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## p. 5509 (#75) ############################################
5509
ERASMUS
(1465 ? -1536)
BY ANDREW D. WHITE
N ANY view of modern civilization Erasmus is a leading per-
sonage, for he is one of the two great militant literary men
of modern times; - one of the two men of letters who have
taken a stronger hold and exercised a wider influence on the thought
of the civilized world than have any others, from the Roman Empire
to this day.
He was born at Rotterdam, most biographers say in 1467: Hallam
thought that he had proved the date to be 1465: others see reasons
for believing that it was 1466: Burigny insisted that no one knew the
exact year-not even Erasmus himself. ¹ But more important than a
precise date is the fact that he was born only about ten years after
the downfall of the Eastern Empire; only about a quarter of a cen-
tury after the discovery of printing; about twenty years before Lu-
ther; and but little longer before the great age of discovery — the
period of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Magellan; the period also
of a new awakening of scholarship in Germany, shown in the found-
ing of new universities and the putting of new life into old ones;-
the period of new horizons, hopes, and activities. He stood in the
centre of this great epoch, and acted most powerfully upon it. "
Though an illegitimate child, he took his paternal name Gerard,
which, being interpreted to mean amiable, was put into Latin as
Desiderius, and into Greek as Erasmios or perhaps Erasmos. So, in
accordance with the custom of men of his sort in his time, he called
himself Desiderius Erasmus; just as Schwartzerd or Black-earth trans-
lated his name into Greek and called himself Melanchthon.
――――――
The first years of Erasmus were full of hardship. His patrimony
was stolen from him by faithless guardians; his liberty was wheedled
from him by zealous monks: but a remarkable keenness, shrewdness,
¹ For Hallam's argument regarding the exact date of Erasmus's birth, see
his 'Introduction to the Literature of Europe' (London, 1847), page 287, note;
see also Drummond. For Burigny, see his 'Vie d'Erasme) (Paris, 1757),
pages 5 and 6, and note.
2 Regarding the strengthening of university life and of thought generally
in Germany at this period, see especially Creighton, History of the Papacy
during the Reformation. >
## p. 5510 (#76) ############################################
5510
ERASMUS
and passion for knowledge asserted itself in him; though struggling
against poverty throughout his early life, and against ill health
always, he grew rapidly and symmetrically in the best knowledge of
his time, and especially in the new learning; - that new study of
Latin thought to which thinking men, weary of scholastic philosophy,
had turned toward the close of the Middle Ages; and above all, to
that study of Greek thought which had taken refuge in Western
Europe at the downfall of the Eastern Empire, and especially at the
Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
It happened, to the great good fortune of the world, that the
scholarship in which Erasmus was nurtured had in it not only en-
lightenment, but manliness and earnestness. In the little town of
Deventer in Holland, Gerard Groot had founded in 1400 an order
called the Brotherhood of the Life in Common, or as they were
more popularly known, the Good Brethren. The order was devoted
to plain living and high thinking. Property was for the most part
held in common. Manual labor was exacted of all. All showed a
fervency in devotion and an energy in well-doing such as the older
orders of monks had not known for many generations.
Among other things, the Brethren devoted themselves to a scheme
of education at once thorough and comprehensive; not disdaining to
work in primary schools, not shrinking from the most advanced
scholarly inquiry. This Deventer school acted powerfully in fusing
what was best in mediæval thought with the new learning. Its in-
fluence was felt in all parts of Northern Europe. In 1433 the order
numbered forty-five houses, in 1460 three times as many. Several of
its scholars became famous; among them Thomas à Kempis, and
Nicholas of Cues, the poor fisherman's son, who became the Cardinal
de Cusa,- scholar, statesman, and reformer, the forerunner of Coper-
nicus in teaching the new astronomy. ¹
From these men of the Deventer school Erasmus received the
first strong impulse toward his great career; and though he remained
at the school only until about his fourteenth year, he secured recog-
nition as a youth of wonderful promise.
Now came an evil period. He was entrapped into a monastery,
and finally, about the time of his coming of age, was induced to take
priestly orders. Yet even in the monastery the spirit of the Deventer
school was still working within him; for now it was, in his monas-
tery at Stein, about 1490, that he took up the work of the man who
first brought the modern spirit of scholarly criticism to bear upon
Biblical research, - the brilliant Italian scholar Laurentius Valla. Out
For the value of the Deventer school, see Hallam, 'History of Literature,'
Vol. i. , page 125; also a reference in Cantù, which is very striking as coming
from so devoted a Catholic; also Creighton as above, Vol. v. , Chap. i.
## p. 5511 (#77) ############################################
ERASMUS
5511
of this grew Erasmus's greatest contribution to the thought of Christ-
endom,- -a contribution which is doing its work in all lands to-day:
none of Erasmus's revolutionary work has ever shown such persistent
vitality as this evolutionary work. ¹
He soon saw that a monastic life was not for him. Others saw it;
among these the Archbishop of Cambray, who made him his private.
secretary, and finally supplied him the means with which to study at
Paris. But these means were dealt out grudgingly. He still had to
endure great privations in order to gain instruction from the accom-
plished teachers gathered there, and in one of his letters he writes:-
"I have given my whole soul to Greek learning, and as soon as I
get any money I shall first buy Greek books and then clothes. »
During his stay in Paris his ability was noted by various men of
influence; and now began his struggle to rid himself of monastic and
clerical entanglements, in which effort he was finally successful. It
was at this period-in 1500-that he published among other things
the first edition of his 'Book of Adages' or Proverbs.
