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.
of education at once thorough and comprehensive; not disdaining to
work in primary schools, not shrinking from the most advanced
scholarly inquiry.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v10 - Emp to Fro
Never to
distrust, nor accuse, nor murmur at any of the things appointed
by him; nor to shrink from doing or enduring that which is in-
evitable. Is this oath like the former? In the first oath persons
swear never to dishonor Cæsar; by the last, never to dishonor
themselves. "
CONCERNING PROVIDENCE
"ARE these the only works of Providence with regard to us?
And what speech can fitly celebrate their praise? For if we had
any understanding, ought we not, both in public and in private,
incessantly to sing and praise the Deity, and rehearse his ben-
efits? Ought we not, whether we dig or plow or eat, to sing
this hymn to God:- Great is God, who has supplied us with
these instruments to till the ground; great is God, who has given
us hands and organs of digestion; who has given us to grow
## p. 5502 (#62) ############################################
EPICTETUS
5502
insensibly, to breathe in sleep? These things we ought forever
to celebrate; and to make it the theme of the greatest and
divinest hymn, that he has given us the power to appreciate
these gifts, and to use them well. But because the most of you
are blind and insensible, there must be some one to fill this sta-
tion, and lead, in behalf of all men, the hymn to God; for what
else can I do, a lame old man, but sing hymns to God? Were
I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a
swan, the part of a swan; but since I am a reasonable creature,
it is my duty to praise God. This is my business; I do it; nor
will I ever desert this post, so long as it is permitted me: and I
call on you to join in the same song. "
CONCERNING PARENTAGE
WHY do you, Epicurus, dissuade a wise man from bringing up
children? Why are you afraid that upon their account he may
fall into anxieties? Does he fall into any for a mouse that feeds
Iwithin his house? What is it to him if a little mouse bewails
itself there? But Epicurus knew that if once a child is born, it
is no longer in our power not to love and be solicitous for it.
On the same grounds he says that a wise man will not engage
himself in public business, knowing very well what must follow.
If men are only so many flies, why should he not engage in it?
And does he, who knows all this, dare to forbid us to bring
up children? Not even a sheep or a wolf deserts its offspring;
and shall man? What would you have,- that we should be as
silly as sheep? Yet even these do not desert their offspring.
Or as savage as wolves? Neither do these desert them. Pray,
who would mind you, if he saw his child fallen upon the ground
and crying? For my part, I am of opinion that your father and
mother, even if they could have foreseen that you would have
been the author of such doctrines, would not have thrown you
away.
CONCERNING DIFFICULTIES
DIFFICULTIES are things that show what men are. For the
future, in case of any difficulty, remember that God, like a gym-
nastic trainer, has pitted you against a rough antagonist. For
what end? That you may be an Olympic conqueror; and this
cannot be without toil. No man, in my opinion, has a more
## p. 5503 (#63) ############################################
EPICTETUS
5503
profitable difficulty on his hands than you have, provided you
will but use it as an athletic champion uses his antagonist.
ppose we were to send you as a scout to Rome.
But no
one ever sends a timorous scout, who when he only hears a noise
or sees a shadow runs back frightened, and says, "The enemy is
at hand. " So now if you should come and tell us: "Things are
in a fearful way at Rome; death is terrible, banishment terrible,
calumny terrible, poverty terrible; run, good people, the enemy is
at hand;" we will answer, Get you gone, and prophesy for your-
self; our only fault is that we have sent such a scout. Diogenes
was sent as a scout before you, but he told us other tidings.
He says that death is no evil, for it is nothing base; that cal-
umny is only the noise of madmen. And what account did this
spy give us of pain, of pleasure, of poverty? He says that to
be naked is better than a purple robe; to sleep upon the bare
ground, the softest bed; and gives a proof of all he says by his
own courage, tranquillity, and freedom, and moreover by a healthy
and robust body. "There is no enemy near," he says; "all is pro-
found peace. " How so, Diogenes? "Look upon me," he says.
“Am I hurt ? Am I wounded? Have I run away from any
one? " This is a scout worth having. But you come and tell us
one tale after another. Go back and look more carefully, and
without fear.
WORDS AND DEEDS
"PRAY, see how I compose dialogues. "
Talk not of that, man, but rather be able to say: See how I
accomplish my purposes; see how I avert what I wish to shun.
