proof of consummate piety if they be so illiterate
as not to be able to read. And when their asinine voices bray
out in the churches their psalms, of which they understand the
## p. 5527 (#93) ############################################
ERASMUS
5527
notes but not the words, then it is they fancy that the ears of
the saints above are enraptured with the harmony.
Among these some make a good profitable trade of beggary,
going abroad from house to house, not like the apostles to break
their bread, but to beg it; nay, thrust themselves into all public
houses, crowd into passage boats, get into travelers' wagons, and
omit no chance of craving people's charity, and injuring common
beggars by interloping in their traffic of alms.
All these orders are not so careful of becoming like Christ as
to be unlike each other; they care less to be known as disciples
of the Founder of our religion than as followers of the founders
of their orders.
Some will not touch a piece of money, though they make no
scruple of the sin of drunkenness and worse sins.
Now, as to the popes of Rome, who pretend themselves Christ's
vicars: if they would but imitate his exemplary life by preaching
incessantly, by taking up with poverty, nakedness, hunger, and
contempt of the world; if they did but consider the import of
the word pope, which signifies father,
there would be no
such vigorous making of parties and buying of votes in the con-
clave;
and those who by bribery should get themselves
elected would never secure their sitting firm in the chair by pis-
tol, poison, and violence. How much of their pleasure would be
abated if they were endowed with one dram of wisdom? Wisdom,
did I say? Nay, with one grain of that salt which our Savior
bid them not lose the savor of. In place of their riches, honors,
jurisdictions, Peter's pence, offices, dispensations, licenses, in-
dulgences, would succeed watchings, fastings, tears, prayers, ser-
mons, hard studies, repentant sighs, and a thousand such severe
penalties; nay, what is yet more deplorable, it would follow that
all their clerks, notaries, advocates, grooms, ostlers, lackeys,
pimps, and some others whom for modesty's sake I shall not
mention,
would all lose their employments.
But
all this is upon the supposition only that the popes understood
what circumstances they are placed in: whereas now, by a whole-
some neglect of thinking, they live as well as heart can wish.
Whatever of toil and drudgery belongs to their office, that they
assign over to St. Peter or St. Paul, who have time enough to
·
## p. 5528 (#94) ############################################
5528
ERASMUS
mind it; but if there be anything of pleasure and grandeur, that
they assume to themselves as being thereunto called.
They think to serve their Master, our Lord and Savior, with their
great state and magnificence,
. with their titles of rever-
ence and holiness, and with exercising their episcopal function
only in blessing and cursing. The working of miracles is old
and out of date; teaching the people is too laborious; interpret-
ing the Scripture is to invade the prerogative of the schoolmen;
to pray is too idle; to repent is too unmanly and cowardly; to
fast is too mean and sordid.
Their only weapons ought
to be those of the spirit; and of these indeed they are mighty lib-
eral, as of their interdicts, their suspensions, their denunciations,
their greater and lesser excommunications, and their bulls.
They give dispensations for the not preaching of Christ, make
void the design and effect of our redemption by bribes and sales,
adulterate the gospel by their forced interpretations and under-
mining traditions, and lastly, by their lusts and wickedness grieve
the Holy Spirit and make the Savior's wounds bleed afresh.
Farther, where the Christian Church hath been first planted,
then confirmed and then established by the blood of martyrs,-
as if Christ were not strong enough still to protect her, they
invert the order, and propagate their religion now by arms and
violence, which was formerly done only by patience and suffer-
ings.
·
·
NOTE. The extracts are made from Bishop Kennett's quaint and pithy
translation (London, 1724), especially pages 67, 69, 102, 107, and following to
page 296.
FROM THE
COLLOQUIES'
COLLOQUY OF THE SHIPWRECK'
S
OME were spewing, some were praying. I remember one Eng-
lishman there.
What mountains of gold did he promise to
our Lady of Walsingham if he ever got safe ashore again!
One made a vow to deposit a relic of the Cross in this place;
another to put a relic of it in that; - some promised to turn
monks; one vowed a pilgrimage, barefooted and bareheaded, in
a coat of mail, and begging his bread all the way, to St. James
of Compostella. I could not but laugh at one fellow there. He
vowed as loud as he could bellow to the St. Christopher in the
(
## p. 5529 (#95) ############################################
ERASMUS
5529
great church at Paris (that the saint might be sure to hear him)
a wax candle as big as the saint himself. Now, you must know
that the Paris St. Christopher is enormous, and rather a mount-
ain than a statue.
He was
so loud, and went over and over
with it so often, that a friend of his gave him a touch on the
elbow: "Take care what you promise," said he; "if you should
sell yourself, you could not buy such a candle. "
«Hold your
tongue, you fool," says the other (softly, so that St. Christopher
might not hear). "Let me but set foot on land once more, and
St. Christopher has good luck if he get even a tallow candle
from me. "
Adolphus-To which of the two saints did you pray?
Antony-To not one of them all, I assure you.
I don't like
your way of bargaining with the saints: "Do this and I'll do
that. Here is so much for so much. Save me, and I will give
you a taper or go on a pilgrimage. " Just think of it! I should
certainly have prayed to St. Peter if to any saint, for he stands
at the door of heaven, and so would be likeliest to hear. But
before he could go to the Almighty and tell him my condition, I
might be fifty fathoms under water.
Adolphus - What did you do, then?
Antony I went straight to God himself, and said my prayer
to him. The saints neither hear so readily nor give so will-
ingly.
-
COLLOQUY OF The ReligIOUS PILGRIMAGE ›
manner.
JUST before the chapel stood a little house, which the officer
told us was conveyed thither through the air after a wonderful
Upon strict observation of everything, I asked
the officer how many years it might be since that little house
was brought thither. He told me that it had been there for
some ages. "And yet methinks," said I, "the walls do not seem
to be of that antiquity:" and he did not much deny it.
«Nor
these pillars," said I. "No, sir," said he. "Then," said I,
"methinks that straw, those reeds, and the whole thatch of it,
look as if they had not been so long laid. " "Tis very right,"
said he. "And what do you think," said I, "of those cross-
beams and rafters? They cannot be near so old. " He confessed
they were not. At last, when I had questioned him as to every
part of this poor cottage, said I:-"How do you know that this
## p. 5530 (#96) ############################################
ERASMUS
5530
is the house that was brought so far in the air so many years
ago? " At that he laughed at us scornfully, as at people invinci-
bly ignorant.