The Book of Adages' was the first broadside sent from the new
scholarship into the old, and it penetrated European thought widely
and deeply. Erasmus became at once the head of the party sup-
porting the new learning against mediæval scholasticism. Admirers
sought his friendship on all sides; among them the leading mitred
heads, crowned heads, and even the Pope himself. He received let-
ters breathing the warmest friendship from Henry VIII. of England;
Francis I. of France; Charles V. of Spain and Germany; the two suc-
cessive popes, Leo X. and the schoolmate of Erasmus at Deventer,
Adrian VI. ; and still later from the two popes who succeeded these.
In the 'Adages' Erasmus proclaimed war against the mendicant
friars throughout Europe; and from time to time, in new editions,
came new forms of ridicule, even more and more effective.
Another manifestation of Erasmus's boldness is yet more striking;
for while he attacked bigotry fearlessly, he attacked tyranny with
yet more bitter hatred. Strenuous as his attacks on bigotry were, he
never really penetrated to its underlying principle-to the doctrine
that salvation depends upon belief; but in attacking the oppressions
of monarchy he went to its very heart. This will be especially
shown in the extracts from the 'Adages,' as well as from the other
writings given as an appendix to this article. He attacked its found-
ations; so that one might imagine himself within sound, not of a
1 For the evolution of Erasmus's ideas in Biblical criticism out of those of
Valla, see White's History of the Warfare of Science with Theology,' Vol.
ii. , pages 303 and following; also Drummond, Life of Erasmus,' Vol. i. , pages
26 and following; also Durand de Laur, Érasme,' Vol. i. , pages 16 and fol-
lowing.
## p. 5512 (#78) ############################################
ERASMUS
5512
scholar admired in colleges and petted in courts, but of some modern
French tribune or American stump orator.
Curiously enough, this book, the Adages,' which aided powerfully
to bring in the great revolution of the sixteenth century, became
the fashion and fad among those at whom it really struck. Pope
Leo X. , as well as Charles V. , Henry VIII. , Francis I. , and a host of
royal personages, welcomed the 'Adages' of Erasmus; just as two
centuries later Frederick the Great, Catherine the Great, Joseph II.
of Austria, Charles III. of Spain, and a multitude of eighteenth-
century princes, welcomed the 'Persian Letters' of Montesquieu and
the Philosophical Dictionary' of Voltaire: the book took hold upon
thinking men throughout Europe, and it went speedily through more
than fifty editions.
The bitterness of the monks against him and the admiration of
thinking men for him steadily increased. From almost every crowned
head in Europe, including the Pope, came lucrative invitations to
their respective courts. And here a remark should be made in
justice to him. It strikes a modern scholar unpleasantly, in reading
Erasmus's correspondence, to see him insisting constantly on his
needs, and demanding pecuniary aid. He seemed to feel that he had
a right to it, and he obtained it: gold, silver, and pensions came
to him from every land; from friends in England like Lord Mount-
joy, and Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury; and from various per-
sonages on the Continent. But this was simply the way of his time
among scholars.
All this was in the old system of patronage. Men
wealthy and high placed were expected to see that the republic of
letters received no detriment, and that its main upholders were cared
for.
But for any proper understanding of this history, and of Erasmus's
character, one thing should be most carefully noted. It is vastly to
his credit. The highest Church preferment was pressed upon him by
the Pope, by the sovereigns, and by various eminent ecclesiastics,
throughout the greater part of his life; cardinals' hats, bishoprics,
deaneries, would have been his had he signified a wish, or even a
willingness to take them: but positions of this sort, lucrative though
they might be, sinecures though they might be, he steadfastly
refused. He determined to keep his freedom; to give no one a right
to call him servant; to undertake no duties-no matter how splendid
or honorable, no matter how easy-which should in any way deprive
him of his liberty.
And here sundry sources of Erasmus's qualities should be noted.
He was not only a scholar by the study of books, but by the study
of men and events. For leading features in his training were his
acquaintance with the men best worth knowing, and his knowledge
## p. 5513 (#79) ############################################
ERASMUS
5513
of the history then making in all parts of Europe. Considering his
limited resources and the difficulty of traveling at that period, the
frequency and length of his journeys strike us with wonder. We
hear of him in Paris, at Oxford and Cambridge, in various parts of
Italy, in Germany, in Switzerland, and in the Netherlands. The ex-
tent of his correspondence amazes us.
One thing, effective in determining his character, has perhaps not
been sufficiently dwelt upon by those who have studied him; this was
his intimate association with leading Englishmen. During his differ-
ent residences in England he was thrown into close relations with
some of the best men that the Anglo-Saxon race has ever produced.
It was not only the time of the revival of scholarship in England,
but of great seriousness in thought. Wyclif had been dead more
than a hundred years, but his spirit still lived; among Erasmus's
English associates were such scholars as Linacre, Grocyn, Latimer,
and above all, Sir Thomas More and Colet. These English friends
of his certainly promoted his zeal in scholarship and deepened his
character. ¹
In 1503 appeared a work which showed strongly the influence of
Anglo-Saxon devotion to truth, and to the exercise of reason in
reaching truth. This was his 'Enchiridion, or Christian's Manual. '
It was in the main a quiet, strong argument against the substitution
of fetichism for religious thought and action. Though pithy at times,
it had much less of the biting, satirical spirit than had his better
known writings. In this he argued against all substitutes for real
Christian life, of which Europe was then full, and indeed of which
all ages and countries have been full. He fell back mainly upon the
exercise of right reason as the God-given means of attaining to truth
and righteousness. For this he was of course bitterly attacked. One
charge against him was that he had denied the existence of real and
literal fire in hell. He defended himself rather wittily by saying that
he did not deny it,- that he only declared it to be more clearly
taught in theology than in the Scriptures.