Set death before me; set pain, a prison, disgrace, doom, and you
will know me. This should be the pride of a young man come
out from the schools. Leave the rest to others. Let no one ever
hear you waste a word upon them, nor suffer it, if any one com-
mends you for them; but admit that you are nobody, and that
you know nothing. Appear to know only this, never to fail nor
fall. Let others study cases, problems, and syllogisms. Do you
rather contemplate death, change, torture, exile; and all these
with courage, and reliance upon Him who hath called you to
them, and judged you worthy a post in which you may show
what reason can do when it encounters the inevitable.
―――
## p. 5504 (#64) ############################################
EPICTETUS
5504
OF TRANQUILLITY
CONSIDER, you who are about to undergo trial, what you wish
to preserve, and in what to succeed. For if you wish to preserve
a mind in harmony with nature, you are entirely safe; every-
thing goes well; you have no trouble on your hands. While you
wish to preserve that freedom which belongs to you, and are con-
tented with that, for what have you longer to be anxious? For
who is the master of things like these? Who can take them
away? If you wish to be a man of modesty and fidelity, who
shall prevent you? If you wish not to be restrained or com-
pelled, who shall compel you to desires contrary to your princi-
ples; to aversions contrary to your opinion? The judge, perhaps,
will pass a sentence against you which he thinks formidable; but
can he likewise make you receive it with shrinking? Since, then,
desire and aversion are in your own power, for what have you
to be anxious? Let this be your introduction; this your narra-
tion; this your proof; this your conclusion; this your victory; and
this your applause. Thus said Socrates to one who put him in
mind to prepare himself for his trial:-"Do you not think that I
have been preparing myself for this very thing my whole life
long? "
By what kind of preparation? "I have attended to
my own work. » What mean you? I have done nothing unjust,
either in public or in private life. "
But if you wish to retain possession of outward things too,—
your body, your estate, your dignity,—I advise you immediately
to prepare yourself by every possible preparation; and besides, to
consider the disposition of your judge and of your adversary. In
that case, if it be necessary to embrace his knees, do so; if to
weep, weep; if to groan, groan. For when you have once made
yourself a slave to externals, be a slave wholly; do not struggle,
and be alternately willing and unwilling, but be simply and thor-
oughly the one or the other, free or a slave; instructed or
ignorant; a game-cock or a craven; either bear to be beaten till
you die, or give out at once; and do not be soundly beaten first,
and then give out at last.
--
## p. 5505 (#65) ############################################
EPICTETUS
5505
FROM THE ENCHIRIDION'
THE BASIS OF PHILOSOPHY
TH
HERE are things which are within our power, and there are
things which are beyond our power. Within our power are
opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and in one word, whatever
affairs are our own. Beyond our power are body, property, rep-
utation, office, and in one word, whatever are not properly our
own affairs.
Now, the things within our power are by nature free, un-
restricted, unhindered; but those beyond our power are weak,
dependent, restricted, alien. Remember, then, that if you attrib
ute freedom to things by nature dependent, and seek for your
own that which is really controlled by others, you will be hin-
dered, you will lament, you will be disturbed, you will find fault
both with gods and men. But if you take for your own only
that which is your own, and view what belongs to others just as
it really is, then no one will ever compel you, no one will restrict
you, you will find fault with no one, you will accuse no one, you
will do nothing against your will; no one will hurt you, you will
not have an enemy, nor will you suffer any harm.
Aiming therefore at such great things, remember that you
must not allow yourself any inclination, however slight, towards
the attainment of the others; but that you must entirely quit
some of them, and for the present postpone the rest.
But if you
would have these greater things, and possess power and wealth
likewise, you may miss the latter in seeking the former; and you
will certainly fail of that by which alone happiness and freedom
are procured.
TERRORS
MEN are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they
take of things. Thus death is nothing terrible, else it would have
appeared so to Socrates. But the terror consists in our notion
of death, that it is terrible. When therefore we are hindered,
or disturbed, or grieved, let us never impute it to others, but to
ourselves; that is, to our own views. It is the action of an un-
instructed person to reproach others for his own misfortunes; of
one entering upon instruction, to reproach himself; and of one
perfectly instructed, to reproach neither others nor himself.
