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diff --git a/43735-0.txt b/43735-0.txt index 2613a59..e902074 100644 --- a/43735-0.txt +++ b/43735-0.txt @@ -1,38 +1,4 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Oxford Reformers, by Frederic Seebohm - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Oxford Reformers - John Colet, Erasmus, and Thomas More - -Author: Frederic Seebohm - -Release Date: September 15, 2013 [EBook #43735] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OXFORD REFORMERS *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43735 *** JOHN COLET, ERASMUS, AND THOMAS MORE. @@ -19395,360 +19361,4 @@ Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Oxford Reformers - John Colet, Erasmus, and Thomas More - -Author: Frederic Seebohm - -Release Date: September 15, 2013 [EBook #43735] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OXFORD REFORMERS *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - - - - -JOHN COLET, ERASMUS, AND THOMAS MORE. - - - - -_By the same Author._ - -THE ENGLISH VILLAGE COMMUNITY Examined in its Relations to the Manorial -and Tribal Systems, &c. With 13 Maps and Plates. 8vo. 16_s._ - -THE TRIBAL SYSTEM IN WALES: Being Part of an Inquiry into the Structure -and Methods of Tribal Society. With 3 Maps. 8vo. 12_s._ - -THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION (_Epochs of Modern History_). With 4 -Maps and 12 Diagrams. Fcp. 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ - - LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. - London, New York, and Bombay. - - - - - THE OXFORD REFORMERS - - JOHN COLET, ERASMUS, AND THOMAS MORE. - - _BEING A HISTORY OF THEIR FELLOW-WORK._ - - - BY FREDERIC SEEBOHM. - - 'Tu interea patienter audi; ac nos ambo, collidentibus inter - se silicibus, si quis ignis excutiatur, eum avide - apprehendamus. _Veritatem_ enim quærimus, non opinionis - offensionem....' (_Colet_, Eras. Op. v. p. 1292). - - 'Take no heed what thing many men do, but what thing the - _very law of nature_, what thing _very reason_, what thing - _Our Lord himself_ showeth thee to be done' (_Pico della - Mirandola_, translated by More: More's English Works, p. 13). - - 'Cur sic arctamus Christi professionem quam Ille latissime - volnit patere?' (_Erasmus_, Letter to Volzius, prefixed to - the 'Enchiridion'). - - - REPRINTED FROM THE THIRD EDITION. - - - LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. - LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY. - 1896. - - All rights reserved. - - - - -PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. - - -Since this book was written, years ago, the works of Dean Colet have one -after another been placed within reach of the public, ably edited by my -friend Mr. Lupton, and now I understand that a biography by the same -competent hand is also in the press. - -Under these circumstances I have had some hesitation in allowing a Third -Edition to be printed. I have yielded, however, to Mr. Lupton's pleading -that this history of the fellow-work of the three friends, imperfect as it -always was, and antiquated as it has now become, may live a little longer. - -F. S. - -THE HERMITAGE, HITCHIN: _March 8, 1887_. - - - - -PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. - - -Two circumstances have enabled me to make this Second Edition more -complete, and I trust more correct, than its predecessor. - -First: the remarkable discovery by Mr. W. Aldis Wright, on the blank -leaves of a MS. in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, of an -apparently contemporary family register recording, _inter alia_, the date -of the marriage of Sir Thomas More's parents, and of the birth of Sir -Thomas More himself (see Appendix C), has given the clue, so long sought -for in vain, to the chronology of More's early life. It has also made it -needful to alter slightly the title of this work. - -Secondly: the interesting MSS. of Colet's, on the 'Hierarchies of -Dionysius,' found by Mr. Lupton in the library of St. Paul's School, and -recently published by him with a translation and valuable -introduction,[1] have supplied a missing link in the chain of Colet's -mental history, which has thrown much fresh light, as well upon his -connection with the Neo-Platonists of Florence, as upon the position -already taken by him at Oxford, before the arrival of Erasmus. - -The greater part of the First Edition was already in the hands of the -public, when I became aware of the importance of this newly discovered -information; but, in October last, I withdrew the remaining copies from -sale, as it seemed to me that it would hardly be fair, under the -circumstances, to allow them to pass out of my hands. They have since been -destroyed. - -In publishing this revised and enlarged edition, I wish especially to -tender my thanks to Mr. Lupton for his invaluable assistance in its -revision, and for the free use he has throughout allowed me to make of the -results of his own researches. - -I have also to thank the Librarian of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, for the -loan of a beautiful copy of Colet's MS. on 'I. Corinthians;' and Mr. -Bradshaw, for kindly obtaining for me a transcript of the MS. on 'Romans' -in the University Library. - -At Mr. Bradshaw's suggestion I have added, in the Appendix, a catalogue of -the early editions of the works of Erasmus in my collection. It will at -least serve as evidence of the wide circulation obtained by these works -during the lifetime of their author. - -HITCHIN: _May 10, 1869_. - - - - -PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. - - -Some portions of this History were published in a somewhat condensed form -in the course of last year in the 'Fortnightly Review,' and I have to -thank the Editor for the permission to withdraw further portions, although -already in type, in order that the publication of this volume might not be -delayed.[2] - -Having regard to the extreme inaccuracy of the dates of the letters of -Erasmus,[3] the conflicting nature of the evidence relating to the -chronology of More's early life,[4] and the scantiness of the materials -for anything like a continuous biography of Colet, I should have -undertaken a difficult task had I attempted in this volume, even so far as -it goes, to give anything approaching to an exhaustive biography of Colet, -Erasmus, and More. But my object has not been to write the biography of -any one of them. I have rather endeavoured to trace their _joint_-history -and to point out the character of their _fellow-work_. And with regard to -the latter the evidence is so full, so various, and so consistent as to -leave, I think, little room for misapprehension, either as to whether -their work was indeed _fellow-work_, or as to the general spirit and scope -of the work itself. - -I gladly take this opportunity of tendering my best thanks to those who -have aided me in this undertaking. - -My warmest thanks are due to the Rev. J. S. Brewer, M.A., as well for the -invaluable aid afforded by his Calendars of the Letters, &c. of Henry -VIII., and for the loan of the proof-sheets of the forthcoming volume, as -for _the revision of the greater part of my translations_; also to Mr. -Gairdner for his ever ready assistance at the Public Record Office; to Dr. -Edward Boehmer, of the University of Halle, for his aid in the collection -of many of the early editions of works of Erasmus quoted in this volume; -to the Senate and the late Librarian of the Cambridge University Library -for the loan of the volume of MSS. marked Gg. 4, 26; and to Mr. Henry -Bradshaw, of King's College, Cambridge, for much valuable assistance, most -courteously rendered, in the examination of this and other manuscripts at -Cambridge. I have also to thank the Rev. J. H. Lupton, of St. Paul's -School, for the description given in Appendix C.[5] of a manuscript of -Colet's in the Library of St. Paul's School which I had overlooked, and -which I am happy to find is likely soon to be printed by him. - -In conclusion, I cannot refrain from adding a tribute of affectionate -regard for the memory of two of my friends--the late Mr. William Tanner of -Bristol, and the late Mr. B. B. Wiffen of Woburn--of whose interest in the -progress of this work I have received many proofs, and of whose kindly -criticism I have gratefully availed myself. - -HITCHIN: _March 30, 1867_. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - CHAPTER I. - - 1. John Colet returns from Italy to Oxford (1496) 1 - - 2. The Rise of the New Learning (1453-92) 5 - - 3. Colet's previous History (1496) 14 - - 4. Thomas More, another Oxford Student (1492-6) 23 - - 5. Colet first hears of Erasmus (1496) 27 - - - CHAPTER II. - - 1. Colet's lectures on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (1496-7?) 29 - - 2. Visit from a Priest during the Winter Vacation (1496-7?) 42 - - 3. Colet on the Mosaic Account of the Creation (1497?) 46 - - 4. Colet studies afresh the Pseudo-Dionysian Writings (1497?) 60 - - 5. Colet lectures on 'I. Corinthians' (1497?) 78 - - 6. Grocyn's Discovery (1498?) 90 - - - CHAPTER III. - - 1. Erasmus comes to Oxford (1498) 94 - - 2. Table-talk on the Sacrifice of Cain and Abel (1498?) 97 - - 3. Conversation between Colet and Erasmus on the Schoolmen - (1498 or 1499) 102 - - 4. Erasmus falls in love with Thomas More (1498) 113 - - 5. Discussion between Erasmus and Colet on 'The Agony in the - Garden,' and on the Inspiration of the Scriptures (1499) 116 - - 6. Correspondence between Colet and Erasmus on the - Intention of Erasmus to leave Oxford (1499-1500) 126 - - 7. Erasmus leaves Oxford and England (1500) 133 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - 1. Colet made Doctor and Dean of St. Paul's (1500-5) 137 - - 2. More called to the Bar--In Parliament--Offends Henry - VII.--The Consequences (1500-1504) 142 - - 3. Thomas More in Seclusion from Public Life (1504-5) 146 - - 4. More studies Pico's Life and Works--His Marriage (1505) 151 - - 5. How it had fared with Erasmus (1500-5) 160 - - 6. The 'Enchiridion,' &c. of Erasmus (1501-5) 173 - - - CHAPTER V. - - 1. Second Visit of Erasmus to England (1505-6) 180 - - 2. Erasmus again leaves England for Italy (1506) 183 - - 3. Erasmus visits Italy and returns to England (1507-10) 186 - - 4. More returns to Public Life on the Accession of Henry VIII. - (1509-10) 189 - - 5. Erasmus writes the 'Praise of Folly' while resting at More's - House (1510 or 1511) 193 - - - CHAPTER VI. - - 1. Colet founds St. Paul's School (1510) 206 - - 2. His Choice of Schoolbooks and Schoolmasters (1511) 215 - - - CHAPTER VII. - - 1. Convocation for the Extirpation of Heresy (1512) 222 - - 2. Colet is charged with Heresy (1512) 249 - - 3. More in trouble again (1512) 255 - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - 1. Colet preaches against the Continental Wars--The First - Campaign (1512-13) 258 - - 2. Colet's Sermon to Henry VIII. (1513) 262 - - 3. The Second Campaign of Henry VIII. (1513) 267 - - 4. Erasmus visits the Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham (1513) 273 - - - CHAPTER IX. - - 1. Erasmus leaves Cambridge, and meditates leaving England - (1513-14) 276 - - 2. Erasmus and the Papal Ambassador (1514) 282 - - 3. Parting Intercourse between Erasmus and Colet (1514) 284 - - - CHAPTER X. - - 1. Erasmus goes to Basle to print his New Testament (1514) 294 - - 2. Erasmus returns to England--His Satire upon Kings (1515) 306 - - 3. Returns to Basle to finish his Works--Fears of the Orthodox - Party (1515) 312 - - - CHAPTER XI. - - 1. The 'Novum Instrumentum' completed--What it really was - (1516) 320 - - - CHAPTER XII. - - 1. More immersed in Public Business (1515) 337 - - 2. Colet's Sermon on the Installation of Cardinal Wolsey - (1515) 343 - - 3. More's 'Utopia' (1515) 346 - - 4. The 'Institutio Principis Christiani' of Erasmus (1516) 365 - - 5. More completes his 'Utopia'--the Introductory Book (1516) 378 - - - CHAPTER XIII. - - 1. What Colet thought of the 'Novum Instrumentum' (1516) 391 - - 2. Reception of the 'Novum Instrumentum' in other Quarters - (1516) 398 - - 3. Martin Luther reads the 'Novum Instrumentum' (1516) 402 - - 4. The 'Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum' (1516-17) 407 - - 5. The 'Pythagorica' and 'Cabalistica' of Reuchlin (1517) 411 - - 6. More pays a Visit to Coventry (1517?) 