Many things might be noted in this book, but two should be
remembered. First, that Erasmus throughout appeals to right reason;
not unnatural, then, was the declaration of Ignatius Loyola that these
writings cooled his piety. The other point to be noted is, that while
there is a similarity in the work of Erasmus upon the great revolu-
tion of the sixteenth century to the work of Voltaire upon the
revolution of the eighteenth, here is a fundamental difference; here
¹ For very full and interesting details of the relations of Erasmus to Eng-
lishmen, see Knight, 'Life of Dean Colet,' Oxford, 1823, pages 152 et passim;
see also Froude, Life and Letters of Erasmus, pages 105-7; also Seebohm,
'The Oxford Reformers,' London, 1869, passim.
## p. 5514 (#80) ############################################
5514
ERASMUS
is a depth of moral and religious feeling, and an appeal to the
underlying constitution of Christendom, such as appears in none of
the French philosophers or Encyclopædists.
In 1511 Erasmus gave to the world a book of a very different
sort, his 'Encomium Moriæ,' or Praise of Folly. It was dedicated
to Sir Thomas More; and More's name, in a punning way, was im-
bedded in its title. The work was received with delight from one
end of Europe to the other. Later it was illustrated with caricatures
by Hans Holbein, and so gained yet wider popularity. ' In this book
Folly is represented as preaching from her lofty pulpit to all sorts
and conditions of men; proving that all are fools, and therefore her
subjects; and that from her come the gifts they most prize. Espe-
cially does she claim credit for the superstitions of the Church; and
above all for the monks and theologians, whom she exhibits as her
masterpieces.
<
The publication of the Praise of Folly' raised a terrific storm.
The monks were especially violent, but they succeeded poorly. They
were too angry. Strange as it may seem, even this work did not
lead to any decided break between Erasmus and the higher ecclesi-
astics outside the monasteries. Pope Leo X. , with his dislike for
over-fervid religionists, and his passion for amusing literature, still
held strongly to the bold thinker who expressed the leading thought
of his time so pungently. So did those who succeeded Leo during
Erasmus's lifetime; though his immediate successor, Adrian VI. , was
an ascetic, and cared far more for theology than for literature. This
book wrought more powerfully on Erasmus's own time and on that
which immediately followed, than any other he ever wrote. Here, to
use the old phrase, was "the egg which Erasmus laid and which
Luther hatched. "
But far more powerful in its remoter consequences on the building
up of modern Germany, and indeed on all thinking Christendom, was
a book which he published five years later at Basle,- his first edition
of the Greek Testament. His main object was doubtless to popular-
ize Biblical studies and to bring them to bear upon the needs of his
time. But he also wished to show what the Bible really was, and
thus to beat back the dogmatists who used its texts to injure the
new learning.
This work was undoubtedly in some sort an evolution out of the
earlier work of Laurentius Valla, the only great Italian scholar of the
Renascence who had devoted himself to the problems of theology
and Biblical criticism. But the spirit of Erasmus was very different
1 For the origin and character of Holbein's illustrations of the Praise of
Folly, with specimens, see Woltmann, Holbein and his Time,' Chap. xi.
## p. 5515 (#81) ############################################
ERASMUS
5515
from that of Valla. Valla was a brilliant skeptic; Erasmus a pro-
found believer in God and in righteousness. He stands among the
first of those who have endeavored to bring the Scriptures within the
reach of the world at large; without him the translations of Tyndale
in England and of Luther in Germany would have been almost im-
possible.
But Erasmus's work did not end with his Greek Testament: he
wrote a new Latin version, enriching it with notes; and finally a
series of paraphrases in Latin of all the New Testament books, ex-
cept Revelation. These were translated into various modern lan-
guages, and of the English version every parish church in England
was supplied with a copy.
The greatness of this work is shown in its remoter consequences.
This it was which began the application of critical knowledge to our
sacred books: Erasmus is the forerunner of that long line of devoted
men in all countries who from that day to this have risked reputa-
tion and even life, in endeavoring to clear from the sacred text the
errors which so many pious men have in all ages insisted on retain-
ing in it.
It is true that he had little of Hebrew scholarship, and that his
critical apparatus and knowledge were small compared to that which
scholars now consider indispensable; it is true that some of his anno-
tations were fanciful; but as a whole, their acuteness and boldness
are among the wonders of European history. He it was who dared
strike out the famous verse in the fifth chapter of the first Epistle
General of St. John regarding the "three witnesses. " For this he
was fiercely attacked: in England by Lee, afterwards Archbishop of
York; in Spain by Stunica, one of the most renowned of South-Euro-
pean scholars; in France by Budé, syndic of the Sorbonne; by the
University of Paris; and throughout Europe by the friars; - but he
kept on, and to-day there is no scholar who does not acknowledge
that he was right. He it was who dared point out some of the mis-
takes in quotations made from the Hebrew Scriptures in the Gospels;
and to show that the Epistle to the Hebrews is not the work of
St.
Paul; and that the Revelations of St. John, and the Gospel accord-
ing to St. John, cannot be the work of the same person; and that the
passage in Matthew which is now inscribed around the inner base of
St. Peter's dome -"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build
my Church"-has no reference to the Papacy. For these things,
which the great mass of scholars now accept as mere commonplaces,
1 For a more thorough statement regarding the work of Valla as compared
with that of Erasmus, see White's History of the Warfare of Science with
Theology, Vol. ii. , pages 303 and following. For the extent of Erasmus's New
Testament work, see Jebb's Erasmus, pages 44, 45.