I had rather lose all Duns Scotus, and twenty more such as
he, than one Cicero or Plutarch. Not that I am wholly against
them, either: but from the reading of the one I find myself to
become honester and better; whereas I rise from the other
extremely dull, indifferent to virtue, but violently bent on cavil
and contention.
[The seventh Colloquy is leveled mainly against monastic vows.
The ninth is entitled 'A Pleasant and Profitable Colloquy between
two Franciscan Monks and a German Tavern-keeper. ' The eleventh
is entitled 'A Pleasant Relation of John Reuchlin's Ghost, appearing
to a Franciscan in a Dream. ' The twenty-first is entitled 'Hell
Broke Loose. The Divisions of Christian Princes are the Scandal of
their Profession. The Furies Strike the Fire and the Monks Blow the
Coal. ']
NOTE. The above extracts are made from Sir Roger L'Estrange's Eng-
lish Translation of Erasmus's 'Colloquies,' London, 1725.
R
FROM ERASMUS'S CORRESPONDENCE
PASSAGES SHOWING HIS VIEWS OF LIFE AND CONDUCT
EAD first the best books.
The important thing for you
is not how much you know, but the quality of what you
know. Divide your day and give to each part of it a
special occupation.
Never work at night. It dulls the
brain and hurts the health.
I would not change my freedom for the best bishopric in the
world. - LETTER TO PETER GILES, 1516.
I am now fifty-one years old.
I am not enamored of
life, but it is worth while to continue a little longer with such a
prospect of a golden age.
All looks brighter now.
I myself, insignificant I, have contributed something. I have at
least stirred the bile of those who would not have the world grow
## p. 5531 (#97) ############################################
ERASMUS
5531
wiser, and only fools now snarl at me. One of them said in a
sermon lately, in a lamentable voice, that all was now over with
the Christian faith. - LETTER TO CAPITO, circa 1518.
Old institutions cannot be rooted up in an instant. Quiet
argument may do more than wholesale condemnation. Avoid
all appearance of sedition. Keep cool. Do not get angry. Do
not hate anybody. Do not get excited over the noise which you
have made.
May Christ give you his spirit, for his own
glory and the world's good. -LETTER TO LUTHER, circa 1519.
.
The world is waking out of a long deep sleep. The old
ignorance is still defended with tooth and claw, but we have
kings and nobles now on our side. -LETTER TO SIR HENRY
GUILDFORD, 1519.
For yourself, the intelligence of your country will preserve
the memories of your virtues, and scholars will tell how a king
once reigned there who in his own person revived the virtues of
the ancient heroes. - LETTER TO KING HENRY VIII. , 1519.
The justest war can hardly approve itself to any reasonable
person.
The people build cities, the princes destroy
them, and even victory brings more ill than good. - LETTER TO
THE ABBOT OF ST. BERTIN.
My work has been to restore a buried literature, and recall
divines from their hair-splittings to a knowledge of the New
Testament. - LETTER THROWING LIGHT ON HIS PURPOSE IN PRE-
SENTING HIS EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, 1521.
PASSAGES RELATING TO THE MONKS
HAPPY Epimenides, that he woke at last! Some divines never
wake at all, and fancy themselves most alive when their slumber
is deepest.
Do not mistake me. Theology itself I rev-
erence and always have reverenced. I am speaking merely of
the theologasters of our own time, whose brains are the rot-
tenest, intellects the dullest, doctrines the thorniest, manners the
brutalest, life the foulest, speech the spitefulest, hearts the black-
est, that I have ever encountered in the world. - LETTER TO HIS
PUPIL GREY.
## p. 5532 (#98) ############################################
5532
ERASMUS
A set of creatures who ought to be lamenting their sins, but
who fancy they can please God by snorting in their throats.
You say that I cannot die better than among my brethren.
I am not so sure of that. Your religion is in your dress;
your religious orders, as you call them, have done the Church
small service. -LETTER TO SERVATIUS, 1514.
I am delighted that you have stood up for Reuchlin.
What a fight he is having, and with what enemies! The Pope
himself is afraid to provoke the monks.
Those wretches
in the disguise of poverty are the tyrants of the Christian world.
-LETTER TO PIRKHEIMER, 1517.
.
What a thing it is to cultivate literature! Better far to grow
cabbages. Bishops have thanked me for my work, the Pope has
thanked me; but these tyrants the mendicant friars never leave
me alone with their railing. -LETTER TO CARDINAL WOLSEY, 1518.
PASSAGES RELATING TO SCHOLASTICISM AND THEOLOGY
I WISH there could be an end of scholastic subtleties,
and Christ be taught plainly and simply. The reading of the
Bible and the early Fathers will have this effect. -LETTER TO
CAPITO, circa 1518.
Wrangling about the nature of the Second Person of
the Trinity, as if Christ were a malignant demon, ready to de-
stroy you if you made a mistake about his nature!
Re-
duce the articles of faith to the fewest and simplest.
Let our divines show their faith by their works, and convert
Turks by the beauty of their lives. - LETTER TO ABBOT Volzius,
circa 1518.
·
Heresy is held a deadly crime; so if you offend one of these
gentlemen they a rush. on you together, one grunting out
"Heretic," the rest grunting in chorus and crying for stones to
hurl at you. -LETTER TO LAURINUS, circa 1518.
It would be well for us if we thought less of our dogmas
and more of the gospel. - LETTER TO PETER BARBIRIUS, 1521.
May not a man be a Christian, who cannot explain philo-
sophically how the nativity of the Son differs from the procession
1
## p. 5533 (#99) ############################################
ERASMUS
5533
of the Holy Spirit?
The sum of religion is peace, which
can only be when definitions are as few as possible, and opinion
is left free on many subjects. Our present problems are said to
be waiting for the next Ecumenical Council. Better let them
wait till the veil is removed, and we see God face to face. -
LETTER TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF PALERMO, 1522.
PASSAGES RELATING TO LUTHER
LUTHER'S party have urged me to join them, and Luther's
enemies have done their best to drive me to it by their furious
attacks on me in their sermons. Neither have succeeded. Christ
I know; Luther I know not.
I have said nothing, ex-
cept that Luther ought to be answered and not crushed.
We must bear almost anything rather than throw the world into
confusion.
The actual facts of things are not to be
blurted out at all times and places, and in all companies.
I was the first to oppose the publication of Luther's books.
recommended Luther himself to publish nothing revolutionary.