X-345
## p. 5506 (#66) ############################################
5506
EPICTETUS
THE VOYAGE
AS IN
a voyage, when the ship is at anchor, if you go on
shore to get water you may amuse yourself with picking up a
shell-fish or a truffle in your way, but your thoughts ought to be
bent towards the ship and perpetually attentive, lest the captain.
should call, and then you must leave all these things, that you
may not have to be carried on board the vessel bound like a
sheep; thus likewise in life, if instead of a truffle or shell-fish
such a thing as a wife or a child be granted you, there is no
objection; but if the captain calls, run to the ship, leave all
these things, and never look behind. But if you are old, never
go far from the ship, lest you should be missing when called
for.
EVENTS
DEMAND not that events should happen as you wish; but wish
them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.
SURRENDER
IF A person had delivered up your body to some passer-by,
you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in
delivering up your own mind to any reviler, to be disconcerted
and confounded?
INTEGRITY
IF YOU have assumed any character beyond your strength,
you have both demeaned yourself ill in that, and quitted one
which you might have supported.
THE TEST
NEVER proclaim yourself a philosopher, nor make much talk
among the ignorant about your principles; but show them by
actions. Thus, at an entertainment, do not discourse how people
ought to eat; but eat as you ought. For remember that thus
Socrates also universally avoided all ostentation.
And when per-
sons came to him, and desired to be introduced by him to phi-
losophers, he took them and introduced them; so well did he
bear being overlooked. So if ever there should be among the
ignorant any discussion of principles, be for the most part silent.
## p. 5507 (#67) ############################################
EPICTETUS
5507
For there is great danger in hastily throwing out what is un-
digested. And if any one tells you that you know nothing, and
you are not nettled at it, then you may be sure that you have
really entered on your work. For sheep do not hastily throw up
the grass, to show the shepherds how much they have eaten;
but inwardly digesting their food, they produce it outwardly in
wool and milk.
THE TWO HANDLES
EVERYTHING has two handles: one by which it may be borne,
another by which it cannot. If your brother acts unjustly, do
not lay hold on the affair by the handle of his injustice, for by
that it cannot be borne; but rather by the opposite, that he is
your brother, that he was brought up with you; and thus you
will lay hold on it as it is to be borne.
FROM THE FRAGMENTS'
SWEET AND BITTER
I
T IS scandalous that he who sweetens his drink by the gift of
the bees, should by vice embitter reason, the gift of the gods.
LOVE OF MAN
NO ONE who is a lover of money, a lover of pleasure, or a
lover of glory, is likewise a lover of mankind; but only he who
is a lover of virtue.
MONUMENTS
IF YOU have a mind to adorn your city by consecrated monu-
ments, first consecrate in yourself the most beautiful monument,
- of gentleness and justice and benevolence.
CIVIC HONOR
You will confer the greatest benefits on your city, not by
raising its roofs, but by exalting its souls. For it is better that
great souls should live in small habitations, than that abject
slaves should burrow in great houses.
HEALING
It is more necessary for the soul to be healed than the body;
for it is better to die than to live ill.
## p. 5508 (#68) ############################################
5508
EPICTETUS
FOR HUMANITY
A PERSON Once brought clothes to a pirate who had been cast
ashore and almost killed by the severity of the weather; then
carried him to his house, and furnished him with all necessaries.
Being reproached by some one for doing good to the evil, “I
have paid this regard," answered he, "not to the man, but to
humanity. "
ASPIRATION
THINK of God oftener than you breathe.
DIVINE PRESENCE
IF YOU always remember that God stands by as a witness of
whatever you do, either in soul or body, you will never err, either
in your prayers or actions, and you will have God abiding with
you.
Translated by T. W. Higginson: reprinted by his kind permission, and that
of Little, Brown & Co. , publishers, Boston, Massachusetts
## p. 5508 (#69) ############################################
## p. 5508 (#70) ############################################
මෙවැනි
ERASMUS
## p. 5508 (#71) ############################################
5509
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two men
ben at Rotten on,
be had proved the dete to 5,
that it was 1465; bia,
not even Erasmus hi
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1.
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4. spate in. Greek and cared lamselt de ocht? :.
115
The
years of Erasmus vere full of ha uship.