## p. 5516 (#82) ############################################
5516
ERASMUS
he was then called a blasphemer. But the ages since his time have
more and more agreed in declaring all this a proof of Erasmus's
greatness as a scholar and of his boldness as a man. ¹
Here too we have utterances of his which throw light upon his
view of his time, and of his own work in it. In one of his letters he
says, "I would rather work for a month at expounding St. Paul than
waste a day in quarreling. "
Nor was he working for scholars alone. He had in mind also the
plain every-day man. Regarding his translations of Scripture he
said: "I long that the husbandman should sing them as he follows
the plow; that the weaver should hum them to the tune of the shut-
tle; that the traveler should beguile with them the weariness of his
journey. »2
In 1522 Erasmus published his 'Colloquies. ' These were conversa-
tions, written nominally for the instruction of youth. They are not,
in general, phrased so sharply as the 'Adages' and 'Praise of Folly';
they are more kindly, more genial. The purpose of this work seems
to have been to infuse into the youth of his time more earnestness,
and especially to bring in a better handling of religious questions.
In this, as in preceding works, Erasmus firmly adheres to the Church,
no matter how much he criticizes various parasitic growths which
had attached themselves to it; and he will listen to no suggestions of
separation from it.
The twenty-nine 'Colloquies' formed an arsenal of argument and
satire. Again the monks trooped forth and widely denounced him as
satirizing Church fasts, virginity, monkery, pilgrimages, and other
important parts of her system; but hardly any one read their tirades;
they were too long-winded. The main attack on the 'Colloquies' was
made in 1526; and in 1527 Colinæus printed twenty-four thousand
copies of them, and sold them all. ³
But while the popes and higher ecclesiastics still professed them-
selves pleased with this work, theologians here and there became
alarmed. Luther had appeared on the scene; and though Erasmus
during a large part of his literary life was in quarrel with Luther, the
deeper meanings of the whole movement, and of their relations to it,
1 For excellent statements regarding Erasmus's relations to modern
Biblical criticism, see Beard, Hibbert Lectures for 1883 on the Reformation,'
pages 66 and following. For a very full detail of Erasmus's account of his
dealing with the text regarding the Three Witnesses, see Jortin (London,
1808), Vol. ii. , pages 229 et seq.
2 For the citation above given, see Jebb's 'Erasmus,' Cambridge, 1890,
pages 45, 46, and 53.
3 For satires and squibs against Erasmus, see Schade, (Satiren u. Pasquille
aus der Reformationszeit,' Hanover, 1863: passim.
## p. 5517 (#83) ############################################
ERASMUS
5517
began to be revealed. The book was publicly condemned by the
Sorbonne in France, solemnly burned by the Inquisition in Spain, and
after the death of Erasmus placed upon the Index in Italy. The
Romanic countries thus sought to keep it out of popular reach. In
the Teutonic countries its work continued. It held the field longer
than did any of his other works, save his edition of the New Testa-
ment; nearly a century and a half after Erasmus's time Milton spoke
of it as in the hands of everybody at Cambridge; and even in our
own time new editions of it have been published.
With the 'Colloquies' ends the last of Erasmus's most popular
books. Further into the vast mass of his writings, which have been
collected into ten great folios, we may not go, save to notice one field
of his activity, in some respects the most important: this is his Cor-
respondence.
As already hinted, it was enormous. It embraces letters to and
from the most noted men of his time, including not only four suc-
cessive popes and all the principal monarchs of Europe, but the
leaders of thought on both sides for some time after the outbreak of
the Reformation. The subjects treated were the most important;
educational, literary, political, and religious. The mode of treatment
was flowing, bright, witty, often playful and apparently superficial;
but beneath all was deep religious and moral feeling. Not conven-
tionally so: Erasmus may well be called the first Broad-Churchman.
To him the permanent element in Christianity was everything; the
transient comparatively nothing.
The influence of his letters was undoubtedly far-reaching and
healthful. They penetrated and pervaded the minds of popes, mon-
archs, governors, councilors, professors, authors, -the principal men
of light and leading of his time. He thus urged especially better
education, better literature, peace, tolerance,- everything in the line
of common-sense and right reason.
As to the medium, it was always Latin. The language of France,
of Germany, of England, of Holland, and even of Italy, was then
considered barbarous - and not without reason. But his was not the
Latin of the Italian precisians and German pedants. It was virtually
a living language,-easy, flowing, sparkling, well adapted to use: and
it is to-day easy reading, even to beginners in the language of
Rome. ¹
(
1 The most accessible collection of Erasmus's letters is the selection and
abridgment of them by Froude. For some unedited and interesting epistles
to Sadolet, Bembo, and others, see De Nolhac, Érasme en Italie,' Paris, 1888.
For copious extracts see especially Jortin and Drummond, passim. For the
difference between the racy, effective Latin of Erasmus and the stilted affec-
tations of the purists of his time, see Jebb, Erasmus,' (Cambridge, Eng. ,
1890), pages 39 et seq.
## p. 5518 (#84) ############################################
5518
ERASMUS
―
The value of Erasmus's writings caused much to be overlooked by
the leaders of the older Church. Pope Paul III. , the fourth of the
popes whom Erasmus had known, wrote him in 1535,—a year before
the great scholar's death,-asking him for aid in the approaching
Council. During this year previous to his death Erasmus gave us a
final revelation of his feeling. In one of his letters he says:- . " You
talk of the great name which I shall leave behind me, and which
posterity is never to let die;
but I care nothing for fame,
and nothing for posterity. I desire only to go home and to find
favor with Christ. " His desire to go home" was granted in 1536 at
Basle. 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.