I feared always that revolution would be the end, and I would
have done more had I not been afraid that I might be found
fighting against the Spirit of God. - LETTER TO BISHOP MAR-
LIANUS, 1520.
·
·
·
I
In
May Christ direct Luther's actions to God's glory! .
Luther's enemies I perceive more of the spirit of this world than
of the Spirit of God. I wish Luther himself would be quiet for
a while. .
What he says may be true, but there are times
and seasons. Truth need not always be proclaimed from the
house-tops. -LETTER TO SPALATIN, 1520.
·
As to Luther himself, I perceived that the better a man was,
the less he was Luther's enemy.
Can it be right to per-
secute a man of unblemished life, in whose writings distinguished
and excellent persons have found so much to admire?
The Pope has no worse enemies than his foolish defenders. He
can crush any man if he pleases, but empires based only on ter-
ror do not last. -LETTER TO CARDINAL CAMPEGGIO, 1520.
By burning Luther's books you may rid your book-shelves of
him, but you will not rid men's minds of him. - LETTER TO
GODSCHALK, MODERATOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN, 1520.
## p. 5534 (#100) ###########################################
5534
ERASMUS
I told him that it was useless to burn Luther's books, unless
you could burn them out of people's memories. - LETTER TO SIR
THOMAS MORE, circa 1520.
Curses and threats may beat the fire down for the moment,
but it will burst out worse than ever. The Bull has lost Luther
no friends, and gained none for the Pope. -LETTER TO A FRIEND
AT ROME, circa 1521.
All admit that the corruptions of the Church required a dras-
tic medicine. But drugs wrongly given make the sick man worse.
I said this to the King of Denmark lately. He laughed, and
answered that small doses would be of no use; that the whole
system needed purging. For myself, I am a man of peace and
hate quarrels. -LETTER TO WARHAM, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTER-
BURY, 1521.
It is easy to call Luther "a fungus"; it is not easy to answer
him. -LETTER TO LORD MOUNTJOY, circa 1521.
They may chain the tongues of men: they cannot touch their
minds. - LETTER TO PIRKHEIMER, circa 1521.
They call me a Lutheran. Had I but held out a little finger
to Luther, Germany would have seen what I could do.
would rather die ten times over than make a schism. -
TO CORONELLO, circa 1522.
But I
LETTER
Christendom was being asphyxiated with formulas and human
inventions
Men needed waking. The gospel light had
to be rekindled. Would that more wisdom had been shown when
the moment came.
Your Highness sends me two books
of Luther's, which you wish me to answer. I cannot read the
language in which they are written. -LETTER TO GEORGE, DUKE
OF SAXONY, circa 1522.
·
I do not object generally to the evangelical doctrines, but
there is much in Luther's teachings which I dislike. He runs
everything which he touches into extravagance.
Do not
fear that I shall oppose evangelical truth. I left many faults in
him unnoticed, lest I should injure the gospel. I hope mankind
will be the better for the acrid medicines with which he has
•
*
## p. 5535 (#101) ###########################################
ERASMUS
5535
dosed them. Perhaps we needed a surgeon who would use knife
and cautery. -LETTER TO MELANCHTHON, 1524.
Luther could not have succeeded so signally if God had not
been with him, especially when he had such a crew of admirers
behind him. I considered that it was a case for compromise and
argument. Had I been at Worms, I believe I could have brought
it to that. -LETTER TO DUKE GEORGE OF SAXONY, 1524.
LETTER TO POPE ADRIAN VI.
YOUR Holiness requires my advice, and you wish to see me.
I would go to you with pleasure if my health allowed. But the
road over the Alps is long. The lodgings on the way are dirty
and inconvenient. The smell from the stoves is intolerable. The
wine is sour and disagrees with me.
As to writing
One party
against Luther, I have not learning enough.
says I agree with Luther because I do not oppose him.
The other finds fault with me because I do oppose him. I did
what I could.
tection from enemies, with his old friend Froben, the renowned
printer. His grave in the cathedral there remains a place of pious
pilgrimage, and Holbein's portrait of him, in the neighboring mu-
seum, a revelation of much in his work and character. '
•
·
In summoning up the work of Erasmus it is first of all needful
to clear our minds of cant. Cant on this subject has taken various
shapes; but its most usual statement is, that while Luther was brave,
Erasmus was a coward. This is one of those superficial antitheses,
popular in all times, but especially in periods of strife and struggle.
That Luther was brave the whole world knows; that Erasmus was
brave any one may know who will study his writings. He showed
this bravery by fighting the strong army of ignorance throughout
Europe in his books, and by telling unpalatable truths to the great
men of his time in his letters.
It also unjust to say that Erasmus was wavering. That his opin-
ions showed varying moods and developed new phases, is true; but
from first to last he stood consistently by his fundamental idea,-
progress by evolution rather than by revolution.
It is foolish to say that he had no convictions. He had deep con-
victions; and among them a conviction as to the great value in reli-
gion of what is permanent, and as to the small value of what is
transient.
It is trivial to say that as he became old he grew weaker. Most
men do. Even Luther did at times. That is in the order of nature;
but even in Erasmus's last days we have noble exhibitions of strength,
even as we have them in Luther's last days.
mer.
It is shallow to say that Luther was open, and Erasmus a trim-
Each thought and fought in his own way. Luther soon thought
it best to fight the Church from without; Erasmus thought it wiser
to renew the Church from within.
1 For special details of the last days of Erasmus at Basle, see M. de Ram,
in the Bulletin de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de Belgique,' 1843, pages
462 et seq.
## p. 5519 (#85) ############################################
ERASMUS
5519
It is simply unhistorical to say that Erasmus was "false both to the
old Church and to the new. " He sought to save the old Church; to
renew it; to revive a better life in it. He sought to moderate the
new Church; to prevent the monstrous riot and unreason which fol-
lowed, the ages of Protestant bigotry, far less excusable than Cath-
olic bigotry, the carnival of fire and murder which lasted through
two centuries. He sought to weld both Churches into a new force-
into a higher form of Christianity. He sought to clear and clean the
dominant Church of its noxious growths, and hoped that in the air
of new knowledge and right reason it would grow into a Church
new and comprehensive, suited to the new and regenerate world.
He foresaw justly that Protestant dogmatism would soon become as
violent and unreasoning as Catholic dogmatism.