414 - - - CHAPTER XIV. - - 1. The Sale of Indulgences (1517-18) 419 - - 2. More drawn into the Service of Henry VIII.--Erasmus leaves - Germany for Basle (1518) 427 - - - CHAPTER XV. - - 1. Erasmus arrives at Basle--His Labours there (1518) 434 - - 2. The Second Edition of the New Testament (1518-19) 442 - - 3. Erasmus's Health gives way (1518) 455 - - - CHAPTER XVI. - - 1. Erasmus does not die (1518) 457 - - 2. More at the Court of Henry VIII. (1518) 458 - - 3. The Evening of Colet's Life (1518-19) 461 - - 4. More's Conversion attempted by the Monks (1519) 470 - - 5. Erasmus and the Reformers of Wittemberg (1519) 476 - - 6. Election of Charles V. to the Empire (1519) 482 - - 7. The Hussites of Bohemia (1519) 484 - - 8. More's Domestic Life (1519) 497 - - 9. Death of Colet (1519) 503 - - 10. Conclusion 505 - - - APPENDICES. - - A. Extracts from MS. Gg. 4, 26, in the Cambridge University - Library, Translations of which are given at pp. 37, 38 of - this Work 511 - - B. Extracts from MS. on 'I. Corinthians.'--Emmanuel College - MS. 3. 3. 12 513 - - C. On the Date of More's Birth 521 - - D. Ecclesiastical Titles and Preferments of Dean Colet, in - Order of Time 529 - - E. Catalogue of early Editions of the Works of Erasmus in my - possession 530 - - F. Editions of Works of Sir Thomas More in my Possession 542 - - - INDEX 545 - - - - -THE OXFORD REFORMERS: COLET, ERASMUS, AND MORE. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - - -I. JOHN COLET RETURNS FROM ITALY TO OXFORD (1496). - -[Sidenote: John Colet announces lectures on St. Paul's Epistles.] - -It was probably in Michaelmas Term of 1496[6] that the announcement was -made to doctors and students of the University of Oxford that John Colet, -a late student, recently returned from Italy, was about to deliver a -course of public and gratuitous lectures in exposition of St. Paul's -Epistles. - -[Sidenote: Only graduates in Theology might lecture on the Bible.] - -This was an event of no small significance and perhaps of novelty in the -closing years of that last of the Middle Ages; not only because the -Scriptures for some generations had been practically ignored at the -Universities, but still more so because the would-be lecturer had not as -yet entered deacon's orders,[7] nor had obtained, or even tried to obtain, -any theological degree.[8] It is true that he had passed through the -regular academical course at Oxford, and was entitled, as a Master of -Arts, to lecture upon any other subject.[9] But a degree in Arts did not, -it would seem, entitle the graduate to lecture upon the Bible.[10] - -It does not perhaps follow from this, that Colet was guilty of any -flagrant breach of university statutes, which, as a graduate in Arts, he -must have sworn to obey. The very extent to which real study of the -Scriptures had become obsolete at Oxford, may possibly suggest that even -the statutory restrictions on Scripture lectures may have become obsolete -also.[11] - -Before the days of Wiclif, the Bible had been free, and Bishop -Grosseteste could urge Oxford students to devote their _best morning -hours_ to Scripture lectures.[12] But an unsuccessful revolution ends in -tightening the chains which it ought to have broken. During the fifteenth -century the Bible was _not_ free. And Scripture lectures, though still -retaining a nominal place in the academical course of theological study, -were thrown into the background by the much greater relative importance of -the lectures on 'the Sentences.' What Biblical lectures were given were -probably of a very formal character.[13] - -[Sidenote: Commencement of a new movement at Oxford.] - -The announcement by Colet of this course of lectures on St. Paul's -Epistles was in truth, so far as can be traced, the first overt act in a -movement commenced at Oxford in the direction of practical Christian -reform--a movement, some of the results of which, had they been gifted -with prescience, might well have filled the minds of the Oxford doctors -with dismay. - -They could not indeed foresee that those very books of 'the Sentences,' -over which they had pored so intently for so many years, in order to -obtain the degree of Master in Theology, and at which students were still -patiently toiling with the same object in view--they could not foresee -that, within forty years, these very books would 'be utterly banished from -Oxford,' ignominiously 'nailed up upon posts' as waste paper, their loose -leaves strewn about the quadrangles until some sportsman should gather -them up and thread them on a line to keep the deer within the neighbouring -woods.[14] They could not, indeed, foresee the end of the movement then -only beginning, but still, the announcement of Colet's lectures was likely -to cause them some uneasiness. They may well have asked, whether, if the -exposition of the Scriptures were to be really revived at Oxford, so -dangerous a duty should not be restricted to those duly authorised to -discharge it? Was every stripling who might travel as far as Italy and -return infected with the 'new learning' to be allowed to set up himself as -a theological teacher, without graduating in divinity, and without waiting -for decency's sake for the bishop's ordination? - -On the other hand, any Oxford graduate choosing to adopt so irregular a -course, must have been perfectly aware that it would be one likely to stir -up opposition, and even ill-will,[15] amongst the older divines; and it -maybe presumed that he hardly would have ventured upon such a step without -knowing that there were at the university others ready to support him. - - -II. THE RISE OF THE NEW LEARNING (1453-92). - -[Sidenote: The old and new school of thought.] - -In all ages, more or less, there is a new school of thought rising up -under the eyes of an older school of thought. And probably in all ages the -men of the old school regard with some little anxiety the ways of the men -of the new school. Never is it more likely to be so than at an epoch of -sharp transition, like that on which the lot of these Oxford doctors had -been cast. - -[Sidenote: An age of progress and transition.] - -[Sidenote: Advance of Infidel arms in Europe.] - -We sometimes speak as though our age were _par excellence_ the age of -progress. _Theirs_ was much more so if we duly consider it. The youth and -manhood of some of them had been spent in days which may well have seemed -to be the latter days of Christendom. They had seen Constantinople taken -by the Turks. The final conquest of Christendom by the infidel was a -possibility which had haunted all their visions of the future. Were not -Christian nations driven up into the north-western extremity of the known -world, a wide pathless ocean lying beyond? Had not the warlike creed of -Mahomet steadily encroached upon Christendom, century by century, -stripping her first of her African churches, from thence fighting its way -northward into Spain? Had it not maintained its foothold in Spain's -fairest provinces for seven hundred years? And from the East was it not -steadily creeping over Europe, nearer and nearer to Venice and Rome, in -spite of all that crusades could do to stop its progress? If, though -little more than half the age of Christianity, it had already, as they -reckoned it had, drawn into its communion five times[16] as many votaries -as there were Christians left, was it a groundless fear that now in these -latter days it might devour the remaining sixth? What could hinder it? - -[Sidenote: Internal weakness of the Church.] - -A Spartan resistance on the part of united Christendom perhaps might. But -Christendom was not united, nor capable of Spartan discipline. Her -internal condition seemed to show signs almost of approaching dissolution. -The shadow of the great Papal schism still brooded over the destinies of -the Church. That schism had been ended only by a revolution which, under -the guidance of Gerson, had left the Pope the constitutional instead of -the absolute monarch of the Church. The great heresies of the preceding -century had, moreover, not yet been extinguished. The very names of Wiclif -and Huss were still names of terror. Lollardy had been crushed, but it was -not dead. Everywhere the embers of schism and revolution were still -smouldering underneath, ready to break out again, in new fury, who could -tell how soon? - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Defeat of the Moors in Spain, and discovery of America.] - -It was in the ears of this apparently doomed generation that the double -tidings came of the discovery of the Terra Nova in the West, and of the -expulsion of the infidel out of Spain. - -The ice of centuries suddenly was broken. The universal despondency at -once gave way before a spirit of enterprise and hope; and it has been well -observed, men began to congratulate each other that their lot had been -cast upon an age in which such wonders were achieved. - -Even the men of the old school could appreciate these facts in a fashion. -The defeat of the Moors was to them a victory to the Church. The discovery -of the New World extended her dominion. They gloried over both. - -But these outward facts were but the index to an internal upheaving of the -mind of Christendom, to which they were blind. The men who were guiding -the great external revolution--reformers in their way--were blindly -stamping out the first symptoms of this silent upheaving. Gerson, while -carrying reform over the heads of Popes, and deposing them to end the -schism or to preserve the unity of the Church, was at the same moment -using all his influence to crush Huss and Jerome of Prague. Queen Isabella -and Ximenes, Henry VII. and Morton, while sufficiently enlightened to -pursue maritime discovery, to reform after a fashion the monasteries under -their rule, and ready even to combine to reform the morals of the Pope -himself in order to avert the dreaded recurrence of a schism,[17] were not -eager to pursue these purposes without the sanction of Papal bulls, and -without showing their zeal for the Papacy by crushing out free thought -with an iron heel and zealously persecuting heretics, whether their faith -were that of the Moor, the Lollard, or the Jew. - -[Sidenote: The revival of learning.] - -The fall of Constantinople, which had sounded almost like the death-knell -of Christendom, had proved itself in truth the chief cause of her revival. -The advance of the Saracens upon Europe had already told upon the European -mind. The West has always had much to learn from the East. It was, for -instance, by translation from Arabic versions that Aristotle had gained -such influence over those very same scholastic minds to which his native -Greek was an abomination. - -This further triumph of infidel arms also influenced Christian thought. -Eastern languages and Eastern philosophies