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## p. 5508 (#72) ############################################
ERASMUS
## p. 5508 (#73) ############################################
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PASMUS
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## p. 5509 (#75) ############################################
5509
ERASMUS
(1465 ? -1536)
BY ANDREW D. WHITE
N ANY view of modern civilization Erasmus is a leading per-
sonage, for he is one of the two great militant literary men
of modern times; - one of the two men of letters who have
taken a stronger hold and exercised a wider influence on the thought
of the civilized world than have any others, from the Roman Empire
to this day.
He was born at Rotterdam, most biographers say in 1467: Hallam
thought that he had proved the date to be 1465: others see reasons
for believing that it was 1466: Burigny insisted that no one knew the
exact year-not even Erasmus himself. ¹ But more important than a
precise date is the fact that he was born only about ten years after
the downfall of the Eastern Empire; only about a quarter of a cen-
tury after the discovery of printing; about twenty years before Lu-
ther; and but little longer before the great age of discovery — the
period of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Magellan; the period also
of a new awakening of scholarship in Germany, shown in the found-
ing of new universities and the putting of new life into old ones;-
the period of new horizons, hopes, and activities. He stood in the
centre of this great epoch, and acted most powerfully upon it. "
Though an illegitimate child, he took his paternal name Gerard,
which, being interpreted to mean amiable, was put into Latin as
Desiderius, and into Greek as Erasmios or perhaps Erasmos. So, in
accordance with the custom of men of his sort in his time, he called
himself Desiderius Erasmus; just as Schwartzerd or Black-earth trans-
lated his name into Greek and called himself Melanchthon.
――――――
The first years of Erasmus were full of hardship. His patrimony
was stolen from him by faithless guardians; his liberty was wheedled
from him by zealous monks: but a remarkable keenness, shrewdness,
¹ For Hallam's argument regarding the exact date of Erasmus's birth, see
his 'Introduction to the Literature of Europe' (London, 1847), page 287, note;
see also Drummond. For Burigny, see his 'Vie d'Erasme) (Paris, 1757),
pages 5 and 6, and note.
2 Regarding the strengthening of university life and of thought generally
in Germany at this period, see especially Creighton, History of the Papacy
during the Reformation. >
## p. 5510 (#76) ############################################
5510
ERASMUS
and passion for knowledge asserted itself in him; though struggling
against poverty throughout his early life, and against ill health
always, he grew rapidly and symmetrically in the best knowledge of
his time, and especially in the new learning; - that new study of
Latin thought to which thinking men, weary of scholastic philosophy,
had turned toward the close of the Middle Ages; and above all, to
that study of Greek thought which had taken refuge in Western
Europe at the downfall of the Eastern Empire, and especially at the
Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
It happened, to the great good fortune of the world, that the
scholarship in which Erasmus was nurtured had in it not only en-
lightenment, but manliness and earnestness. In the little town of
Deventer in Holland, Gerard Groot had founded in 1400 an order
called the Brotherhood of the Life in Common, or as they were
more popularly known, the Good Brethren. The order was devoted
to plain living and high thinking. Property was for the most part
held in common. Manual labor was exacted of all. All showed a
fervency in devotion and an energy in well-doing such as the older
orders of monks had not known for many generations.
Among other things, the Brethren devoted themselves to a scheme
of education at once thorough and comprehensive; not disdaining to
work in primary schools, not shrinking from the most advanced
scholarly inquiry. This Deventer school acted powerfully in fusing
what was best in mediæval thought with the new learning. Its in-
fluence was felt in all parts of Northern Europe. In 1433 the order
numbered forty-five houses, in 1460 three times as many. Several of
its scholars became famous; among them Thomas à Kempis, and
Nicholas of Cues, the poor fisherman's son, who became the Cardinal
de Cusa,- scholar, statesman, and reformer, the forerunner of Coper-
nicus in teaching the new astronomy. ¹
From these men of the Deventer school Erasmus received the
first strong impulse toward his great career; and though he remained
at the school only until about his fourteenth year, he secured recog-
nition as a youth of wonderful promise.
Now came an evil period. He was entrapped into a monastery,
and finally, about the time of his coming of age, was induced to take
priestly orders. Yet even in the monastery the spirit of the Deventer
school was still working within him; for now it was, in his monas-
tery at Stein, about 1490, that he took up the work of the man who
first brought the modern spirit of scholarly criticism to bear upon
Biblical research, - the brilliant Italian scholar Laurentius Valla. Out
For the value of the Deventer school, see Hallam, 'History of Literature,'
Vol. i. , page 125; also a reference in Cantù, which is very striking as coming
from so devoted a Catholic; also Creighton as above, Vol. v. , Chap. i.
## p. 5511 (#77) ############################################
ERASMUS
5511
of this grew Erasmus's greatest contribution to the thought of Christ-
endom,- -a contribution which is doing its work in all lands to-day:
none of Erasmus's revolutionary work has ever shown such persistent
vitality as this evolutionary work. ¹
He soon saw that a monastic life was not for him. Others saw it;
among these the Archbishop of Cambray, who made him his private.
secretary, and finally supplied him the means with which to study at
Paris. But these means were dealt out grudgingly. He still had to
endure great privations in order to gain instruction from the accom-
plished teachers gathered there, and in one of his letters he writes:-
"I have given my whole soul to Greek learning, and as soon as I
get any money I shall first buy Greek books and then clothes. »
During his stay in Paris his ability was noted by various men of
influence; and now began his struggle to rid himself of monastic and
clerical entanglements, in which effort he was finally successful. It
was at this period-in 1500-that he published among other things
the first edition of his 'Book of Adages' or Proverbs.