He cared no more for Luther's dogma, justification by faith,
than for the mediæval dogma, justification by works. To him the
one thing precious was the simple teaching of Christ and his im-
mediate followers; all the rest was sound and fury, signifying
nothing. What he labored for was not to establish a new Church
and new growths of dogma, which he rightly believed would soon
become an incubus upon the weary earth; but he sought to promote
an evolution of righteousness, which is rightness. To find fault with
him because he and his work were not like Luther and his work, is
like finding fault with Emerson because his make-up and methods
were not those of Garrison. ¹ One class of minds will always prefer
Erasmus, and believe in his work, and lament that he could not have
had his way.
Another class will prefer Luther, and believe in his
work, and rejoice that he had his way. But it should be remem-
bered that before Luther was heard of, Erasmus began, in political
affairs and religious affairs, a course of astounding boldness, setting
reform in motion; and this course, in spite of reproach and attack
from both sides, he kept during his entire life.
But it may be said that Erasmus's idea of a peaceful evolution
was not the right idea; that what was needed was revolution.
Alas! history confirms this view too thoroughly. Just as Turgot,
the greatest and wisest of French statesmen in the eighteenth cen-
tury, proposing rational and peaceful measures which would have
saved the ancient monarchy and developed liberty in France, was
met by fierce opposition and unrelenting hate on both sides, so that
the work had to be done far less satisfactorily, at the cost of millions
of lives and billions of treasure and generations of sterile revolt and
turmoil; just as Henry Clay, one of the wisest American statesmen
-
1 For a very full expression of Erasmus's view regarding Luther, see his
letter to Cardinal Wolsey, given by Jortin, Vol. i. , pages 130-1. It must be
confessed that this view differed in Erasmus's differing moods.
## p. 5520 (#86) ############################################
ERASMUS
5520
of the nineteenth century, proposing rational and peaceful measures
which would have gradually extinguished slavery and compensated
the slave-owners at a paltry cost of twenty-five millions, was met by
fierce unrelenting opposition on both sides, so that the work had to
be done by a civil war at a loss of a million of lives and many
thousands of millions of dollars: so Erasmus, seeking concessions
from the old Church and moderation from the new, met opposition
bitter and unrelenting from both sides; and the work of reform had
to be accomplished by a schism which cost two hundred years of
frightful war, with the loss of millions on millions of lives and of
billions on billions of treasure.
Such was the price paid that the Teutonic, Scandinavian, and
Anglo-Saxon countries and their colonies might be saved from the
fate of Spain and her colonies.
The question now occurs: What was Erasmus's work in its sum?
What did he for Christendom in general and for Germany in par-
ticular? The Roman Church answers in the old saying, "Erasmus
laid the egg and Luther hatched it. " Erasmus answers in the com-
parison of his work to the breaking of dikes. Luther answers in
these words:- "Erasmus is very capable of exposing error, but he
knows not how to reach the truth. "
All these estimates of his agency in the Reformation concur in
making him a critic and satirist; a forerunner of reformers and revo-
lutionists. But if we consider him merely as a forerunner, we shall
form a judgment sadly inadequate. In a letter to Jean Gachet,
Erasmus says:·
-
HERE, to sum up, is what I have done in my books.
I have raised my voice boldly against the wars which for so many years
we have seen shaking all Christendom.
I labored to bring it
Theology had degenerated into sophistic niceties.
back to its sources, and to its ancient simplicity.
I endeavored also to restore their first lustre to those sacred authors of
whom men generally have only fragments. I taught literature, which before
me was almost pagan, to speak of Christ.
I have aided, so far as I was able, the revived study of languages.
I have censured various foolish claims of men.
I aroused the world which was sleeping in ceremonies almost Judaic, and
called it to a Christianity more pure; never condemning the ceremonies of the
Church, but showing that which is best.
Although this claims much, every thoughtful student of the six-
teenth century must now acknowledge that it claims too little. Let
1 For a thoughtful estimate of Erasmus's work from the moderate Roman
Catholic point of view, see Döllinger, Die Reformation' (Regensburg, 1848),
pages 1-20.
## p. 5521 (#87) ############################################
ERASMUS
5521
us sum up rapidly the work of Erasmus in the light of the history
developed since his time.
First, he did much to develop a better education, and to instill a
fruitful scholarship into the minds of the younger thinking men
throughout Europe.
Second, he contributed more powerfully than any other to the
spreading of the Revival of Learning, and therefore to the awaken-
ing of reform ideas.
Third, he did more than any other to prevent the Revival of
Learning in the North of Europe from degenerating into mere dilet-
tantism, as it did in the South of Europe.
Fourth, more boldly than any other, he wrought to mitigate the
tyranny of princes.
Fifth, a great service in which he was far beyond his time,-be-
yond the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, beyond the leaders
of the Protestant Church,- he declared always for toleration.
Sixth, he planted in European statesmanship a most beneficent
germ, which has since come to great growth, in showing at all times
and in all places the futility of attempting to crush thought by force.
Seventh, centuries in advance of his time, he labored to discour-
age war and to substitute for it arbitration.
Eighth, he stood at the beginning of the critical study of the
Scriptures-of all that great work going on in our own time, which is
giving religion new and broader foundations. With good reason has
an eminent modern scholar said:-"Luther made the Reformation
that was; Erasmus, the Reformation that is to be. "
Any one looking at contemporary portraits of Erasmus, and espe-
cially at that painted by Hans Holbein, will at once see that we have
no right to expect in the great scholar a leader in the rough work of
revolution. There is a delicacy in the face, a play of sarcasm over
the features, a bright light from the eyes, which all remind us at
once of Voltaire's portrait; but there is a quiet depth in it which we
find in no portrait of Voltaire.
So, too, his work in many respects was strongly like the work of
Voltaire. Both exposed wrongs and satirized wrong-doers. Both
reminded rulers of their duties. Both stirred the common-sense of
their own times. Both spurred on bold thinkers of after times. Both
fought bigotry. Both wrought powerfully for a thorough change in
the world's thought and action: one, without designing it, for the
Reformation; the other, without designing it, for the French Revolu-
tion.
And as Voltaire, the critic, satirist, and scholar, preceding the
French Revolution, is to Mirabeau, the fearless orator of that Rev-
olution: so is Erasmus, the critic, satirist, and scholar, preceding
X-346
## p. 5522 (#88) ############################################
ERASMUS
5522
the Reformation, to Luther, the orator and warrior of the Reforma-
tion.
Yet there was a deep difference between these two greatest of
European men of letters. Erasmus's is the more profound nature.
Out of it grew no things more brilliant than out of Voltaire's nature;
but out of it grew things more beautiful and noble.