began to be studied afresh in -the West. Exiles who had fled into Italy had brought with them their -Eastern lore. The invention of printing had come just in time to aid the -revival of learning. The printing press was pouring out in clear and -beautiful type new editions of the Greek and Latin classics. Art and -science with literature sprang up once more into life in Italy; and to -Italy, and especially to Florence, which, under the patronage of the -splendid court of Lorenzo de' Medici, seemed to form the most attractive -centre, students from all nations eagerly thronged. - -[Sidenote: Its effect on religion. Revival of Neo-Platonism.] - -It was of necessity that the sudden reproduction of the Greek philosophy -and the works of the older Neo-Platonists in Italy should sooner or later -produce a new crisis in religion. A thousand years before, Christianity -and Neo-Platonism had been brought into the closest contact. Christianity -was then in its youth--comparatively pure--and in the struggle for mastery -had easily prevailed. Not that Neo-Platonism was indeed a mere phantom -which vanished and left no trace behind it. By no means. Through the -pseudo-Dionysian writings it not only influenced profoundly the theology -of mediæval mystics, but also entered largely even into the Scholastic -system. It was thus absorbed into Christian theology though lost as a -philosophy. - -[Sidenote: The Platonic Academy, Ficino.] - -Now, after the lapse of a thousand years, the same battle had to be fought -again. But with this terrible difference; that now Christianity, in the -impurest form it had ever assumed--a grotesque perversion of -Christianity--had to cope with the purest and noblest of the Greek -philosophies. It was, therefore, almost a matter of course that, under the -patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Platonic Academy under Marsilio -Ficino should carry everything before it. Whether the story were literally -true of Ficino himself or not, that he kept a lamp burning in his chamber -before a bust of Plato, as well as before that of the Virgin, it was at -least symbolically true of the most accomplished minds of Florence. - -[Sidenote: Plato and Christianity.] - -Questions which had slept since the days of Julian and his successors were -discussed again under Sixtus IV. and Innocent VIII. The leading minds of -Italy were once more seeking for a reconciliation between Plato and -Christianity in the works of the pseudo-Dionysius, Macrobius, Plotinus, -Proclus, and other Neo-Platonists. There was the same anxious endeavour, -as a thousand years earlier, to fuse all philosophies into one. Plato and -Aristotle must be reconciled, as well as Christianity and Plato. The old -world was becoming once more the possession of the new. It was felt to be -the recovery of a lost inheritance, and everything of antiquity, whether -Greek, Roman, Jewish, Persian, or Arabian, was regarded as a treasure. It -was the fault of the Christian Church if the grotesque form of -Christianity held up by her to a reawakening world seemed less pure and -holy than the aspirations of Pagan philosophers. It would be by no merit -of hers, but solely by its own intrinsic power, if Christianity should -retain its hold upon the mind of Europe, in spite of its ecclesiastical -defenders. - -Christianity brought into disrepute by the conduct of professed -Christians, was compelled to rest as of old upon its own intrinsic merits, -to stand the test of the most searching scientific criticisms which -Florentine philosophers were able to apply to it. Men versed in Plato and -Aristotle were not without some notion of the value of intrinsic evidence, -and the methods of inductive enquiry. Ficino himself thought it well, -discarding the accustomed scholastic interpreters, to turn the light of -his Platonic lamp upon the Christian religion. From his work, '_De -Religione Christianâ_,' dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici, and written in -1474, some notion may be gained of the method and results of his -criticism. That its nature should be rightly understood is important in -connection with the history of the Oxford Reformers. - -[Sidenote: The _De Religione Christianâ_ of Ficino.] - -Ficino commences his argument by demonstrating that _religion_ is natural -to man; and having, on Platonic authority, pointed out the truth of the -one common religion, and that all religions have something of good in -them, he turns to the Christian religion in particular. Its truth he tries -to prove by a chain of reasoning of which the following are some of the -links. - -[Sidenote: Argument of Ficino in support of Christianity.] - -He first shows that 'the disciples of Jesus were not deceivers;'[18] and -he supports this by examining, in a separate chapter, 'in what spirit the -disciples of Christ laboured;'[19] concluding, after a careful analysis of -the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, that they did not seek their -_own_ advantage or honour but 'the glory of _Christ_ alone.' Then he shows -that 'the disciples of Christ were not _deceived_ by anyone,'[20] and that -the Christian religion was founded, not in human wisdom, but 'in the -wisdom and power of God;'[21] that Christ was 'no astrologer,' but -'derived his authority from God.'[22] He adduced further the evidence of -miracles, in which he had no difficulty in believing, for he gave two -instances of miracles which had occurred in Florence only four years -previously, and in which he declared to Lorenzo de' Medici, that, -philosopher as he was, he believed.[23] After citing the testimony of some -Gentile writers, and of the Coran of the Mahometans, and discussing in the -light of Plato, Zoroaster, and Dionysius, the doctrine of the 'logos,' and -the fitness of the incarnation, he showed that the result of the coming of -Christ was that men are drawn to love with their whole heart a God who in -his immense love had himself become man.[24] After dwelling on the way in -which Christ lightened the burden of sin,[25] on the errors he dispelled, -the truths he taught,[26] and the example he set,[27] Ficino proceeds in -two short chapters to adduce the testimony of the 'Sibyls.'[28] This was -natural to a writer whose bias it was to regard as genuine whatever could -be proved to be ancient. But it is only fair to state that he relies much -more fully and discusses at far greater length the prophecies of the -Ancient Hebrew prophets,[29] vindicating the Christian rendering of -certain passages in the old Testament against the Jews, who accused the -Christians of having perverted and depraved them.[30] He concludes by -asserting, that if there be much in Christianity which surpasses human -comprehension, this is a proof of its divine character rather than -otherwise. These are his final words. 'If these things be divine, they -must exceed the capacity of any human mind. Faith (as Aristotle has it) is -the foundation of knowledge. By faith alone (as the Platonists prove) we -ascend to God. "I believed (said David) and therefore have I spoken." -Believing, therefore, and approaching the fountain of truth and goodness -we shall drink in a wise and blessed life.'[31] - -[Sidenote: Christianity a thing of the heart.] - -Thus was the head of the Platonic Academy at Florence turning a critical -eye upon Christianity, viewing it very possibly too much in the light of -the lamp kept continually burning before the bust of Plato, but still, I -think, honestly endeavouring, upon its own intrinsic evidence and by -inductive methods, to establish a reasonable belief in its divine -character in minds sceptical of ecclesiastical authority, and over whom -the dogmatic methods of the Schoolmen had lost their power.[32] -Nevertheless Ficino, as yet, was probably more of an intellectual than of -a practical Christian, and Christianity was not likely to take hold of the -mind of Italy--of re-awakening Europe--through any merely philosophical -disquisitions. The lamp of Plato might throw light on Christianity, but it -would not light up Christian fire in other souls. For Christianity is a -thing of the heart, not only of the head. Soul is kindled only by soul, -says Carlyle; and to teach religion the one thing needful is to find a man -who _has_ religion.[33] Should such a man arise, a man himself on fire -with Christian love and zeal, his torch might light up other torches, and -the fire be spread from torch to torch. But, until such a man should -arise, the lamp of philosophy must burn alone in Florence. Men might come -from far and near to listen to Marsilio Ficino--to share the patronage of -Lorenzo de' Medici, to study Plato and Plotinus,--to learn how to -harmonise Plato and Aristotle, to master the Greek language and -philosophies,--to drink in the spirit of reviving learning--but, of true -Christian _religion_, the lamp had not yet been lit at Florence, or if lit -it was under a bushel. - -[Sidenote: Oxford students in Italy.] - -Already Oxford students had been to Italy, and returned full of the new -learning. Grocyn, one of them, had for some time been publicly teaching -Greek at Oxford, not altogether to the satisfaction of the old divines, -for the Latin of the Vulgate was, in their eye, the orthodox language, and -Greek a Pagan and heretical tongue. Linacre, too, had been to Italy and -returned, after sharing with the children of Lorenzo de' Medici the -tuition of Politian and Chalcondyles.[34] - -These men had been to Italy and had returned, to all appearances, mere -humanists. Now five years later Colet had been to Italy and had returned, -_not_ a mere humanist, but an earnest Christian reformer, bent upon giving -lectures, not upon Plato or Plotinus, but upon St. Paul's Epistles. What -had happened during these four years to account for the change? - - -III. COLET'S PREVIOUS HISTORY (1496). - -[Sidenote: Colet's return from Italy.] - -John Colet was the eldest[35] son of Sir Henry Colet, a wealthy merchant, -who had been more than once Lord Mayor of London,[36] and was in favour at -the court of Henry VII. His father's position held out to him the -prospect of a brilliant career. He had early been sent to Oxford, and -there, having passed through the regular course of study in all branches -of scholastic philosophy, he had taken his degree of Master of Arts. - -[Sidenote: His studies at Oxford.] - -On the return of Grocyn and Linacre from Italy full of the new learning, -Colet had apparently caught the contagion. For we are told he 'eagerly -devoured Cicero, and carefully examined the works of Plato and -Plotinus.'[37] - -When the time had come for him to choose a profession, instead of deciding -to follow up the chances of commercial life, or of royal favour, he had -resolved to take Orders. - -[Sidenote: Sets out on his travels.] - -The death of twenty-one[38] brothers and sisters, leaving him the sole -survivor of so large a family, may well have given a serious turn to his -thoughts. But inasmuch as family influence was ready to procure him -immediate preferment, the path he had chosen need not be construed into -one of great self-denial. It was not until long after he had been -presented to a living in Suffolk and a prebend in Yorkshire, that he left -Oxford, probably in or about 1494, for some years of foreign travel.[39] - -The little information which remains to us of what Colet did on his -continental journey, is very soon told. - -[Sidenote: Colet studies the Scriptures in Italy.] - -He went first into France and then into Italy.