The Book of Adages' was the first broadside sent from the new
scholarship into the old, and it penetrated European thought widely
and deeply. Erasmus became at once the head of the party sup-
porting the new learning against mediæval scholasticism. Admirers
sought his friendship on all sides; among them the leading mitred
heads, crowned heads, and even the Pope himself. He received let-
ters breathing the warmest friendship from Henry VIII. of England;
Francis I. of France; Charles V. of Spain and Germany; the two suc-
cessive popes, Leo X. and the schoolmate of Erasmus at Deventer,
Adrian VI. ; and still later from the two popes who succeeded these.
In the 'Adages' Erasmus proclaimed war against the mendicant
friars throughout Europe; and from time to time, in new editions,
came new forms of ridicule, even more and more effective.
Another manifestation of Erasmus's boldness is yet more striking;
for while he attacked bigotry fearlessly, he attacked tyranny with
yet more bitter hatred. Strenuous as his attacks on bigotry were, he
never really penetrated to its underlying principle-to the doctrine
that salvation depends upon belief; but in attacking the oppressions
of monarchy he went to its very heart. This will be especially
shown in the extracts from the 'Adages,' as well as from the other
writings given as an appendix to this article. He attacked its found-
ations; so that one might imagine himself within sound, not of a
1 For the evolution of Erasmus's ideas in Biblical criticism out of those of
Valla, see White's History of the Warfare of Science with Theology,' Vol.
ii. , pages 303 and following; also Drummond, Life of Erasmus,' Vol. i. , pages
26 and following; also Durand de Laur, Érasme,' Vol. i. , pages 16 and fol-
lowing.
## p. 5512 (#78) ############################################
ERASMUS
5512
scholar admired in colleges and petted in courts, but of some modern
French tribune or American stump orator.
Curiously enough, this book, the Adages,' which aided powerfully
to bring in the great revolution of the sixteenth century, became
the fashion and fad among those at whom it really struck. Pope
Leo X. , as well as Charles V. , Henry VIII. , Francis I. , and a host of
royal personages, welcomed the 'Adages' of Erasmus; just as two
centuries later Frederick the Great, Catherine the Great, Joseph II.
of Austria, Charles III. of Spain, and a multitude of eighteenth-
century princes, welcomed the 'Persian Letters' of Montesquieu and
the Philosophical Dictionary' of Voltaire: the book took hold upon
thinking men throughout Europe, and it went speedily through more
than fifty editions.
The bitterness of the monks against him and the admiration of
thinking men for him steadily increased. From almost every crowned
head in Europe, including the Pope, came lucrative invitations to
their respective courts. And here a remark should be made in
justice to him. It strikes a modern scholar unpleasantly, in reading
Erasmus's correspondence, to see him insisting constantly on his
needs, and demanding pecuniary aid. He seemed to feel that he had
a right to it, and he obtained it: gold, silver, and pensions came
to him from every land; from friends in England like Lord Mount-
joy, and Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury; and from various per-
sonages on the Continent. But this was simply the way of his time
among scholars.
All this was in the old system of patronage. Men
wealthy and high placed were expected to see that the republic of
letters received no detriment, and that its main upholders were cared
for.
But for any proper understanding of this history, and of Erasmus's
character, one thing should be most carefully noted. It is vastly to
his credit. The highest Church preferment was pressed upon him by
the Pope, by the sovereigns, and by various eminent ecclesiastics,
throughout the greater part of his life; cardinals' hats, bishoprics,
deaneries, would have been his had he signified a wish, or even a
willingness to take them: but positions of this sort, lucrative though
they might be, sinecures though they might be, he steadfastly
refused. He determined to keep his freedom; to give no one a right
to call him servant; to undertake no duties-no matter how splendid
or honorable, no matter how easy-which should in any way deprive
him of his liberty.
And here sundry sources of Erasmus's qualities should be noted.
He was not only a scholar by the study of books, but by the study
of men and events. For leading features in his training were his
acquaintance with the men best worth knowing, and his knowledge
## p. 5513 (#79) ############################################
ERASMUS
5513
of the history then making in all parts of Europe. Considering his
limited resources and the difficulty of traveling at that period, the
frequency and length of his journeys strike us with wonder. We
hear of him in Paris, at Oxford and Cambridge, in various parts of
Italy, in Germany, in Switzerland, and in the Netherlands. The ex-
tent of his correspondence amazes us.
One thing, effective in determining his character, has perhaps not
been sufficiently dwelt upon by those who have studied him; this was
his intimate association with leading Englishmen. During his differ-
ent residences in England he was thrown into close relations with
some of the best men that the Anglo-Saxon race has ever produced.
It was not only the time of the revival of scholarship in England,
but of great seriousness in thought. Wyclif had been dead more
than a hundred years, but his spirit still lived; among Erasmus's
English associates were such scholars as Linacre, Grocyn, Latimer,
and above all, Sir Thomas More and Colet. These English friends
of his certainly promoted his zeal in scholarship and deepened his
character. ¹
In 1503 appeared a work which showed strongly the influence of
Anglo-Saxon devotion to truth, and to the exercise of reason in
reaching truth. This was his 'Enchiridion, or Christian's Manual. '
It was in the main a quiet, strong argument against the substitution
of fetichism for religious thought and action. Though pithy at times,
it had much less of the biting, satirical spirit than had his better
known writings. In this he argued against all substitutes for real
Christian life, of which Europe was then full, and indeed of which
all ages and countries have been full. He fell back mainly upon the
exercise of right reason as the God-given means of attaining to truth
and righteousness. For this he was of course bitterly attacked. One
charge against him was that he had denied the existence of real and
literal fire in hell. He defended himself rather wittily by saying that
he did not deny it,- that he only declared it to be more clearly
taught in theology than in the Scriptures.
