No More Learning

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


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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
(


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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.


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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. I advised him to be moderate, and I only made
his friends my enemies.
They quote this and that to
show we are alike. I could find a hundred passages where St.
Paul seems to teach the doctrines which they condemn in Luther.
I did not anticipate what a time was coming. I did, I admit,
help to bring it on; but I was always willing to submit what I
wrote to the Church.
Those counsel you best who advise
gentle measures.
Your Holiness wishes to set things
right, and you say to me, "Come to Rome. Write a book against
Luther. Declare war against his party. " Come to Rome? Tell
a crab to fly. The crab will say, "Give me wings. " I say,
"Give me back my youth and strength. "
If I write
anything at Rome, it will be thought that I am bribed. If I
write temperately, I shall seem trifling. If I copy Luther's style,
I shall stir a hornets' nest.
·
·
•
•
·
Well, some think there
But you ask me what you are to do.
is no remedy but force. That is not my opinion; for I think
there would be frightful bloodshed.
Things have gone
too far for cautery. Wyclif and his followers were put down by
the English kings; but they were only crushed, not extinguished.
However that may be, if you mean to try prisons, lashes,


## p. 5536 (#102) ###########################################

5536
ERASMUS
confiscations, stake, and scaffold, you need no help from me.
You yourself, I know, are for mild measures: but you have no
one about you who cares for anything but himself; and if divines.
only think of their authority, monks of their luxuries, princes of
their politics, and all take the bit between their teeth, what can
we expect? For myself, I should say, discover the roots of the
disease. Clean out those to begin with. Punish no one. Let
what has taken place be regarded as a chastisement sent by
Providence, and grant a universal amnesty. If God forgives so
many sins, God's vicar may forgive.
You ask me why I did not speak out at once. Because I
regarded Luther as a good man, raised up by Providence to cor-
rect the depravity of the age. — LETTER TO THE PRINCE OF CARPI,
1525.
You see how fiercely Luther strikes at me, moderate though
I was.
Ten editions of his reply have been published
already. The great men in the Church are afraid to touch him,
and you want poor me to do it again.
In France they
are at work with gibbet and dungeon. It won't answer.
Let Catholics meanwhile reform the abuses which have provoked
the revolt, and leave the rest to a general council. — LETTER TO
FABER, 1525(? ).
The rival parties drag at the two ends of a rope. When it
breaks, both will fall to the ground. - LETTER TO THE ARCHBISHOP
OF COLOGNE, 1528.
own.
The kings are fighting among themselves for objects of their
The monks, instead of looking for a reign of Christ, want
only to reign themselves. The theologians curse Luther.
Idiots that they are, they alienate with their foul speeches many
who would have returned to the Church. - LETTER TO THE BISHOP
OF AUGSBURG, 1528.
-
Now, partly from superstition, partly from avarice, the saying
of masses has become a trade like shoemaking or bricklaying. -
LETTER TO THE BISHOP OF HILDESHEIM, 1530.


## p. 5537 (#103) ###########################################

ERASMUS
5537
The problem is how to heal this fatal schism without rivers
of blood. LETTER TO MEXIA, 1530.
-
To kill one's fellow-creatures needs no great genius; but to
calm a tempest by prudence and judgment is a worthy achieve-
ment indeed. - LETTER TO THE BISHOP OF TRENT, 1530.
PASSAGES SHOWING VARIOUS MOODS, BUT GENERALLY HIS STRONG
TENDENCY TOWARD BROAD-CHURCHMANSHIP.
OTHERS may be martyrs if they like. I aspire to no such
honor.
We have not all strength for martyrdom, and I fear that if
trouble comes I shall act like Peter.
I have not condemned ceremonies. I have only insisted on a
proper use of them. Christ did the same; so why find fault with
me?
The Christian religion nowadays does not require
miracles, and there are none; but you know what lying stories
are set going by crafty knaves. - LETTER TO AN ENGLISH BISHOP,
1528.
PASSAGE SHOWING A PLAYFUL SKEPTICISM
(Referring to the tearing down of the Saints' images at Basle)
STRANGE that none of them worked a miracle to avenge their
dignity, when before they had worked so many at the slightest
invitation.
At Basle not a saint stirred a finger. - Let-
TER TO PIRKHEIMER, circa 1529.
PASSAGES REVEALING HIS FEELINGS TOWARD THE END OF LIFE
You talk of the great name which I shall leave behind me,
and which posterity is never to let die;
but I care noth-
ing for fame and nothing for posterity. I desire only to go home
and to find favor with Christ. - LETTER TO POPE PAUL III. IN
1535 (the year before Erasmus's death).
-
•
.
[For the full series of Erasmus's letters in the original, see various editions,
but especially that of LeClerc, Louvain, 1703-6. Those given above are
selected from the abridged translations given by Froude in his 'Life and
Letters of Erasmus,' London, 1894. See also the selections in Jortin and
Drummond. ]
X-347