[40] On his way there, or -on his return journey, he met with some German monks, of whose primitive -piety and purity he retained a vivid recollection.[41] In Italy he -ardently pursued his studies. But he no longer devoted himself to the -works of Plato and Plotinus. In Italy, the hotbed of the Neo-Platonists, -he '_gave himself up_' (we are told) '_to the study of the Holy -Scriptures_,' after having, however, first made himself acquainted with -the works of the Fathers, including amongst them the mystic writings then -attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite. He acquired a decided preference -for the works of Dionysius, Origen, Ambrose, Cyprian, and Jerome over -those of Augustine. Scotus, Aquinas, and other Schoolmen had each shared -his attention in due course. He is said also to have diligently studied -during this period Civil and Canon Law, and especially what Chronicles and -English classics he could lay his hands on; and his reason for doing so is -remarkable--that he might, by familiarity with them, polish his style, and -so prepare himself for the great work of preaching the Gospel in -England.[42] - -What it was that had turned his thoughts in this direction no record -remains to tell. Yet the knowledge of what was passing in Italy, while -Colet was there, surely may give a clue, not likely to mislead, to the -explanation of what otherwise might remain wholly unexplained. To have -been in Italy when Grocyn and Linacre were in Italy--between the years -1485 and 1491--was, as we have said, to have drunk at the fountain-head of -reviving learning, and to have fallen under the fascinating influence of -Lorenzo de' Medici and the Platonic Academy--an influence more likely to -foster the selfish coldness of a semi-pagan philosophy than to inspire -such feelings as those with which Colet seems to have returned from _his_ -visit to Italy.[43] - -But in the meantime Lorenzo had died, the tiara had changed hands, and -events were occurring during _Colet's_ stay in Italy--probably in -1495--which may well have stirred in his breast the earnest resolution to -devote his life to the work of religious and political reform. - -[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical scandals.] - -For to have been in Italy while Colet was in Italy was to have come face -to face with Rome at the time when the scandals of Alexander VI. and Cæsar -Borgia were in everyone's mouth; to have been brought into contact with -the very worst scandals which had ever blackened the ecclesiastical system -of Europe, at the very moment when they reached their culminating point. - -On the other hand, to have been in Italy when Colet was in Italy was to -have come into contact with the first rising efforts at Reform. - -[Sidenote: Savonarola.] - -If Colet visited Florence as Grocyn and Linacre had done before him, he -must have come into direct contact with Savonarola while as yet his fire -was holy and his star had not entered the mists in which it set in later -years. - -[Sidenote: Savonarola's preaching.] - -Recollecting what the great Prior of San Marco was--what his fiery and all -but prophetic preaching was--how day after day his burning words went -forth against the sins of high and low; against tyranny in Church or -State; against idolatry of philosophy and neglect of the Bible in the -pulpit; recollecting how they told their tale upon the conscience of -Lorenzo de' Medici, and of his courtiers as well as upon the crowds of -Florence;--can the English student, it may well be asked, have passed -through all this uninfluenced? If he visited Florence at all he must have -heard the story of Savonarola's interview with the dying Lorenzo; he must -have heard the common talk of the people, how Politian and Pico, bosom -friends of Lorenzo, had died with the request that they might be buried in -the habit of the order, and under the shadow of the convent of San -Marco;[44] above all, he must again and again have joined, one would -think, with the crowd daily pressing to hear the wonderful preacher. -Lorenzo de' Medici had died before Colet set foot upon Italian soil: -probably also Pico and Politian.[45] And the death of these men had added -to the grandeur of Savonarola's position. He was still preaching those -wonderful sermons, all of them in exposition of Scripture, to which -allusion has been made, and exerting that influence upon his hearers to -which so many great minds had yielded. - -[Sidenote: Savonarola's influence on Pico and Ficino.] - -The man who _had_ religion--the one requisite for teaching it--had arisen. -And at the touch of his torch other hearts had caught fire. The influence -of Savonarola had made itself felt even within the circle of the Platonic -Academy. Pico had become a devoted student of the Scriptures and had died -an earnest Christian. Ficino himself, without ceasing to be a Neo-Platonic -philosopher, had also, it would seem, been profoundly influenced for a -time by the enthusiasm the great reformer.[46] And in the light of -Colet's return to Oxford from Italy, a lover of Dionysius and to lecture -on St. Paul's Epistles, it is curious to observe that, shortly before -Colet's visit to Italy, Ficino himself had published translations of some -of the Dionysian writings,[47] and that apparently about the time of -Colet's visit he was himself lecturing on St. Paul.[48] - -[Sidenote: Their influence on Colet.] - -If therefore Colet visited Florence, it may well be believed that he came -into direct contact with Savonarola and Ficino. Whilst even if he did not -visit Florence at all (and there appears to be no direct evidence that he -did),[49] there remains abundant evidence, which will turn up in future -chapters, that Colet had studied the writings of Pico,[50] of Ficino,[51] -and of the authors most often quoted in their pages. He thus at least came -directly under _Florentine_ influence, at a time when the fire of -religious zeal, kindled into a flame by the enthusiasm of the great -Florentine Reformer, and fed by the scandals of Rome, was scattering its -sparks abroad. - -[Sidenote: Spirit in which Colet returned to Oxford.] - -Be this as it may, whatever amount of obscurity may rest upon the history -of the mental struggles through which Colet had passed before that result -was attained, certain it is that he had returned to England with his mind -fully made up, and with a character already formed and bent in a direction -from which it never afterwards swerved. He had returned to England, not to -enjoy the pleasures of fashionable life in London, not to pursue the -chances of Court favour, not to follow his father's mercantile calling, -not even to press on at once towards the completion of his clerical -course; but, unordained as he was, and without doctor's degree, in all -simplicity to begin the work which had now become the settled purpose of -his life, by returning to Oxford and announcing this course of lectures on -St. Paul's Epistles. - - -IV. THOMAS MORE, ANOTHER OXFORD STUDENT (1492-6). - -When Colet, catching the spirit of the new learning from Grocyn and -Linacre, left Oxford for his visit to Paris and Italy, he left behind him -at the university a boy of fifteen, no less devoted than himself to the -study of the Greek language and philosophy. - -This boy was _Thomas More_. He was the son of a successful lawyer, living -in Milk Street, Cheapside. - -[Sidenote: His early history.] - -[Sidenote: Cardinal Morton.] - -[Sidenote: More's genius.] - -Brought up in the very centre of London life, he had early entered into -the spirit of the stirring times on which his young life was cast. He was -but five years old when in April 1483 the news of Edward IV.'s death was -told through London. But he was old enough to hear an eyewitness tell his -father, that 'one Pottyer, dwelling in Redcross Street, without -Cripplegate,' within half a mile of his father's door, 'on the very night -of King Edward's death, had exclaimed, "By my troth, man, then will my -master the Duke of Glo'ster be king."'[52] And followed as this was by -Richard's murder of the young Princes, he never forgot the incident. After -some years' study at St. Anthony's School in Threadneedle Street, his -father placed him in domestic service (as was usual in those times) with -the Archbishop and Lord Chancellor Morton,[53] a man than whom no one knew -the world better or was of greater influence in public affairs--the -faithful friend of Edward IV., the feared but cautious enemy of Richard, -the man to whose wisdom Henry VII. in great measure owed his crown. Morton -was the Gamaliel at whose feet young More was brought up, drinking in his -wisdom, storing up in memory his rich historic knowledge, learning the -world's ways and even something of the ways of kings, till a naturally -sharp wit became unnaturally sharpened, and Morton recognised in the youth -the promise of the future greatness of the man. He was but thirteen or -fourteen at most, yet he would 'at Christmas time suddenly sometimes step -in among the players, making up an extempore part of his own;' ... and the -Lord Chancellor 'would often say unto the nobles that divers times dined -with him, "This child here waiting at table, whosoever shall live to see -it, will prove a marvellous man."'[54] It was Morton who had sent him to -Oxford 'for his better furtherance in learning.'[55] - -Colet probably had known More from childhood. Their fathers were both too -much of public men to be unknown to each other, and though Colet was -twelve years older than young More when they most likely met at Oxford in -1492-3, their common studies under Grocyn and Linacre were likely to bring -them into contact.[56] More's ready wit, added to great natural power and -versatility of mind, were such as to enable him to keep pace with others -much older than himself, and to devote himself with equal zeal to the new -learning. - -[Sidenote: His fascinating character.] - -Whether it was thus at Oxford that Colet had first formed his high opinion -of More's character and powers, we know not, but certain it is that he was -long after wont to speak of him as the _one genius_ of whom England could -boast.[57] Moreover, along with great intellectual gifts was combined in -the young student a gentle and loving disposition, which threw itself into -the bosom of a friend with so guileless and pure an affection, that when -men came under the power of its unconscious enchantment they literally -_fell in love_ with More. If Colet's friendship with More dated back to -this period, he must have found in his young acquaintance the germs of a -character somewhat akin to his own. Along with so much of life and -generous loveliness, there was a natural independence of mind which formed -convictions for itself, and a strength and promptness of will whereby -action was made as a matter of course to follow conviction. There was, in -truth, in More's character a singular union of conservative and radical -tendencies of heart and thought. - -But the intercourse between them at Oxford did not last long, for Colet, -as already said, went off on his travels, leaving More buried in his -Oxford studies under Linacre's tuition. - -[Sidenote: More already destined for the Bar.] - -It was the father's purpose that the son at Oxford should be preparing for -his future profession. Jealous lest the temptations of college life should -disqualify him for the severe discipline involved in those legal studies -to which it was to be the preparatory step, he kept him in leading-strings -as far as he possibly could, cutting down his pecuniary allowance to the -smallest amount which would enable him to pay his way, even compelling him -to refer to himself before purchasing the most necessary articles of -clothing as his old ones wore out. He judged that by these means he should -keep his son more closely to his books, and prevent his being allured from -the rigid course of study which in his utilitarian view was best adapted -to fit him for the bar.