Many things might be noted in this book, but two should be
remembered. First, that Erasmus throughout appeals to right reason;
not unnatural, then, was the declaration of Ignatius Loyola that these
writings cooled his piety. The other point to be noted is, that while
there is a similarity in the work of Erasmus upon the great revolu-
tion of the sixteenth century to the work of Voltaire upon the
revolution of the eighteenth, here is a fundamental difference; here
¹ For very full and interesting details of the relations of Erasmus to Eng-
lishmen, see Knight, 'Life of Dean Colet,' Oxford, 1823, pages 152 et passim;
see also Froude, Life and Letters of Erasmus, pages 105-7; also Seebohm,
'The Oxford Reformers,' London, 1869, passim.
## p. 5514 (#80) ############################################
5514
ERASMUS
is a depth of moral and religious feeling, and an appeal to the
underlying constitution of Christendom, such as appears in none of
the French philosophers or Encyclopædists.
In 1511 Erasmus gave to the world a book of a very different
sort, his 'Encomium Moriæ,' or Praise of Folly. It was dedicated
to Sir Thomas More; and More's name, in a punning way, was im-
bedded in its title. The work was received with delight from one
end of Europe to the other. Later it was illustrated with caricatures
by Hans Holbein, and so gained yet wider popularity. ' In this book
Folly is represented as preaching from her lofty pulpit to all sorts
and conditions of men; proving that all are fools, and therefore her
subjects; and that from her come the gifts they most prize. Espe-
cially does she claim credit for the superstitions of the Church; and
above all for the monks and theologians, whom she exhibits as her
masterpieces.
<
The publication of the Praise of Folly' raised a terrific storm.
The monks were especially violent, but they succeeded poorly. They
were too angry. Strange as it may seem, even this work did not
lead to any decided break between Erasmus and the higher ecclesi-
astics outside the monasteries. Pope Leo X. , with his dislike for
over-fervid religionists, and his passion for amusing literature, still
held strongly to the bold thinker who expressed the leading thought
of his time so pungently. So did those who succeeded Leo during
Erasmus's lifetime; though his immediate successor, Adrian VI. , was
an ascetic, and cared far more for theology than for literature. This
book wrought more powerfully on Erasmus's own time and on that
which immediately followed, than any other he ever wrote. Here, to
use the old phrase, was "the egg which Erasmus laid and which
Luther hatched. "
But far more powerful in its remoter consequences on the building
up of modern Germany, and indeed on all thinking Christendom, was
a book which he published five years later at Basle,- his first edition
of the Greek Testament. His main object was doubtless to popular-
ize Biblical studies and to bring them to bear upon the needs of his
time. But he also wished to show what the Bible really was, and
thus to beat back the dogmatists who used its texts to injure the
new learning.
This work was undoubtedly in some sort an evolution out of the
earlier work of Laurentius Valla, the only great Italian scholar of the
Renascence who had devoted himself to the problems of theology
and Biblical criticism. But the spirit of Erasmus was very different
1 For the origin and character of Holbein's illustrations of the Praise of
Folly, with specimens, see Woltmann, Holbein and his Time,' Chap. xi.
## p. 5515 (#81) ############################################
ERASMUS
5515
from that of Valla. Valla was a brilliant skeptic; Erasmus a pro-
found believer in God and in righteousness. He stands among the
first of those who have endeavored to bring the Scriptures within the
reach of the world at large; without him the translations of Tyndale
in England and of Luther in Germany would have been almost im-
possible.
But Erasmus's work did not end with his Greek Testament: he
wrote a new Latin version, enriching it with notes; and finally a
series of paraphrases in Latin of all the New Testament books, ex-
cept Revelation. These were translated into various modern lan-
guages, and of the English version every parish church in England
was supplied with a copy.
The greatness of this work is shown in its remoter consequences.
This it was which began the application of critical knowledge to our
sacred books: Erasmus is the forerunner of that long line of devoted
men in all countries who from that day to this have risked reputa-
tion and even life, in endeavoring to clear from the sacred text the
errors which so many pious men have in all ages insisted on retain-
ing in it.
It is true that he had little of Hebrew scholarship, and that his
critical apparatus and knowledge were small compared to that which
scholars now consider indispensable; it is true that some of his anno-
tations were fanciful; but as a whole, their acuteness and boldness
are among the wonders of European history. He it was who dared
strike out the famous verse in the fifth chapter of the first Epistle
General of St. John regarding the "three witnesses. " For this he
was fiercely attacked: in England by Lee, afterwards Archbishop of
York; in Spain by Stunica, one of the most renowned of South-Euro-
pean scholars; in France by Budé, syndic of the Sorbonne; by the
University of Paris; and throughout Europe by the friars; - but he
kept on, and to-day there is no scholar who does not acknowledge
that he was right. He it was who dared point out some of the mis-
takes in quotations made from the Hebrew Scriptures in the Gospels;
and to show that the Epistle to the Hebrews is not the work of
St.
Paul; and that the Revelations of St. John, and the Gospel accord-
ing to St. John, cannot be the work of the same person; and that the
passage in Matthew which is now inscribed around the inner base of
St. Peter's dome -"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build
my Church"-has no reference to the Papacy. For these things,
which the great mass of scholars now accept as mere commonplaces,
1 For a more thorough statement regarding the work of Valla as compared
with that of Erasmus, see White's History of the Warfare of Science with
Theology, Vol. ii. , pages 303 and following. For the extent of Erasmus's New
Testament work, see Jebb's Erasmus, pages 44, 45.