## p. 5538 (#104) ###########################################

5538
ERCKMANN
ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN
(1822-)
(1826-1890)
BY FRÉDÉRIC LOLIÉE
RCKMANN-CHATRIAN is the joint name of two French novelists:
Émile Erckmann, born at Pfalzburg in 1822, and Alexandre
Chatrian, born in 1826 at Soldatenthal in the Meurthe
department, died in 1890; whom constant collaboration, a completely
similar bent of mind, grasp of things, observation, and style of writ-
ing, did, so to speak, blend into one and the same literary man.
Their friendship and joint labor dated from their meeting in Alsace
in 1845. At an early date they acquired that unity of style and con-
ception which so long puz-
zled public opinion as to
the double origin of their
productions. Erckmann as
a rule resided at Pfalzburg;
as to Chatrian, he lived in
Paris. The descriptions of
the former were sketched
in the Vosges country;
those of the latter in the
Seine department. But
their conception was iden-
tical, the flight of their im-
CHATRIAN
agination similar; so that, being in close communion of ideas, the
style of the one became that of the other. From afar they com-
pleted each other. This perfectly simultaneous collaboration, of
which the De Goncourt brothers alone offer another instance, was
unprecedented in literary history.
Unnoticed and trying were the first attempts of our novelists.
The special charm of their descriptions of the homes of middle-class
people of the Rhine country was not at first appreciated as fully
as it deserved to be; being, as they were, regular masterpieces as
regards reality, feeling, and nicety of delineation. L'Illustre Docteur
Matheus (The Illustrious Doctor Matheus: 1859), whose exploits are
performed in the misty spheres of the supernatural, constituted the
first success of the novelists. The way now lay open before them.



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ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN
5539
Ringing successes made them soon forget their disappointing begin-
nings.
Erckmann and Chatrian, in twin, cultivated narrative poetry, the
rustic and sentimental novel, the picture of country life,—having for
preferred frame the quiet horizons which extend between the Rhine
and the Mosel,- dismal and fantastic fancies after the manner of
Hoffmann, the weird German dreamer; and lastly, the historical and
political novel. Chiefly under this last form, as applied to the revo-
lutionary epopee and to the wars of conquest of Napoleon I. , did
they make their names popular. Theirs was a personal and quite
new conception of those episodical novels, to which they gave the
title of "national," and which however caused them to be twitted
with anti-patriotism, for the reason that they represented war with
the pen of philosophers rather than with the pencil of poets, and
because they did not hesitate to show therein, with all the real
horror pertaining to the subject, how through the frenzy of battles
the fortune of a country runs out in blood, noise, and smoke.
The twin authors had given up, or at least put aside for a while,
their primitive manner. Getting tired of those quiet descriptions,
they felt driven to mix the simple legends of the Vosges country
and those of the Black Forest with more solid and broader ideas.
They now no longer limned the peaceful scenes of 'L'Ami Fritz'
(Friend Fritz), the vast beer-shops filled with the smoke of the long
china pipes, the fair housewives surrounded by their fair offspring,
the pensive maids of German lieder, or the country balls at which the
waltz carries away, on a rocking rhythm, the betrothed couples. To
their lovely and limited former pictures had now succeeded the
tumult of the camps and the horrors of battle-fields, hospital and
ambulance scenes, all the awful details which disclose the ambitious
egotism of leaders, the hesitation, the confusion, the half-pluck of
the soldiers, the smallness of great things. They had then marked
their twin object, quite democratic in its inspiration, which was to
set off the lustre of the campaigns fought under the Revolution for
the defense of national soil, and to sap the prestige of the Napo-
leonic idol, dimmed as it is in clouds of blood. The essential aim
they had in view was to point out to the young generations the
emptiness of military glory, and to prove to them that one is never
so happy as through peace, liberty, and toil.
In a
The public forthwith followed them in their evolution.
short time, Erckmann-Chatrian's works were eagerly read throughout
France; aided by the currents of anti-governmental opposition, they
soon acquired an immense popularity. Everybody was anxious to
read the pages of 'Madame Thérèse' and 'L'Histoire d'un Conscrit
de 1813' (The Story of a Conscript of 1813), where the conscript