Finally, as to the sphere of Erasmus's influence. He wrought, as
we have seen, on all Christendom; but most directly and fully upon
Germany. His letters show this amply. Under all temptations he
refused to break with German thought. He saw that in Germany
the soil was deep, and that it was the garden where his ideas were
to come to their first and perhaps their fullest bloom and fruitage.
He himself has told us:-"I did my best to deliver the rising gener-
ation from the slough of ignorance, and to inspire them with a taste
for better studies. I wrote not for Italy, but for Germany and the
Netherlands. "
And D. White
NOTE. The collected works of Erasmus were finally published by Le
Clerc in 10 vols. folio, Louvain, 1703-6. The few selections here given are
taken from his most popular writings.
FROM THE ADAGES'
[The first edition of the 'Adages' was published in 1500. A great num-
ber of successive editions were issued, the number of proverbs dealt with
being steadily increased until 1517, when an edition greatly enlarged was
given to the press. See Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe,'
especially Vol. i. , Chap. iv. ]
I. ADAGES RELATING TO MONARCHY
L'
ET any one turn over the pages of ancient or modern history:
scarcely in several generations will you find one. or two
princes whose folly has not inflicted the greatest misery on
mankind.
I know not whether much of this is not to be imputed to
ourselves. We trust the rudder of a vessel, where a few sailors
and some goods alone are in jeopardy, to none but skillful pilots,
## p. 5523 (#89) ############################################
ERASMUS
5523
but the State, wherein the safety of so many thousands is con-
cerned, we put into any hands. A charioteer must learn, reflect
upon, and practice his art; a prince need only be born. Yet
government, as it is the most honorable, so it is the most diffi-
cult of all the sciences. And shall we choose the master of a
ship, and not choose him who is to have the care of many cities,
and so many souls? But the usage is too long established for us
to subvert. Do we not see that noble cities are erected by the
people; that they are destroyed by princes? that the community
grows rich by the industry of its citizens, is plundered by the
rapacity of its princes? that good laws are enacted by popular
magistrates, are violated by these princes? that the people love
peace; that princes excite war?
It is the aim of the guardians of a prince, that he may never
become a man. The nobility, who fatten on public calamity,
endeavor to plunge him into pleasures, that he may never learn
what are his duties. Towns are burned, lands are wasted, tem-
ples are plundered, innocent citizens are slaughtered, while the
prince is playing at dice, or dancing, or amusing himself with
puppets, or hunting, or drinking. O race of the Bruti, long
since extinct! O blind and blunted thunderbolts of Jupiter! We
know indeed that those corrupters of princes will render account
to Heaven, but not easily to us.
Let any physiognomist, not a blunderer in his trade, consider
the look and features of an eagle,- those rapacious and wicked
eyes, that threatening curve of the beak, those cruel cheeks, that
stern front: will he not at once recognize the image of a king-
of a magnificent and majestic king? Add to these a dark ill-
omened color, an unpleasing, dreadful, appalling voice, and that
threatening scream at which every kind of animal trembles.
Every one will acknowledge this type, who has learned how ter-
rible are the threats of princes, even uttered in jest. At the
scream of the eagle the people tremble, the senate shrinks,
the nobility cringes, the judges concur, the divines are dumb, the
lawyers assent, the laws and constitutions give way; neither right
nor religion, neither justice nor humanity prevails. And thus,
while there are so many birds of sweet and melodious song, the
unpleasant and unmusical scream of the eagle alone has more
power than all the rest.
## p. 5524 (#90) ############################################
ERASMUS
5524
Of all birds, the eagle alone has seemed to wise men the apt
type of royalty: not beautiful, not musical, not fit for food; but
carnivorous, greedy, plundering, destroying, combating, solitary,
hateful to all, the curse of all, and with its great powers of
doing harm, surpassing them in its desire of doing it.
II. ADAGES SHOWING ERASMUS'S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
PRINCES must be endured, lest tyranny should give way to
anarchy, a still greater evil. This has been demonstrated by the
experience of many States; and lately the insurrection of the
German boors has taught us that the cruelty of princes is better
to be borne than the universal confusion of anarchy.
III. ADAGES RELATING TO THE MENDICANT FRIARS
THERE is a wretched class of men, of low degree, yet full of
malice; not less dingy, nor less filthy, nor less vile than beetles;
who nevertheless by a certain obstinate malignity of disposition,
though they can never do good to any mortal, become frequently
troublesome to the great. They frighten by their ugliness, they
molest by their noise, they offend by their stench; they buzz
round us, they cling to us, they lie in ambush for us, so that it
is often better to be at enmity with powerful men than to attack
these beetles; whom it is a disgrace even to overcome, and whom
no one can either shake off or encounter without some pollution.
NOTE. - For full information regarding the above passages, with specimens
of the original Latin, see Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe,'
as above; also Jortin, Vol. iii.
-
FROM THE CHRISTIAN'S MANUAL›
'ENCHIRIDION MILITIS CHRISTIANI'
E
VERY tree is known by its own fruit. Although you watch,
fast, attend Divine service, sing, or observe strict silence
and the like ordinances, I value them not; nor shall I be-
lieve that you are in the Spirit except I behold in you the fruits
of the Spirit.
The generality of mankind place religion in ceremonies or
creeds; a certain appointment of psalms, or in bodily exercises.
## p. 5525 (#91) ############################################
ERASMUS
5525
If you examine them about spiritual matters, you will find them
merely carnal.
God despised the burnt-offerings, new moons and Sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies, and the appointed feasts of his people,
while they were evil-doers, although he himself had commanded
them; and will any man dare to compare his own paltry institu-
tions with the Divine precepts? You may read in Isaiah what
contempt and loathing he expresses concerning them. When he
speaks of rites, ceremonies, and the multitude of prayers, does he
not, as it were, point at those men who measure religion by
psalms, prayers, creeds, or other human institutions?
Christ is nothing else than love, simplicity, patience, purity,-
in short, all that he himself is; and the Devil is nothing but
that which draws us away from these ideals.
NOTE. See Crowther's translation of the
Enchiridion' under the title of
"The Christian's Manual,' London, 1816, Rule v. and elsewhere; also the ex-
cellent book of Kuno Francke, Social Forces in German Literature,' page
145; also Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers,' pages 175 et seq.
-
FROM THE PRAISE OF FOLLY'
'ENCOMIUM MORIÆ'
THE
HE next to be placed in the "Regiment of Fools" are such
as make a trade of telling or inquiring after incredible
stories of miracles and prodigies.