## p. 5516 (#82) ############################################
5516
ERASMUS
he was then called a blasphemer. But the ages since his time have
more and more agreed in declaring all this a proof of Erasmus's
greatness as a scholar and of his boldness as a man. ¹
Here too we have utterances of his which throw light upon his
view of his time, and of his own work in it. In one of his letters he
says, "I would rather work for a month at expounding St. Paul than
waste a day in quarreling. "
Nor was he working for scholars alone. He had in mind also the
plain every-day man. Regarding his translations of Scripture he
said: "I long that the husbandman should sing them as he follows
the plow; that the weaver should hum them to the tune of the shut-
tle; that the traveler should beguile with them the weariness of his
journey. »2
In 1522 Erasmus published his 'Colloquies. ' These were conversa-
tions, written nominally for the instruction of youth. They are not,
in general, phrased so sharply as the 'Adages' and 'Praise of Folly';
they are more kindly, more genial. The purpose of this work seems
to have been to infuse into the youth of his time more earnestness,
and especially to bring in a better handling of religious questions.
In this, as in preceding works, Erasmus firmly adheres to the Church,
no matter how much he criticizes various parasitic growths which
had attached themselves to it; and he will listen to no suggestions of
separation from it.
The twenty-nine 'Colloquies' formed an arsenal of argument and
satire. Again the monks trooped forth and widely denounced him as
satirizing Church fasts, virginity, monkery, pilgrimages, and other
important parts of her system; but hardly any one read their tirades;
they were too long-winded. The main attack on the 'Colloquies' was
made in 1526; and in 1527 Colinæus printed twenty-four thousand
copies of them, and sold them all. ³
But while the popes and higher ecclesiastics still professed them-
selves pleased with this work, theologians here and there became
alarmed. Luther had appeared on the scene; and though Erasmus
during a large part of his literary life was in quarrel with Luther, the
deeper meanings of the whole movement, and of their relations to it,
1 For excellent statements regarding Erasmus's relations to modern
Biblical criticism, see Beard, Hibbert Lectures for 1883 on the Reformation,'
pages 66 and following. For a very full detail of Erasmus's account of his
dealing with the text regarding the Three Witnesses, see Jortin (London,
1808), Vol. ii. , pages 229 et seq.
2 For the citation above given, see Jebb's 'Erasmus,' Cambridge, 1890,
pages 45, 46, and 53.
3 For satires and squibs against Erasmus, see Schade, (Satiren u. Pasquille
aus der Reformationszeit,' Hanover, 1863: passim.
## p. 5517 (#83) ############################################
ERASMUS
5517
began to be revealed. The book was publicly condemned by the
Sorbonne in France, solemnly burned by the Inquisition in Spain, and
after the death of Erasmus placed upon the Index in Italy. The
Romanic countries thus sought to keep it out of popular reach. In
the Teutonic countries its work continued. It held the field longer
than did any of his other works, save his edition of the New Testa-
ment; nearly a century and a half after Erasmus's time Milton spoke
of it as in the hands of everybody at Cambridge; and even in our
own time new editions of it have been published.
With the 'Colloquies' ends the last of Erasmus's most popular
books. Further into the vast mass of his writings, which have been
collected into ten great folios, we may not go, save to notice one field
of his activity, in some respects the most important: this is his Cor-
respondence.
As already hinted, it was enormous. It embraces letters to and
from the most noted men of his time, including not only four suc-
cessive popes and all the principal monarchs of Europe, but the
leaders of thought on both sides for some time after the outbreak of
the Reformation. The subjects treated were the most important;
educational, literary, political, and religious. The mode of treatment
was flowing, bright, witty, often playful and apparently superficial;
but beneath all was deep religious and moral feeling. Not conven-
tionally so: Erasmus may well be called the first Broad-Churchman.
To him the permanent element in Christianity was everything; the
transient comparatively nothing.
The influence of his letters was undoubtedly far-reaching and
healthful. They penetrated and pervaded the minds of popes, mon-
archs, governors, councilors, professors, authors, -the principal men
of light and leading of his time. He thus urged especially better
education, better literature, peace, tolerance,- everything in the line
of common-sense and right reason.
As to the medium, it was always Latin. The language of France,
of Germany, of England, of Holland, and even of Italy, was then
considered barbarous - and not without reason. But his was not the
Latin of the Italian precisians and German pedants. It was virtually
a living language,-easy, flowing, sparkling, well adapted to use: and
it is to-day easy reading, even to beginners in the language of
Rome. ¹
(
1 The most accessible collection of Erasmus's letters is the selection and
abridgment of them by Froude. For some unedited and interesting epistles
to Sadolet, Bembo, and others, see De Nolhac, Érasme en Italie,' Paris, 1888.
For copious extracts see especially Jortin and Drummond, passim. For the
difference between the racy, effective Latin of Erasmus and the stilted affec-
tations of the purists of his time, see Jebb, Erasmus,' (Cambridge, Eng. ,
1890), pages 39 et seq.
## p. 5518 (#84) ############################################
5518
ERASMUS
―
The value of Erasmus's writings caused much to be overlooked by
the leaders of the older Church. Pope Paul III. , the fourth of the
popes whom Erasmus had known, wrote him in 1535,—a year before
the great scholar's death,-asking him for aid in the approaching
Council. During this year previous to his death Erasmus gave us a
final revelation of his feeling. In one of his letters he says:- . " You
talk of the great name which I shall leave behind me, and which
posterity is never to let die;
but I care nothing for fame,
and nothing for posterity. I desire only to go home and to find
favor with Christ. " His desire to go home" was granted in 1536 at
Basle. 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.