[58] - -[Sidenote: More leaves Oxford.] - -[Sidenote: More enters Lincoln's Inn.] - -So far as can be traced, this stern discipline did not fail of its -end;[59] he worked on at Oxford, without getting into mischief, and -certainly without neglecting his books. But there was another snare from -which parental anxiety was not able wholly to preserve him. Before he had -been two years at Oxford, the father found out that he had begun to show -symptoms of fondness for the study of the Greek language and -literature,[60] and might even be guilty of preferring the philosophy of -the Greeks to that of the Schoolmen. This was treading on dangerous -ground, and it seemed to the anxious parent high time that a stop should -be put to new-fangled and fascinating studies, the use of which to a -lawyer he could not discern. So, somewhat abruptly, he took young More -away from the University, and had him at once entered as a student at New -Inn.[61] After the usual course of legal studies at New Inn, he was -admitted in February 1496,[62] just as Colet was returning from Italy, as -a student of Lincoln's Inn, for a few more years of hard legal study, -preparatory to his call to the Bar. - - -V. COLET FIRST HEARS OF ERASMUS (1496). - -One other circumstance must be mentioned in this chapter. - -Whilst Colet was passing through Paris, on his return journey from Italy, -he became acquainted with the French historian Gaguinus, whose work '_De -Origine et Gestis Francorum_,' had been published shortly before.[63] -Colet was in the habit of reading every book of history which came in his -way,[64] and no doubt this history of Gaguinus was no exception to the -rule. Whilst he was at Paris, a letter was shown to him which the -historian had received from a scholar and acquaintance of rising celebrity -in Paris, in which the new history was reviewed and praised.[65] From the -perusal of this letter, Colet formed a high estimate of the learning and -wide range of knowledge of its accomplished writer.[66] But scholars were -plentiful in Paris, and he was not personally introduced to this one in -particular. He was not then, like Gaguinus, one of the lions of Paris, -though he was destined to become one of the lions of History. Colet after -reading his letter did not forget his name. Nor was it a name likely to be -soon forgotten by posterity. - -It was, '_Erasmus_.' - - - - -CHAPTER II. - - -I. COLET'S LECTURES ON ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS (1496-7?). - -[Sidenote: The state of Scripture study at Oxford.] - -To appreciate the full significance of Colet's lectures, it is needful to -bear in mind what was the current opinion of the scholastic divines of the -period concerning the Scriptures, and what the practical mode of -exposition pursued by them at the Universities. - -The scholastic divines, holding to a traditional belief in the _plenary_ -and _verbal_ inspiration of the whole Bible, and remorselessly pursuing -this belief to its logical results, had fallen into a method of exposition -almost exclusively _textarian_. The Bible, both in theory and in practice, -had almost ceased to be a record of real events, and the lives and -teaching of living men. It had become an arsenal of texts; and these texts -were regarded as detached invincible weapons to be legitimately seized and -wielded in theological warfare, for any purpose to which their words might -be made to apply, without reference to their original meaning or context. - -[Sidenote: The Bible regarded as verbally inspired. Method of exposition -_textarian_.] - -Thus, to take a practical example, when St. Jerome's opinion was quoted -incidentally that possibly St. Mark, in the second chapter of his Gospel, -might by a slip of memory have written 'Abiathar' in mistake for -'Abimelech,' a learned divine, a contemporary of Colet's at Oxford, -nettled by the very supposition, declared positively that 'that could not -be, unless the Holy Spirit himself could be mistaken;' and the only -authority he thought it needful to cite in proof of the statement was a -text in Ezekiel: 'Whithersoever the Spirit went, thither likewise the -wheels were lifted up to follow Him.'[67] It was in vain that the reply -was suggested that 'it is not for us to define in what manner the Spirit -might use His instrument.' The divine triumphantly replied, 'The Spirit -himself in Ezekiel _has_ defined it. The wheels were not lifted up, except -to follow the Spirit.'[68] - -[Sidenote: Theory of manifold senses.] - -[Sidenote: Literal sense neglected.] - -[Sidenote: The Bible a dead book.] - -This Oxford divine did not display any peculiar bigotry or blindness. He -did but follow in the well-worn ruts of his scholastic predecessors. It -had been solemnly laid down by Aquinas in the 'Summa,' that 'inasmuch as -God was the author of the Holy Scriptures, and all things are at one time -present to His mind, therefore, under their single text, they express -several meanings.' 'Their literal sense,' he continues, 'is manifold; -their spiritual sense threefold--viz. allegorical, moral, anagogical.'[69] -And we have the evidence of another well-known Oxford student, also a -contemporary with Colet at the University, that this was then the -prevalent view. Speaking of the dominant school of divines, he remarks: -'They divide the Scripture into four senses, the literal, tropological, -allegorical, and analogical--the literal sense has become nothing at -all.... Twenty doctors expound one text twenty ways, and with an antitheme -of half an inch some of them draw a thread of nine days long.... They not -only say that the literal sense profiteth nothing, but also that it is -hurtful and noisesome and killeth the soul. And this they prove by a text -of Paul, 2 Cor. iii., "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." -Lo! say they, the literal sense killeth, the spiritual sense giveth -life.'[70] And the same student, in recollection of his intercourse at the -Universities with divines of the traditional school in these early days, -bears witness that 'they were wont to look on no more Scripture than they -found in their Duns;'[71] while at another time he complains 'that some of -them will prove a point of the Faith as well out of a fable of Ovid or any -other poet, as out of St. John's Gospel or Paul's Epistles.'[72] Thus had -the scholastic belief in the verbal inspiration of the sacred text led men -blindfold into a condition of mind in which they practically ignored the -Scriptures altogether.[73] - -[Sidenote: Colet's lectures.] - -Such was the state of things at Oxford when Colet commenced his lectures. -The very boldness of the lecturer and the novelty of the subject were -enough to draw an audience at once. Doctors and abbots, men of all ranks -and titles, flocked with the students into the lecture hall, led by -curiosity doubtless at first, or it may be, like the Pharisees of old, -bent upon finding somewhat whereof they might accuse the man whom they -wished to silence. But since they came again and again, as the term went -by, _bringing their note-books with them_, it soon became clear that they -continued to come with some better purpose.[74] - -[Sidenote: Colet's style of speaking.] - -Colet already, at thirty, possessed the rare gift of saying what he had to -say in a few telling words, throwing into them an earnestness which made -every one feel that they came from his heart. 'You say what you mean, and -mean what you say. Your words have birth in your heart, not on your lips. -They follow your thoughts, instead of your thoughts being shaped by them. -You have the happy art of expressing with ease what others can hardly -express with the greatest labour.'[75] Such was the first impression made -by Colet's eloquence upon one of the greatest scholars of the day, who -heard him deliver some of these lectures during another term. - -[Sidenote: Colet's method of exposition.] - -From the fragments which remain of what seem to be manuscript notes of -these lectures, written by Colet himself at the 'urgent and repeated -request,' as he expressed it, 'of his faithful auditors,'[76] and now -preserved in the Cambridge Libraries,[77] something more than a -superficial notion may be gained of what these lectures were. - -[Sidenote: Not _textarian_.] - -They were in almost every particular in direct contrast with those of the -dominant school. They were not _textarian_. They did not consist of a -series of wiredrawn dissertations upon isolated texts. They were no -'thread of nine days long drawn from an antitheme of half an inch.' Colet -began at the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans, and went through with -it to the end, in a course of lectures, treating it as a whole, and not as -an armoury of detached texts.[78] Nor were they on the model of the -_Catena aurea_, formed by linking together the recorded comments of the -great Church authorities. There is hardly a quotation from the Fathers or -Schoolmen throughout the exposition of the Epistle to the Romans.[79] - -[Sidenote: Colet points out the marks of St. Paul's own character.] - -[Sidenote: Colet's personal interest in St. Paul.] - -Instead of following the current fashion of the day, and displaying -analytical skill in dividing the many senses of the sacred text, Colet, it -is clear, had but one object in view, and that object was to bring out the -direct practical meaning which the apostle meant to convey to those to -whom his epistles were addressed. To him they were the earnest words of a -living man addressed to living men, and suited to their actual needs. He -loved those words because he had learned to love the apostle--the -_man_--who had written them, and had caught somewhat of his spirit. He -loved to trace in the epistles the marks of St. Paul's own character. He -would at one time point out, in his abruptly suspended words, that -'_vehemence of speaking_' which did not give him time to perfect his -sentences.[80] At another time he would stop to admire the rare prudence -and tact with which he would temper his speech and balance his words to -meet the needs of the different classes by whom his epistle would be -read.[81] And again he would compare the eager expectations expressed in -the Epistle to the Romans of so soon visiting Rome and Spain, with the far -different realities of the apostle's after life; recalling to mind the -circumstances of his long imprisonment at Cæsarea, and his arrival at last -in Rome, _four years_ after writing his epistle, to remain a prisoner two -years longer in the Imperial city before he could carry out his intention -of visiting Spain.[82] He loved to tell how, notwithstanding these -cherished plans for the future, the apostle, being a man of great courage, -was prepared, 'by his faith, and love of Christ,'[83] to bear his -disappointment, and to reply to the prophecy of Agabus, that he was ready, -not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of his -Master, if need be, instead of fulfilling the plans he had laid out for -himself. - -[Sidenote: Circumstances of the Roman Christians.] - -And whilst investing the epistles with so _personal_ an interest, by thus -bringing out their connection with St. Paul's character and history, Colet -sought also to throw a sense of reality and life into their teaching, by -showing how specially adapted they were to the circumstances of those to -whom they were addressed. When, for instance, he was expounding the -thirteenth chapter of the Epistle, he would take down his _Suetonius_ in -order to ascertain the state of society at Rome and the special -circumstances which made it needful for St. Paul so strongly to urge Roman -Christians 'to be obedient to the higher powers, and to pay tribute -also.'