And these absurd-
ities do not only bring an empty pleasure and cheap diversion,
but they are a good trade, and procure a comfortable income to
such priests and friars as by this craft get their gain. To these,
again, are nearly related such others as attribute strange virtues
to the shrines and images of saints and martyrs, and so would
make their credulous proselytes believe that if they pay their
devotion to St. Christopher in the morning, they shall be
guarded during the day following from all dangers and misfor-
tunes. If soldiers when they first take arms shall come and
mumble over a set prayer before the picture of St. Barbara, they
shall return safe from their engagements; or if any one pray to
St. Erasmus on particular holidays, with wax candles and other
fopperies, he shall shortly be rewarded with plentiful increase of
## p. 5526 (#92) ############################################
5526
ERASMUS
wealth. The Christians have now their gigantic St. George, just
as the pagans had their Hercules: they paint the saint on horse-
back, and drawing the horse very gloriously accoutred, they
scarce refrain in a literal sense from worshiping the very beast.
What shall I say of such as cry up and maintain the cheat
of pardons and indulgences? that by these compute the time of
each soul's residence in purgatory, and assign them a longer or
shorter continuance according as they purchase more or fewer of
these paltry pardons?
. By this easy way of purchasing
pardons, any notorious highwayman, any plundering soldier, any
bribe-taking judge, shall disburse some part of his unjust gains
and so think all his grossest impieties atoned for. So many per-
juries, lusts, drunkennesses, quarrels, bloodsheds, cheats, treach-
eries, debaucheries, shall all be, as it were, struck a bargain for;
and such a contract made as if they had paid off all arrears and
might now begin a new score.
There are a thousand other more sublimated and refined
niceties of notions, relations, quantities, formalities, quiddities,
hæcceities, and such-like absurdities.
But alas! those
notional divines, however condemned by the sober judgment of
others, are yet mightily pleased with themselves, and are so
laboriously intent upon prosecuting their crabbed studies that
they cannot afford so much time as to read a single chapter in
any one book of the Bible. And while they thus trifle away
their misspent hours in trash and babble, they think that they
support the Catholic Church.
•
Next to these are another sort of brain-sick fools, who style
themselves monks and of religious orders, though they assume
both titles very unjustly. For as to the last, they have very
little of religion in them; and as to the former, the etymology
of the word monk implies solitariness, or being alone; whereas
they are so thick abroad that one cannot pass any street or alley
without running against them.
Though this sort of men
are so detested by every one that it is reckoned unlucky even to
meet them by accident, they think nothing equal to themselves,
and hold it a proof of consummate piety if they be so illiterate
as not to be able to read. And when their asinine voices bray
out in the churches their psalms, of which they understand the
## p. 5527 (#93) ############################################
ERASMUS
5527
notes but not the words, then it is they fancy that the ears of
the saints above are enraptured with the harmony.
Among these some make a good profitable trade of beggary,
going abroad from house to house, not like the apostles to break
their bread, but to beg it; nay, thrust themselves into all public
houses, crowd into passage boats, get into travelers' wagons, and
omit no chance of craving people's charity, and injuring common
beggars by interloping in their traffic of alms.
All these orders are not so careful of becoming like Christ as
to be unlike each other; they care less to be known as disciples
of the Founder of our religion than as followers of the founders
of their orders.
Some will not touch a piece of money, though they make no
scruple of the sin of drunkenness and worse sins.
Now, as to the popes of Rome, who pretend themselves Christ's
vicars: if they would but imitate his exemplary life by preaching
incessantly, by taking up with poverty, nakedness, hunger, and
contempt of the world; if they did but consider the import of
the word pope, which signifies father,
there would be no
such vigorous making of parties and buying of votes in the con-
clave;
and those who by bribery should get themselves
elected would never secure their sitting firm in the chair by pis-
tol, poison, and violence. How much of their pleasure would be
abated if they were endowed with one dram of wisdom? Wisdom,
did I say? Nay, with one grain of that salt which our Savior
bid them not lose the savor of. In place of their riches, honors,
jurisdictions, Peter's pence, offices, dispensations, licenses, in-
dulgences, would succeed watchings, fastings, tears, prayers, ser-
mons, hard studies, repentant sighs, and a thousand such severe
penalties; nay, what is yet more deplorable, it would follow that
all their clerks, notaries, advocates, grooms, ostlers, lackeys,
pimps, and some others whom for modesty's sake I shall not
mention,
would all lose their employments.
But
all this is upon the supposition only that the popes understood
what circumstances they are placed in: whereas now, by a whole-
some neglect of thinking, they live as well as heart can wish.
Whatever of toil and drudgery belongs to their office, that they
assign over to St. Peter or St. Paul, who have time enough to
·
## p. 5528 (#94) ############################################
5528
ERASMUS
mind it; but if there be anything of pleasure and grandeur, that
they assume to themselves as being thereunto called.
They think to serve their Master, our Lord and Savior, with their
great state and magnificence,
. with their titles of rever-
ence and holiness, and with exercising their episcopal function
only in blessing and cursing. The working of miracles is old
and out of date; teaching the people is too laborious; interpret-
ing the Scripture is to invade the prerogative of the schoolmen;
to pray is too idle; to repent is too unmanly and cowardly; to
fast is too mean and sordid.
Their only weapons ought
to be those of the spirit; and of these indeed they are mighty lib-
eral, as of their interdicts, their suspensions, their denunciations,
their greater and lesser excommunications, and their bulls.
They give dispensations for the not preaching of Christ, make
void the design and effect of our redemption by bribes and sales,
adulterate the gospel by their forced interpretations and under-
mining traditions, and lastly, by their lusts and wickedness grieve
the Holy Spirit and make the Savior's wounds bleed afresh.
Farther, where the Christian Church hath been first planted,
then confirmed and then established by the blood of martyrs,-
as if Christ were not strong enough still to protect her, they
invert the order, and propagate their religion now by arms and
violence, which was formerly done only by patience and suffer-
ings.
·
·
NOTE. The extracts are made from Bishop Kennett's quaint and pithy
translation (London, 1724), especially pages 67, 69, 102, 107, and following to
page 296.
FROM THE
COLLOQUIES'
COLLOQUY OF THE SHIPWRECK'
S
OME were spewing, some were praying. I remember one Eng-
lishman there.