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ཧཱུྃ་ རྩ་ཁ
5 and 4, and note.
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at tus period, see especially Crei ton, History of the Pancy
the Remation?
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Role,
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## p. 5508 (#72) ############################################
ERASMUS
## p. 5508 (#73) ############################################
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## p. 5508 (#74) ############################################
3
PASMUS
P
## 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.
distrust, nor accuse, nor murmur at any of the things appointed
by him; nor to shrink from doing or enduring that which is in-
evitable. Is this oath like the former? In the first oath persons
swear never to dishonor Cæsar; by the last, never to dishonor
themselves. "
CONCERNING PROVIDENCE
"ARE these the only works of Providence with regard to us?
And what speech can fitly celebrate their praise? For if we had
any understanding, ought we not, both in public and in private,
incessantly to sing and praise the Deity, and rehearse his ben-
efits? Ought we not, whether we dig or plow or eat, to sing
this hymn to God:- Great is God, who has supplied us with
these instruments to till the ground; great is God, who has given
us hands and organs of digestion; who has given us to grow
## p. 5502 (#62) ############################################
EPICTETUS
5502
insensibly, to breathe in sleep? These things we ought forever
to celebrate; and to make it the theme of the greatest and
divinest hymn, that he has given us the power to appreciate
these gifts, and to use them well. But because the most of you
are blind and insensible, there must be some one to fill this sta-
tion, and lead, in behalf of all men, the hymn to God; for what
else can I do, a lame old man, but sing hymns to God? Were
I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a
swan, the part of a swan; but since I am a reasonable creature,
it is my duty to praise God. This is my business; I do it; nor
will I ever desert this post, so long as it is permitted me: and I
call on you to join in the same song. "
CONCERNING PARENTAGE
WHY do you, Epicurus, dissuade a wise man from bringing up
children? Why are you afraid that upon their account he may
fall into anxieties? Does he fall into any for a mouse that feeds
Iwithin his house? What is it to him if a little mouse bewails
itself there? But Epicurus knew that if once a child is born, it
is no longer in our power not to love and be solicitous for it.
On the same grounds he says that a wise man will not engage
himself in public business, knowing very well what must follow.
If men are only so many flies, why should he not engage in it?
And does he, who knows all this, dare to forbid us to bring
up children? Not even a sheep or a wolf deserts its offspring;
and shall man? What would you have,- that we should be as
silly as sheep? Yet even these do not desert their offspring.
Or as savage as wolves? Neither do these desert them. Pray,
who would mind you, if he saw his child fallen upon the ground
and crying? For my part, I am of opinion that your father and
mother, even if they could have foreseen that you would have
been the author of such doctrines, would not have thrown you
away.
CONCERNING DIFFICULTIES
DIFFICULTIES are things that show what men are. For the
future, in case of any difficulty, remember that God, like a gym-
nastic trainer, has pitted you against a rough antagonist. For
what end? That you may be an Olympic conqueror; and this
cannot be without toil. No man, in my opinion, has a more
## p. 5503 (#63) ############################################
EPICTETUS
5503
profitable difficulty on his hands than you have, provided you
will but use it as an athletic champion uses his antagonist.
ppose we were to send you as a scout to Rome.
But no
one ever sends a timorous scout, who when he only hears a noise
or sees a shadow runs back frightened, and says, "The enemy is
at hand. " So now if you should come and tell us: "Things are
in a fearful way at Rome; death is terrible, banishment terrible,
calumny terrible, poverty terrible; run, good people, the enemy is
at hand;" we will answer, Get you gone, and prophesy for your-
self; our only fault is that we have sent such a scout. Diogenes
was sent as a scout before you, but he told us other tidings.
He says that death is no evil, for it is nothing base; that cal-
umny is only the noise of madmen. And what account did this
spy give us of pain, of pleasure, of poverty? He says that to
be naked is better than a purple robe; to sleep upon the bare
ground, the softest bed; and gives a proof of all he says by his
own courage, tranquillity, and freedom, and moreover by a healthy
and robust body. "There is no enemy near," he says; "all is pro-
found peace. " How so, Diogenes? "Look upon me," he says.