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5540
ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN
relates himself, with charming artlessness, the great military events
in which he had been an actor, albeit indifferent and devoid of
enthusiasm. Success unfortunately so increased their productiveness
as to completely exhaust the happy vein they had discovered. They
were constantly writing, without however varying their topic. It was
always the same variation performed by clever virtuosi on an Alsatian
political and social theme. The first works had been enthusiastically
welcomed, the following delighted the readers, but the last only met
with a lukewarm and indifferent reception from the public. When
'Waterloo' was published, people noticed that that book was inferior
to 'Le Conscrit. ' 'Le Blocus' (The Blockade) seemed still beneath
'Waterloo. ' 'L'Histoire d'un Homme du Peuple' (The Story of a
Man of the People) had more of the merits of the foregoing works;
as to 'L'Histoire d'un Paysan' (The Story of a Peasant), it was but
the last expression of a form which had come to be but a process of
writing. Literary critics ceased to notice the new productions of
Erckmann-Chatrian. True to say, each of these works represented an
idea. They at times breathed a powerful air of justice and liberty.
But the plot was monotonous; the various episodes were ill combined
and il arranged; the style had become heavy, and began to lack
the fine simplicity which constituted the very talent of Erckmann-
Chatrian in short, the cohesion that marked their former works no
longer existed in the latter; they were no longer books, but series of
fragments.
Possessed of rare perfection in their best passages, though not
throughout equally good, the productions of Erckmann-Chatrian are
like a poem in two canti. The military canto may grow obsolete; as to
the more personal canto, that of the Vosgian legends, of sweet land-
scapes and picturesque manners, it is better assured of life.
One may likewise detect in the twin authors' talent two very dis-
tinct manifestations: the purely romantic one, rather weak as a rule,
on account of the superabundance of the scenes and episodes which
constantly break up the main plot; and the descriptive one, simply
admirable. Their books, whose charm and merit chiefly consist in
the finish of details, might be likened to a gallery of genre pictures.
That is why anthologies-the aim of which is to pick only that
which is excellent in an author's productions - might easily be en-
riched with marvelous passages borrowed from the somewhat massive
work of Erckmann-Chatrian. To make choice collections from them,
one would have to search right and left in their poems, legends,
fantastic visions, great military scenes, and lovely pictures of rural
life. The most important share might be gathered from those
calm and comforting provincial scenes of which they were so faith-
fully fond. As an instance of their style, one might likewise include


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ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN
5541
that charming Alsatian idyl, 'L'Ami Fritz,' in which seems to revive
the placid beauty of Hermann und Dorothea,' Goethe's immortal
masterpiece.
Frederic Police
THE DANCE IN THE VILLAGE INN
From Friend Fritz'
TH
HEY descended therefore into the hall. The stewards of the
dance, their straw hats streaming with ribbons, made the
round of the hall close to the railing, waving little flags to
keep back the crowd. Haan and Schoultz were still walking
about looking for partners; Joseph was standing before his desk
waiting; Bockel, his double-bass resting against his outstretched
leg, and Andrès, his violin under his arm, were stationed close
beside him, as they alone were to accompany the waltz.
Little Suzel, leaning on Fritz's arm, in the midst of the crowd
of spectators, cast stolen glances around, her heart beating fast
with agitation and inward delight. Every one admired her long
tresses of hair, which hung down behind to the very hem of her
little blue skirt with its velvet edging; her little round-toed shoes,
fastened with black-silk ribbons, which crossed over her snow-
white stockings; her rosy lips, her rounded chin, and her grace-
ful flexible neck.
More than one pretty girl scrutinized her with a searching
glance, trying to discover something to find fault with, while her
round white arm, bare to the elbow after the fashion of the coun-
try, rested on Fritz's with artless grace; but two or three old
women, peering at her with half-shut eyes, laughed amidst their
wrinkles, and said to each other quite loud, "He has chosen well! "
Kobus, hearing this, turned towards them with a smile of satis-
faction. He too would have liked to say something gallant to
Suzel, but he could think of nothing- he was too happy.
At last Haan selected from the third bench to the left a
woman about six feet high, with black hair, a hawk nose, and
piercing eyes, who rose from her seat like a shot and made her
way to the floor with a majestic air. He preferred this style
of woman; she was the daughter of the burgomaster. Haan


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5542
ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN
seemed quite proud of his choice; he drew himself up and ar-
ranged the frill of his shirt, whilst the tall girl, who out-topped
him by half a head, looked as if she were taking charge of him.
At the same moment Schoultz led forward a little roundabout
woman, with the brightest red hair possible, but gay and smiling,
and clinging tight to his elbow as if to prevent him making his
escape.
They took their places, in order to make the circuit of the
hall, as is the usual custom. Scarcely had they completed the
first round when Joseph called out:-
"Kobus, are you ready? "
―――
As his only answer, Fritz seized Suzel by the waist with his
left arm, and holding her hand aloof with the other, after the
gallant manner of the eighteenth century, he whirled her away
like a feather. Joseph commenced his waltz with three strokes
of his bow.