[84] - -[Sidenote: Colet tries to look at all sides of a doctrine.] - -[Sidenote: Question of free will.] - -It is very evident, too, how careful he was not to give a one-sided view -of the apostle's doctrine--what pains he took to realise his actual -meaning, not merely in one text and another, but in the drift of the whole -epistle; now ascertaining the meaning of a passage by its place in the -apostle's argument;[85] now comparing the expressions used by St. Paul -with those used by St. John, in order to trace the practical harmony -between the Johannine and Pauline view of a truth, which, if regarded on -one side only, might be easily distorted and misunderstood. In expounding -the Epistle to the Romans it was impossible to avoid allusion to the great -question afterwards forced into so unhappy a prominence by the Wittemberg -and Geneva Reformers, as it had already been by Wiclif and Huss--the -question of the freedom of the Will. Upon this question Colet showed an -evident anxiety not to fall into one extreme whilst avoiding the other. -His view seems to have been that the soul which is melted and won over to -God by the power of _love_ is won over _willingly_, and yet through no -merit of its own. Probably his views upon this point would be described as -'mystic.' Certainly they were not Augustinian.[86] In concluding a long -digression upon this endless and perplexing question, Colet apologises -for the length to which he had wandered from St. Paul, and excuses -himself on the ground that 'his zeal and affection towards men'--his -desire 'to confirm the weak and wavering'--had got the better of his 'fear -of wearying the reader.'[87] - -Connected with this habit of trying to look at all sides of a doctrine, -there is, I think, visible throughout, an earnest attempt to regard it in -its practical connection with human life and conduct rather than to rest -in its logical completeness. - -[Sidenote: Colet dwells on the practical aspects of St. Paul's doctrines.] - -[Sidenote: Quotes Marsilio Ficino,] - -If he quotes from the Neo-Platonic philosophers of Florence (and almost -the only quotation of any length contained in this manuscript is from the -_Theologia Platonica_ of Marsilio Ficino[88]), it is, not to follow them -into the mazes of Neo-Platonic speculation, but to enforce the practical -point, that whilst, here upon earth, the _knowledge_ of God is impossible -to man, the _love_ of God is not so; and that by how much it is worse to -_hate_ God than to be ignorant of Him, by so much is it better to _love_ -Him than to _know_ Him. - -[Sidenote: and Aristeas.] - -And never does he speak more warmly and earnestly than when after having -urged with St. Paul, that 'rites and ceremonies neither purify the spirit -nor justify the man,'[89] and having quoted from _Aristeas_ to show how, -on Jewish feast days, seventy priests were occupied in slaying and -sacrificing thousands of cattle, deluging the temple with blood, thinking -it well pleasing to God, he points out how St. Paul covertly condemned -these outward sacrifices, as Isaiah had done before him, by insisting upon -that _living sacrifice of men's hearts and lives_ which they were meant to -typify.[90] He urges with St. Paul that God is pleased with _living_ -sacrifices and not dead ones, and does not ask for sacrifices in cattle, -but in _men_. His will is that their beastly appetites should be slain and -consumed by the fire of God's Spirit[91] ...; that men should be converted -from a proud trust in themselves to an humble faith in God, and from -self-love to the love of God. To bring this about, Colet thought was 'the -chief cause, yes the sole cause,' of the coming of the Son of God upon -earth in the flesh.[92] - -[Sidenote: Colet points out the need of ecclesiastical reform.] - -Nor was he afraid to apply these practical lessons to the circumstances of -his own times. Thus, in speaking of the collections made by St. Paul in -relief of the sufferers from the famine in Judea (the same he thought as -that predicted by Agabus), he pointed out how much better such voluntary -collections were than 'money extorted by bitter exactions under the name -of tithes and oblations.'[93] And, referring to the advice to Timothy, 'to -avoid avarice and to follow after justice, piety, faith, charity, -patience, and mercy,' he at once added that '_priests of our time_' might -well be admonished 'to set such an example as this _amongst their own -parishioners_,' referring to the example of St. Paul, who chose to 'get -his living by labouring with his hands at the trade of tentmaking, so as -to avoid even suspicion of avarice or scandal to the Gospel.'[94] - -One other striking characteristic of this exposition must be -mentioned--the unaffected modesty which breathes through it, which, whilst -not quoting authority, does not claim to be an authority itself, which -does not profess to have attained full knowledge, but preserves throughout -the childlike spirit of enquiry.[95] - - * * * * * - -On the whole, the spirit of Colet's lectures was in keeping with his -previous history. - -[Sidenote: Colet quotes the Neo-Platonist.] - -The passage already mentioned as quoted from Ficino, the facts that, in a -marginal note on the manuscript, added apparently in Colet's handwriting, -there is also a quotation from Pico,[96] and that the names of -Plotinus,[97] and 'Joannes Carmelitanus,'[98] are cited in the course of -the exposition--all this is evidence of the influence upon Colet's mind of -the writings of the philosophers of Florence, confirming the inference -already drawn from the circumstances of his visit to Italy. But in its -_comparative_ freedom from references to authorities of _any_ kind, except -the New Testament, Colet's exposition differs as much from the writings of -Ficino and Pico as from those of the Scholastic Divines. - -[Sidenote: Marks of his love for Dionysius.] - -In many peculiar phrases and modes of thought, evident traces also occur -of that love for the Dionysian writings which Colet is said to have -contracted in Italy, and which he shared with the modern Neo-Platonic -school. - -[Sidenote: Origen and Jerome.] - -In the free critical method of interpretation and thorough acknowledgment -of the human element in Scripture, as well as in the Anti-Augustinian -views already alluded to, there is evidence equally abundant in -confirmation of the statement, that he had acquired when abroad a decided -preference for Origen and Jerome over Augustine. - -[Sidenote: His independent search for truth.] - -Lastly in his freedom from the prevailing vice of the patristic -interpreters--their love of allegorising Scripture--and in his fearless -application of the critical methods of the New learning to the Scriptures -themselves, in order to draw out their literal sense, there is striking -confirmation of the further statement that, whilst in Italy, he had -'devoted himself wholly'[99] to their study. Colet's object obviously had -been to study St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans for _himself_, and his -whole exposition confirms the truth of his own declaration in its last -sentence, that 'he had tried to the best of his power, with the aid of -Divine grace, to bring out St. Paul's true meaning.' 'Whether indeed' (he -adds modestly) 'I have done this I hardly can tell, but the greatest -_desire_ to do so I _have_ had.'[100] - - -II. VISIT FROM A PRIEST DURING THE WINTER VACATION (1496-7?). - -[Sidenote: Conversation on the richness of St. Paul's writings.] - -Colet, one night during the winter vacation, was alone in his chambers. A -priest knocked at the door. He was soon recognised by Colet as a diligent -attender of his lectures. They drew their chairs to the hearth, and talked -about this thing and that over the winter fire, in the way men do when -they have something to say, and yet have not courage to come at once to -the point. At length the priest pulled from his bosom a little book. -Colet, amused at the manner of his guest, smilingly quoted the words, -'Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.' The priest -explained that the little book contained the Epistles of St. Paul, -carefully transcribed by his own hand. It was indeed a treasure, for of -all the writings that had ever been written, he most loved and admired -those of St. Paul; and he added, in a politely flattering tone, that it -was Colet's lectures during the recent term, which had chiefly excited in -him this affection for the apostle. Colet turned a searching eye upon his -guest, and finding that he was truly in earnest, replied with warmth, -'Then, brother, I love you for loving St. Paul, for I, too, dearly love -and admire him.' In the course of conversation, which now turned upon the -object which the priest had at heart, Colet happened to remark how -pregnant with both matter and thought were the Epistles of St. Paul, so -that almost every word might be made the subject of a discourse. This was -just what Colet's guest wanted. Comparing Colet's lectures with those of -the scholastic divines, who, as we have heard, were accustomed 'out of an -antitheme of half an inch to draw a thread of nine days long' upon some -useless topic, he may well have been struck with the richness of the vein -of ore which Colet had been working, and he had come that he might gather -some hints as to his method of study. 'Then,' said he, stirred up by this -remark of Colet's, 'I ask you now, as we sit here at our ease, to extract -and bring to light from this hidden treasure, which you say is so rich, -some of these truths, so that I may gain from this our talk whilst sitting -together something to store up in the memory, and at the same time catch -some hints as to how, following your example, I may seize hold of the main -points in the epistles when I read St. Paul by myself.' - -[Sidenote: Romans i. taken as an example.] - -'My good friend,' replied Colet, 'I will do as you wish. Open your book, -and we will see how many and what golden truths we can gather from the -first chapter only of the Epistle to the Romans.' - -'But,' added the priest, 'lest my memory should fail me, I should like to -write them down as you say them.' Colet assented, and thereupon dictated -to his guest a string of the most important points which struck him as he -read through the chapter. They were, as Colet said, only like detached -rings, carelessly cut from the golden ore of St. Paul, as they sat over -the winter fire, but they would serve as examples of what might be -gathered from a single chapter of the apostle's writings. - -The priest departed, fully satisfied with the result of his visit; and -from the evident pleasure with which Colet told this story in a letter to -Kidderminster, Abbot of Winchcombe,[101] we may learn how his own spirits -were cheered by the proof it gave, that he had not laboured altogether in -vain. - -[Sidenote: Letter to an Abbot.] - -The letter itself, too, apart from the story which it tells, may give some -insight into his feelings during these months of solitary labour. It -reads, I think, like the letter of a man deeply in earnest, engaged in -what he feels to be a great work; whose sense of the greatness of the work -suggests a natural and noble anxiety, that though he himself should not -live to finish it, it may yet be carried forward by others; whose ambition -it is to die working at his post, leaving behind him, at least, the first -stones laid of a building which others greater than he may carry on to -completion. - -After telling the story of the priest's visit, Colet writes thus:-- - - _Colet to the Abbot of Winchcombe._ - - * * * * * - - 'Thus, Reverend Father, what he [the priest] wrote down at my - dictation I have wished to detail to you, so that you too, so ardent - in your love of all sacred wisdom, may see what we, sitting over the - winter fire, noted offhand in our St. Paul. - - [Sidenote: Colet wants his friend to see why he admires St. Paul's - writings.] - - 'In the first chapter only of the Epistle to the Romans, we found all - the following truths. [Here follows a long list.]