“Am I hurt ? Am I wounded? Have I run away from any
one? " This is a scout worth having. But you come and tell us
one tale after another. Go back and look more carefully, and
without fear.
WORDS AND DEEDS
"PRAY, see how I compose dialogues. "
Talk not of that, man, but rather be able to say: See how I
accomplish my purposes; see how I avert what I wish to shun.
Set death before me; set pain, a prison, disgrace, doom, and you
will know me. This should be the pride of a young man come
out from the schools. Leave the rest to others. Let no one ever
hear you waste a word upon them, nor suffer it, if any one com-
mends you for them; but admit that you are nobody, and that
you know nothing. Appear to know only this, never to fail nor
fall. Let others study cases, problems, and syllogisms. Do you
rather contemplate death, change, torture, exile; and all these
with courage, and reliance upon Him who hath called you to
them, and judged you worthy a post in which you may show
what reason can do when it encounters the inevitable.
―――
## p. 5504 (#64) ############################################
EPICTETUS
5504
OF TRANQUILLITY
CONSIDER, you who are about to undergo trial, what you wish
to preserve, and in what to succeed. For if you wish to preserve
a mind in harmony with nature, you are entirely safe; every-
thing goes well; you have no trouble on your hands. While you
wish to preserve that freedom which belongs to you, and are con-
tented with that, for what have you longer to be anxious? For
who is the master of things like these? Who can take them
away? If you wish to be a man of modesty and fidelity, who
shall prevent you? If you wish not to be restrained or com-
pelled, who shall compel you to desires contrary to your princi-
ples; to aversions contrary to your opinion? The judge, perhaps,
will pass a sentence against you which he thinks formidable; but
can he likewise make you receive it with shrinking? Since, then,
desire and aversion are in your own power, for what have you
to be anxious? Let this be your introduction; this your narra-
tion; this your proof; this your conclusion; this your victory; and
this your applause. Thus said Socrates to one who put him in
mind to prepare himself for his trial:-"Do you not think that I
have been preparing myself for this very thing my whole life
long? "
By what kind of preparation? "I have attended to
my own work. » What mean you? I have done nothing unjust,
either in public or in private life. "
But if you wish to retain possession of outward things too,—
your body, your estate, your dignity,—I advise you immediately
to prepare yourself by every possible preparation; and besides, to
consider the disposition of your judge and of your adversary. In
that case, if it be necessary to embrace his knees, do so; if to
weep, weep; if to groan, groan. For when you have once made
yourself a slave to externals, be a slave wholly; do not struggle,
and be alternately willing and unwilling, but be simply and thor-
oughly the one or the other, free or a slave; instructed or
ignorant; a game-cock or a craven; either bear to be beaten till
you die, or give out at once; and do not be soundly beaten first,
and then give out at last.
--
## p. 5505 (#65) ############################################
EPICTETUS
5505
FROM THE ENCHIRIDION'
THE BASIS OF PHILOSOPHY
TH
HERE are things which are within our power, and there are
things which are beyond our power. Within our power are
opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and in one word, whatever
affairs are our own. Beyond our power are body, property, rep-
utation, office, and in one word, whatever are not properly our
own affairs.
Now, the things within our power are by nature free, un-
restricted, unhindered; but those beyond our power are weak,
dependent, restricted, alien. Remember, then, that if you attrib
ute freedom to things by nature dependent, and seek for your
own that which is really controlled by others, you will be hin-
dered, you will lament, you will be disturbed, you will find fault
both with gods and men. But if you take for your own only
that which is your own, and view what belongs to others just as
it really is, then no one will ever compel you, no one will restrict
you, you will find fault with no one, you will accuse no one, you
will do nothing against your will; no one will hurt you, you will
not have an enemy, nor will you suffer any harm.
Aiming therefore at such great things, remember that you
must not allow yourself any inclination, however slight, towards
the attainment of the others; but that you must entirely quit
some of them, and for the present postpone the rest.
But if you
would have these greater things, and possess power and wealth
likewise, you may miss the latter in seeking the former; and you
will certainly fail of that by which alone happiness and freedom
are procured.