What mountains of gold did he promise to
our Lady of Walsingham if he ever got safe ashore again!
One made a vow to deposit a relic of the Cross in this place;
another to put a relic of it in that; - some promised to turn
monks; one vowed a pilgrimage, barefooted and bareheaded, in
a coat of mail, and begging his bread all the way, to St. James
of Compostella. I could not but laugh at one fellow there. He
vowed as loud as he could bellow to the St. Christopher in the
(
## p. 5529 (#95) ############################################
ERASMUS
5529
great church at Paris (that the saint might be sure to hear him)
a wax candle as big as the saint himself. Now, you must know
that the Paris St. Christopher is enormous, and rather a mount-
ain than a statue.
He was
so loud, and went over and over
with it so often, that a friend of his gave him a touch on the
elbow: "Take care what you promise," said he; "if you should
sell yourself, you could not buy such a candle. "
«Hold your
tongue, you fool," says the other (softly, so that St. Christopher
might not hear). "Let me but set foot on land once more, and
St. Christopher has good luck if he get even a tallow candle
from me. "
Adolphus-To which of the two saints did you pray?
Antony-To not one of them all, I assure you.
I don't like
your way of bargaining with the saints: "Do this and I'll do
that. Here is so much for so much. Save me, and I will give
you a taper or go on a pilgrimage. " Just think of it! I should
certainly have prayed to St. Peter if to any saint, for he stands
at the door of heaven, and so would be likeliest to hear. But
before he could go to the Almighty and tell him my condition, I
might be fifty fathoms under water.
Adolphus - What did you do, then?
Antony I went straight to God himself, and said my prayer
to him. The saints neither hear so readily nor give so will-
ingly.
-
COLLOQUY OF The ReligIOUS PILGRIMAGE ›
manner.
JUST before the chapel stood a little house, which the officer
told us was conveyed thither through the air after a wonderful
Upon strict observation of everything, I asked
the officer how many years it might be since that little house
was brought thither. He told me that it had been there for
some ages. "And yet methinks," said I, "the walls do not seem
to be of that antiquity:" and he did not much deny it.
«Nor
these pillars," said I. "No, sir," said he. "Then," said I,
"methinks that straw, those reeds, and the whole thatch of it,
look as if they had not been so long laid. " "Tis very right,"
said he. "And what do you think," said I, "of those cross-
beams and rafters? They cannot be near so old. " He confessed
they were not. At last, when I had questioned him as to every
part of this poor cottage, said I:-"How do you know that this
## p. 5530 (#96) ############################################
ERASMUS
5530
is the house that was brought so far in the air so many years
ago? " At that he laughed at us scornfully, as at people invinci-
bly ignorant.
I had rather lose all Duns Scotus, and twenty more such as
he, than one Cicero or Plutarch. Not that I am wholly against
them, either: but from the reading of the one I find myself to
become honester and better; whereas I rise from the other
extremely dull, indifferent to virtue, but violently bent on cavil
and contention.
[The seventh Colloquy is leveled mainly against monastic vows.
The ninth is entitled 'A Pleasant and Profitable Colloquy between
two Franciscan Monks and a German Tavern-keeper. ' The eleventh
is entitled 'A Pleasant Relation of John Reuchlin's Ghost, appearing
to a Franciscan in a Dream. ' The twenty-first is entitled 'Hell
Broke Loose. The Divisions of Christian Princes are the Scandal of
their Profession. The Furies Strike the Fire and the Monks Blow the
Coal. ']
NOTE. The above extracts are made from Sir Roger L'Estrange's Eng-
lish Translation of Erasmus's 'Colloquies,' London, 1725.
R
FROM ERASMUS'S CORRESPONDENCE
PASSAGES SHOWING HIS VIEWS OF LIFE AND CONDUCT
EAD first the best books.
The important thing for you
is not how much you know, but the quality of what you
know. Divide your day and give to each part of it a
special occupation.
Never work at night. It dulls the
brain and hurts the health.
I would not change my freedom for the best bishopric in the
world. - LETTER TO PETER GILES, 1516.
I am now fifty-one years old.
I am not enamored of
life, but it is worth while to continue a little longer with such a
prospect of a golden age.
All looks brighter now.
I myself, insignificant I, have contributed something. I have at
least stirred the bile of those who would not have the world grow
## p. 5531 (#97) ############################################
ERASMUS
5531
wiser, and only fools now snarl at me. One of them said in a
sermon lately, in a lamentable voice, that all was now over with
the Christian faith. - LETTER TO CAPITO, circa 1518.
Old institutions cannot be rooted up in an instant. Quiet
argument may do more than wholesale condemnation. Avoid
all appearance of sedition. Keep cool. Do not get angry. Do
not hate anybody. Do not get excited over the noise which you
have made.
May Christ give you his spirit, for his own
glory and the world's good. -LETTER TO LUTHER, circa 1519.
.
The world is waking out of a long deep sleep. The old
ignorance is still defended with tooth and claw, but we have
kings and nobles now on our side. -LETTER TO SIR HENRY
GUILDFORD, 1519.
For yourself, the intelligence of your country will preserve
the memories of your virtues, and scholars will tell how a king
once reigned there who in his own person revived the virtues of
the ancient heroes. - LETTER TO KING HENRY VIII. , 1519.
The justest war can hardly approve itself to any reasonable
person.
The people build cities, the princes destroy
them, and even victory brings more ill than good. - LETTER TO
THE ABBOT OF ST. BERTIN.
My work has been to restore a buried literature, and recall
divines from their hair-splittings to a knowledge of the New
Testament. - LETTER THROWING LIGHT ON HIS PURPOSE IN PRE-
SENTING HIS EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, 1521.
PASSAGES RELATING TO THE MONKS
HAPPY Epimenides, that he woke at last! Some divines never
wake at all, and fancy themselves most alive when their slumber
is deepest.
Do not mistake me. Theology itself I rev-
erence and always have reverenced. I am speaking merely of
the theologasters of our own time, whose brains are the rot-
tenest, intellects the dullest, doctrines the thorniest, manners the
brutalest, life the foulest, speech the spitefulest, hearts the black-
est, that I have ever encountered in the world. - LETTER TO HIS
PUPIL GREY.
## p. 5532 (#98) ############################################
5532
ERASMUS
A set of creatures who ought to be lamenting their sins, but
who fancy they can please God by snorting in their throats.
You say that I cannot die better than among my brethren.