... These we - extracted, and noted, venerable father, as I said, offhand, in this - one chapter only. Nor are these all we might have noted. For even in - the very address one might discover that Christ was promised by the - prophets, that Christ is both God and man, that Christ sanctifies men, - that through Christ there is a resurrection, both of the soul and of - the body. And besides these there are numberless others contained in - this chapter, which anyone with lynx eyes could easily find and dig - out, if he wished, for himself. _Paul_, of all others, seems to me to - be a fathomless _ocean_ of wisdom and piety. But these few, thus - hastily picked out, were enough for our good priest, who wanted some - thoughts struck off roundly, and fashioned like rings, from the gold - of St. Paul. These, as you see, I have written out for you with my own - hand, most worthy father, that your mind, in its golden goodness, - might recognise, as from a specimen, how much gold lies treasured up - in St. Paul. - - 'I want the Warden also to read this over with you, for his cultivated - taste and love of everything good is such that I think he will be - very much pleased with whatever of good it may contain. - - 'Farewell, most excellent and beloved father. - - 'Yours, JOHN COLET.' - - 'When you have read what is contained on this sheet of paper, let me - have it again, for I have no copy of it; and, although I am not in the - habit of keeping my letters, and cannot do so, as I send them off just - as I write them, without keeping a copy; yet if any of them contain - anything instructive (_aliquid doctrinæ_), I do not like to lose them - entirely. Not that they are in themselves worth preserving, but that, - left behind me, they may serve as little memorials of me. And if there - be any other reason why I should wish to preserve my letters to you, - this is one, and a chief one--that I should be glad for them to remain - as permanent witnesses of my regard for you. - - 'Again, farewell!' - -The sole survivor of a family of twenty-two, though himself but thirty, -Colet might well keep always in view the possibility of an early death. - - -III. COLET ON THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION (1497?). - -It would seem that one of Colet's friends, named _Radulphus_, had been -attempting to expound '_the dark places of Scripture_,' and that in doing -so he had commenced with the words of Lamech in the fourth chapter of -Genesis, as though this were the first 'dark place' to be found in the -Bible! - -[Sidenote: Letters of Colet on the Mosaic account of creation.] - -Out of this circumstance arose a correspondence on the meaning of the -first chapter of Genesis, which Colet thought required explanation as much -as any other portion of Scripture. Four of Colet's letters to Radulphus, -containing his views on the Mosaic account of the creation, have -fortunately been preserved, bound up with a copy of his manuscript -exposition on the Epistle to the Romans, in the Library of Corpus Christi -College, Cambridge.[102] Colet seems to have thought them worth -preserving, as he did the letter to the Abbot of Winchcombe; and as any -attempt to realise the position and feelings of Colet, when commencing his -lectures at Oxford on St. Paul's epistles, would have been very imperfect -without the story of the priest's visit, so these letters to Radulphus, -apart from their intrinsic interest, are especially valuable as giving -another practical illustration of the position which Colet had assumed -upon the question of the inspiration and interpretation of the Scriptures; -as showing, perhaps, more clearly than anything else could have done, that -the principles and method which he had applied to St. Paul's writings, -were not hastily adopted, but the result of mature conviction,--that Colet -was ready to apply them consistently to the Old Testament as well as to -the New, to the first chapter of Genesis as well as to the Epistle to the -Romans. - -[Sidenote: First letter to Radulphus.] - -Colet begins his first letter by telling Radulphus how surprised he was -that, whilst professing to expound the 'dark places of Scripture,' he -should, as already mentioned, have commenced with the words of Lamech, -leaving the first three chapters of Genesis untouched; for these very -chapters, so lightly passed over by Radulphus, seemed to him, he said, 'so -obscure that they might almost in themselves be that "_abyss_" to which -Moses alluded when he wrote that "darkness covered the face of the -deep."'[103] - -[Sidenote: Use of a knowledge of Hebrew.] - -After admitting the impossibility of coming to an accurate understanding -of the meaning of what Moses wrote without a knowledge of Hebrew and -access to Hebrew commentaries, 'which Origen, Jerome, and all really -diligent searchers of the Scriptures have appreciated,' he goes on to say -that, notwithstanding their extreme obscurity, and the possibility that -Radulphus might be able to throw more light upon them than he himself -could, he would nevertheless give him some of his notions on the meaning -of the verses from 'In the beginning,' &c. to the end of the 'first day.' - -He then began his explanation by saying that, though not unmindful of the -manifold senses of Scripture, he should confine himself to rapidly -following _one_;[104] and this seems to be the only allusion in these -letters to the prevalent theory of the 'manifold senses.' Taken in -connection with the full expression of his views upon the subject on a -future occasion, the words here made use of probably must be construed -rather as showing that he did not wish at that moment to enter into the -question with Radulphus, than as intended to give any indication of what -his views were upon it. - -[Sidenote: All things created at once in eternity.] - -Then he proceeds to state his conviction that the first few verses of -Genesis contain a sort of summary of the whole work of creation. 'First -of all, I conceive,' Colet wrote, 'that in this passage the creation of -the universe has been delivered to us in brief (_summatim_), and that God -created all things _at once_ in his eternity[105]--in that eternity which -transcends all time, and yet is less extended than a point of time, which -has no division of time, and is before all time.' - -The world consists primarily of _matter_ and _form_, and the object of -Moses was, Colet thought, to show that both matter and form were created -_at once_ (_simul_). And therefore Moses began with saying, 'In the -beginning (i.e. in eternity) God created heaven (i.e. form) and the earth' -(i.e. matter).[106] Matter was never without form, but that he might point -out the order of things, Moses added, that 'the earth (matter) was empty -and void[107] (i.e. without solid and substantial being), and darkness -covered the face of the deep' (i.e. the matter was in darkness, and -without life and being).[108] Then the text proceeds, 'The Spirit of God -moved upon the face of the waters.' 'See how beautifully' (wrote Colet), -'he proceeds in order, showing at one view the creation and union of form -with matter,[109] using the word "water" to express the unstable and fluid -condition of matter.' Then follow the words, 'Let there be light' (i.e. -according to Colet, things assumed form and definition[110]). - -Having thus explained the opening verses of Genesis as a statement in -brief--_a summary_--of the whole work of creation, Colet concluded this -first letter by saying, 'What follows in Moses is a repetition and further -expansion of what he has said above--a distinguishing in _particular_ of -what before was comprehended in the _general_. If you think otherwise, -pray let me have your views. Farewell.'[111] - -[Sidenote: Second letter.] - -[Sidenote: Colet takes into account the rude multitude for whom Moses -wrote.] - -[Sidenote: And that his object was to give them a moral lesson, not a -scientific one.] - -Radulphus having, apparently in reply to this letter, requested Colet to -proceed to explain the _other_ days, Colet, in the _second_ letter, takes -up the subject where he left it in the first. Having spoken of form and -matter, Moses proceeds, he says, in proper order, and treats of things in -particular, 'placing before the eye the arrangement of the world; which he -does in this way, in my opinion' (wrote Colet), 'that he may seem to have -regard to the understanding of the vulgar and rude multitude whom he -taught.'[112] Thus, as when trying to understand the Epistle to the -Romans, Colet took down his 'Suetonius,' and studied the circumstances of -the Roman Christians to whom the epistle was written, so, in trying to -understand the book of Genesis, Colet seems to have regarded it as written -expressly for the benefit of the children of Israel, and to have called to -mind how rude and uncivilised a multitude Moses had to teach; and he seems -to have come to the conclusion that the object of Moses was not to give to -the learned of future generations a scientific statement of the manner -and order of the creation of the universe, but to teach a _moral_ lesson -to the people whom he was leading out of the bondage and idolatry of -Egypt. And thus, in Colet's view, Moses, 'setting aside matters purely -Divine and out of the range of the common apprehension, proceeds to -instruct the unlearned people, by touching rapidly and lightly on the -order of those things with which their eyes were very palpably conversant, -that he might teach them what men are, and for what purpose they were -born, in order that he might be able with less difficulty to lead them on -afterwards to a more civilised life and to the worship of God--_which was -his main object in writing_.[113] And that this was so is made obvious by -the fact, that even amongst things cognisable to the senses, Moses passed -over such as are less palpable, as _air_ and _fire_, fearing to speak of -anything but what can easily be seen, as land, sea, plants, beasts, men; -singling out from amongst stars, the sun and moon, and of fishes, "great -whales." Thus Moses arranges his details in such a way as to give the -people a clearer notion, and he does this _after the manner of a popular -poet_, in order that he may the more adapt himself to the spirit of simple -rusticity, picturing a succession of things, works, and times, of such a -kind as there certainly could not be in the work of _so great a -Workman_.'