TERRORS
MEN are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they
take of things. Thus death is nothing terrible, else it would have
appeared so to Socrates. But the terror consists in our notion
of death, that it is terrible. When therefore we are hindered,
or disturbed, or grieved, let us never impute it to others, but to
ourselves; that is, to our own views. It is the action of an un-
instructed person to reproach others for his own misfortunes; of
one entering upon instruction, to reproach himself; and of one
perfectly instructed, to reproach neither others nor himself.
X-345
## p. 5506 (#66) ############################################
5506
EPICTETUS
THE VOYAGE
AS IN
a voyage, when the ship is at anchor, if you go on
shore to get water you may amuse yourself with picking up a
shell-fish or a truffle in your way, but your thoughts ought to be
bent towards the ship and perpetually attentive, lest the captain.
should call, and then you must leave all these things, that you
may not have to be carried on board the vessel bound like a
sheep; thus likewise in life, if instead of a truffle or shell-fish
such a thing as a wife or a child be granted you, there is no
objection; but if the captain calls, run to the ship, leave all
these things, and never look behind. But if you are old, never
go far from the ship, lest you should be missing when called
for.
EVENTS
DEMAND not that events should happen as you wish; but wish
them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.
SURRENDER
IF A person had delivered up your body to some passer-by,
you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in
delivering up your own mind to any reviler, to be disconcerted
and confounded?
INTEGRITY
IF YOU have assumed any character beyond your strength,
you have both demeaned yourself ill in that, and quitted one
which you might have supported.
THE TEST
NEVER proclaim yourself a philosopher, nor make much talk
among the ignorant about your principles; but show them by
actions. Thus, at an entertainment, do not discourse how people
ought to eat; but eat as you ought. For remember that thus
Socrates also universally avoided all ostentation.
And when per-
sons came to him, and desired to be introduced by him to phi-
losophers, he took them and introduced them; so well did he
bear being overlooked. So if ever there should be among the
ignorant any discussion of principles, be for the most part silent.
## p. 5507 (#67) ############################################
EPICTETUS
5507
For there is great danger in hastily throwing out what is un-
digested. And if any one tells you that you know nothing, and
you are not nettled at it, then you may be sure that you have
really entered on your work. For sheep do not hastily throw up
the grass, to show the shepherds how much they have eaten;
but inwardly digesting their food, they produce it outwardly in
wool and milk.
THE TWO HANDLES
EVERYTHING has two handles: one by which it may be borne,
another by which it cannot. If your brother acts unjustly, do
not lay hold on the affair by the handle of his injustice, for by
that it cannot be borne; but rather by the opposite, that he is
your brother, that he was brought up with you; and thus you
will lay hold on it as it is to be borne.
FROM THE FRAGMENTS'
SWEET AND BITTER
I
T IS scandalous that he who sweetens his drink by the gift of
the bees, should by vice embitter reason, the gift of the gods.
LOVE OF MAN
NO ONE who is a lover of money, a lover of pleasure, or a
lover of glory, is likewise a lover of mankind; but only he who
is a lover of virtue.
MONUMENTS
IF YOU have a mind to adorn your city by consecrated monu-
ments, first consecrate in yourself the most beautiful monument,
- of gentleness and justice and benevolence.
CIVIC HONOR
You will confer the greatest benefits on your city, not by
raising its roofs, but by exalting its souls. For it is better that
great souls should live in small habitations, than that abject
slaves should burrow in great houses.
HEALING
It is more necessary for the soul to be healed than the body;
for it is better to die than to live ill.
## p. 5508 (#68) ############################################
5508
EPICTETUS
FOR HUMANITY
A PERSON Once brought clothes to a pirate who had been cast
ashore and almost killed by the severity of the weather; then
carried him to his house, and furnished him with all necessaries.
Being reproached by some one for doing good to the evil, “I
have paid this regard," answered he, "not to the man, but to
humanity. "
ASPIRATION
THINK of God oftener than you breathe.
DIVINE PRESENCE
IF YOU always remember that God stands by as a witness of
whatever you do, either in soul or body, you will never err, either
in your prayers or actions, and you will have God abiding with
you.
Translated by T. W. Higginson: reprinted by his kind permission, and that
of Little, Brown & Co. , publishers, Boston, Massachusetts
## p. 5508 (#69) ############################################
## p. 5508 (#70) ############################################
මෙවැනි
ERASMUS
## p. 5508 (#71) ############################################
5509
A
+
1
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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.