I am not so sure of that. Your religion is in your dress;
your religious orders, as you call them, have done the Church
small service. -LETTER TO SERVATIUS, 1514.
I am delighted that you have stood up for Reuchlin.
What a fight he is having, and with what enemies! The Pope
himself is afraid to provoke the monks.
Those wretches
in the disguise of poverty are the tyrants of the Christian world.
-LETTER TO PIRKHEIMER, 1517.
.
What a thing it is to cultivate literature! Better far to grow
cabbages. Bishops have thanked me for my work, the Pope has
thanked me; but these tyrants the mendicant friars never leave
me alone with their railing. -LETTER TO CARDINAL WOLSEY, 1518.
PASSAGES RELATING TO SCHOLASTICISM AND THEOLOGY
I WISH there could be an end of scholastic subtleties,
and Christ be taught plainly and simply. The reading of the
Bible and the early Fathers will have this effect. -LETTER TO
CAPITO, circa 1518.
Wrangling about the nature of the Second Person of
the Trinity, as if Christ were a malignant demon, ready to de-
stroy you if you made a mistake about his nature!
Re-
duce the articles of faith to the fewest and simplest.
Let our divines show their faith by their works, and convert
Turks by the beauty of their lives. - LETTER TO ABBOT Volzius,
circa 1518.
·
Heresy is held a deadly crime; so if you offend one of these
gentlemen they a rush. on you together, one grunting out
"Heretic," the rest grunting in chorus and crying for stones to
hurl at you. -LETTER TO LAURINUS, circa 1518.
It would be well for us if we thought less of our dogmas
and more of the gospel. - LETTER TO PETER BARBIRIUS, 1521.
May not a man be a Christian, who cannot explain philo-
sophically how the nativity of the Son differs from the procession
1
## p. 5533 (#99) ############################################
ERASMUS
5533
of the Holy Spirit?
The sum of religion is peace, which
can only be when definitions are as few as possible, and opinion
is left free on many subjects. Our present problems are said to
be waiting for the next Ecumenical Council. Better let them
wait till the veil is removed, and we see God face to face. -
LETTER TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF PALERMO, 1522.
PASSAGES RELATING TO LUTHER
LUTHER'S party have urged me to join them, and Luther's
enemies have done their best to drive me to it by their furious
attacks on me in their sermons. Neither have succeeded. Christ
I know; Luther I know not.
I have said nothing, ex-
cept that Luther ought to be answered and not crushed.
We must bear almost anything rather than throw the world into
confusion.
The actual facts of things are not to be
blurted out at all times and places, and in all companies.
I was the first to oppose the publication of Luther's books.
recommended Luther himself to publish nothing revolutionary.
I feared always that revolution would be the end, and I would
have done more had I not been afraid that I might be found
fighting against the Spirit of God. - LETTER TO BISHOP MAR-
LIANUS, 1520.
·
·
·
I
In
May Christ direct Luther's actions to God's glory! .
Luther's enemies I perceive more of the spirit of this world than
of the Spirit of God. I wish Luther himself would be quiet for
a while. .
What he says may be true, but there are times
and seasons. Truth need not always be proclaimed from the
house-tops. -LETTER TO SPALATIN, 1520.
·
As to Luther himself, I perceived that the better a man was,
the less he was Luther's enemy.
Can it be right to per-
secute a man of unblemished life, in whose writings distinguished
and excellent persons have found so much to admire?
The Pope has no worse enemies than his foolish defenders. He
can crush any man if he pleases, but empires based only on ter-
ror do not last. -LETTER TO CARDINAL CAMPEGGIO, 1520.
By burning Luther's books you may rid your book-shelves of
him, but you will not rid men's minds of him. - LETTER TO
GODSCHALK, MODERATOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN, 1520.
## p. 5534 (#100) ###########################################
5534
ERASMUS
I told him that it was useless to burn Luther's books, unless
you could burn them out of people's memories. - LETTER TO SIR
THOMAS MORE, circa 1520.
Curses and threats may beat the fire down for the moment,
but it will burst out worse than ever. The Bull has lost Luther
no friends, and gained none for the Pope. -LETTER TO A FRIEND
AT ROME, circa 1521.
All admit that the corruptions of the Church required a dras-
tic medicine. But drugs wrongly given make the sick man worse.
I said this to the King of Denmark lately. He laughed, and
answered that small doses would be of no use; that the whole
system needed purging. For myself, I am a man of peace and
hate quarrels. -LETTER TO WARHAM, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTER-
BURY, 1521.
It is easy to call Luther "a fungus"; it is not easy to answer
him. -LETTER TO LORD MOUNTJOY, circa 1521.
They may chain the tongues of men: they cannot touch their
minds. - LETTER TO PIRKHEIMER, circa 1521.
They call me a Lutheran. Had I but held out a little finger
to Luther, Germany would have seen what I could do.
would rather die ten times over than make a schism. -
TO CORONELLO, circa 1522.
But I
LETTER
Christendom was being asphyxiated with formulas and human
inventions
Men needed waking. The gospel light had
to be rekindled. Would that more wisdom had been shown when
the moment came.
Your Highness sends me two books
of Luther's, which you wish me to answer. I cannot read the
language in which they are written. -LETTER TO GEORGE, DUKE
OF SAXONY, circa 1522.
·
I do not object generally to the evangelical doctrines, but
there is much in Luther's teachings which I dislike. He runs
everything which he touches into extravagance.
Do not
fear that I shall oppose evangelical truth. I left many faults in
him unnoticed, lest I should injure the gospel. I hope mankind
will be the better for the acrid medicines with which he has
•
*
## p. 5535 (#101) ###########################################
ERASMUS
5535
dosed them. Perhaps we needed a surgeon who would use knife
and cautery. -LETTER TO MELANCHTHON, 1524.
Luther could not have succeeded so signally if God had not
been with him, especially when he had such a crew of admirers
behind him. I considered that it was a case for compromise and
argument. Had I been at Worms, I believe I could have brought
it to that. -LETTER TO DUKE GEORGE OF SAXONY, 1524.
LETTER TO POPE ADRIAN VI.
YOUR Holiness requires my advice, and you wish to see me.
I would go to you with pleasure if my health allowed. But the
road over the Alps is long. The lodgings on the way are dirty
and inconvenient. The smell from the stoves is intolerable. The
wine is sour and disagrees with me.
As to writing
One party
against Luther, I have not learning enough.
says I agree with Luther because I do not oppose him.
The other finds fault with me because I do oppose him. I did
what I could.