[114] - -[Sidenote: Moses accommodated himself to the rude minds of the people.] - -This recognition by Colet of _accommodation_, on the part of Moses, to the -limited understanding of the rude people whom he taught, occurs over and -over again in these letters; _so_ often, indeed, that in one letter he -apologises to Radulphus for the repetition, being aware, as he says, that -_he_ is not addressing a 'muddle-headed Hebrew' (lutulentum Hebræum), but -a most refined philosopher! Thus he explains the difficulty of the -creation of the firmament on the second day by saying, 'This was made -before, but that simple and uncivilised multitude had to be taught in a -homely and palpable way.'[115] - -[Sidenote: Third letter.] - -In the third letter Colet proceeds to speak of the third day--the -separation of the waters from the dry land, and the creation of plants and -herbs. Here again everything is explained on the principle of -accommodation. 'Since the untutored multitude, looking round them, saw -nothing but the sky above, and land and water here below, and then the -things which spring from land and water, and live in them, so Moses suits -his order to their powers of observation.' - -[Sidenote: Colet believes in a sort of development of things.] - -The firmament or sky was spoken of in the second day; now, therefore, on -the third day, Moses mentions land and water, and the things which spring -from them. Plants and herbs are thus spoken of almost as though they were -a part of land and water; and here Colet gives Radulphus what he speaks of -as a notion of his own, hard, perhaps, for his friend to receive, but -nevertheless his own conviction, that, [instead of each element being -separately created, as it were, out of nothing] 'fire springs from ether, -air from fire, water from air, and from water, lastly, earth.' And Moses -probably in speaking of the creation of plants &c. on the third day, -before he came to other things, intended thereby to show, Colet thought, -that the earth is spontaneously productive of plants. He also thought that -Moses mentioned the creation of plants before the heavenly bodies, in -order to show that the germinating principle is in the earth itself, and -not, according to the vulgar idea, in the sun and stars. - -[Sidenote: Moses divided the creation into six days, after the manner of a -poet, by a useful and most wise poetic figment.] - -At the end of the third letter, Colet naturally stumbles on the difficulty -of explaining how, if all things were created _at once_ 'in the -beginning,' before all time, Moses could say at the end of each stage of -his description of the creation, 'and the evening and the morning were the -first, second, third, &c. _day_:' and, after fairly losing himself in an -attempt to solve this difficulty, he ends by urging Radulphus to leave -these obscure points, which are practically beyond our range, and to bear -in mind throughout what he had before spoken of, viz. that whilst Moses -wished to speak in a manner not unworthy of God, he wished, at the same -time, in matters within the knowledge of the common people, to satisfy the -common people, and to keep to the order of things; above all things, to -lead the people on to the religion and worship of the one God.[116] 'The -chief things known to the common people were sky, land and water, stars, -fishes, beasts, and so he deals with them. He arranged them in six days; -_partly_ because the things which readily occur to men's minds are six in -number:[117]--(1) What is above the sky, (2) sky itself, (3) land, -surrounded by water, and productive of plants, (4) sun and moon in the -sky, (5) fish in the water, (6) beasts inhabiting earth and air, and -_man_, the inhabitant of the whole universe;--and _partly_ and _chiefly_, -that he might lead the people on to the imitation of God, whom, _after the -manner of a poet_, he had pictured as working for six days and resting the -seventh, so that they also should devote every seventh day to rest and to -the contemplation of God and to worship.'[118] 'For, beyond all doubt,' -Colet proceeds to say, 'Moses never would have put forward a number of -days for any other purpose than that, by this most useful and most wise -poetic figment, the people might be provoked to imitation by an example -set before them, and so ending their daily labours on the sixth day, spend -the seventh in the highest contemplation of God.'[119] Colet ends his -third letter by saying, 'Thus you have my notions upon the work of the -third day, but what to make of it I know not. It is enough, as I have -said, to have touched upon it lightly. Farewell.' - -[Sidenote: Fourth letter.] - -[Sidenote: Colet confesses his uncertainty.] - -From the commencement of the fourth letter it would seem that Radulphus -had been from home four days, and Colet jokingly tells him that _he_ had -spent all those four days in getting through _one_ more of the Mosaic -days. 'And indeed whilst you have been working in the day under the sun, -I, during this time, have been wandering about in the night and the -darkness; neither did I see which way to go, nor do I know at what point I -have arrived.' And then he went on to tell Radulphus that, while in this -perplexity himself, he seemed to have caught Moses also in a great -mistake, for in concluding each day's work with the words, 'the evening -and the morning were the second day, the third day,' and so on, he ought -not to have said _day_ but _night_. What intervenes between the evening -and the morning must of necessity be _night_! For a _day_ begins in the -morning and ends with the evening! And he went on jokingly to say that -there was a still more pressing reason why Moses, dividing his subjects -into days, might have rather called them _nights_; viz. that 'they are so -overwhelmed with darkness that nothing could be more like _night_ than -these Mosaic _days_!' Then looking back upon his attempts to explain their -obscurity, he was obliged to confess that 'perhaps while he had been -trying to throw some light upon them, he might, after all, have increased -the darkness;' and he entreated Radulphus 'to pour into the darkness some -of his light, that he might be enabled thereby to see Colet, and Colet -together with him to see Moses.'[120] - -[Sidenote: All things must have been created at once.] - -[Sidenote: Accommodation on the part of God to man.] - -[Sidenote: Moses uses a most honest and pious poetic figure.] - -After this candid confession of uncertainty, Colet tried to explain the -work of the fourth day, and the words, 'Let there be lights in the -firmament of heaven;' but the only way he could do so was by resorting -again to the principle of accommodation, which he did in these words: 'As -we have said, all these were created at once. For it is unworthy of God, -and unbecoming in us, to think of any one thing as created after any -other, as though He had been unable to create them all at once. Hence in -Ecclesiasticus, "He who dwells in eternity created all things _at once_." -But Moses, _after the manner of a good and pious poet_,[121] as Origen -(against Celsus) calls him, was willing to invent some figure, not -altogether worthy of God, if only it might but be profitable and useful to -men; which race of men is so dear to God, that God himself emptied himself -of his glory, taking the form of a servant, that he might accommodate -himself to the poor heart of man.[122] So all things of God, when given to -man, must needs lose somewhat of their sublimity,[123] and be put in a -form more palpable and more within the grasp of man. Accordingly, the -high knowledge of Moses about God and Divine things and the creation of -the world, when it came to be submitted to the vulgar apprehension, -savoured altogether of the humble and the rustic, so that he had to speak, -not according to _his_ own power of comprehension, but according to the -comprehension of the multitude. Thus, accommodating himself to _their_ -comprehension, Moses endeavoured, by this most honest and pious poetic -figure, at once to allure them and draw them on to the worship of -God.'[124] - -Here the manuscript abruptly ends[125] in the middle of a reference to the -works of Macrobius, whose sanction Colet was apparently about to quote in -support of his attempt to explain the first chapter of Genesis by -reference to the principle of accommodation.[126] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Where Colet got these views.] - -The question may be asked:--'Whence came this doctrine of accommodation -which Colet here used so boldly?' It was at least no birth of the -nineteenth century, nor of the fifteenth. It belonged to a period a -thousand years earlier, when men had (as in Colet's days and in ours) to -reconcile reason and faith--to find a firm basis of _fact_ for -Christianity, instead of resting upon mere ecclesiastical authority. - -It will have been noticed that the two authors cited by Colet in these -letters were Origen and Macrobius. Traces of Dionysian influence are also -apparent.[127] - -It has already been pointed out, that when, after a thousand years' -interval of restless slumber, the spirit of free enquiry was reawakened by -the revival of learning in Italy, the works of the pre-scholastic fathers -and philosophers were studied afresh. The works of Origen, Macrobius, and, -more than all, of Dionysius, were constantly studied and quoted by such -men as Ficino and Pico. And thus it came to pass that the doctrine of -accommodation, with other apparently new-fangled but really _old_ -doctrines, floated, as it were, in the air which Colet had recently been -breathing in Italy. - -[Sidenote: The _Heptaplus_ of Pico.] - -The immediate source of some of the views contained in the letters to -Radulphus was evidently Pico's 'Heptaplus'[128] on the six days' creation; -a work published in beautiful type, shortly before Colet's visit to Italy, -and dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici.[129] Comparing this treatise of -Pico's with Colet's letters, the small verbal coincidences are too -striking to leave any doubt of the connection. - -Nor does this tracing of Colet's thoughts to their source detract from his -originality so much as might at first sight appear. - -Colet found many different germs of thought in Pico. Falling into -congenial soil, this one attained a vigorous growth in his mind, which it -never attained with Pico. Other germs which flourished under Pico took no -root with Colet. The result was, that the spirit of the letters to -Radulphus had little in common with that of the 'Heptaplus.' Colet showed -his originality and independence of thought by seizing one rational idea -contained in Pico's treatise, and leaving the rest. He caught and -unravelled one thread of common sense which Pico had contrived to -interweave with a web of learned but not very wise speculation. - - -IV. COLET STUDIES AFRESH THE PSEUDO-DIONYSIAN WRITINGS (1497?). - -The next glimpse of Colet and his labours at Oxford reveals him immersed -in the study of the Pseudo-Dionysian writings: writing from memory an -abstract of the 'Celestial' and 'Ecclesiastical' Hierarchies,[130] and -even composing short treatises of his own, based throughout upon Dionysian -speculations.[131] - -[Sidenote: The Pseudo-Dionysian writings.] - -During the most part of the middle ages the Pseudo-Dionysian writings were -accepted generally as the genuine productions of Dionysius the -Areopagite--i.e. of a disciple of St. Paul himself. It is not surprising, -therefore, that Colet, falling into this current view, should regard the -writings of the disciple with some degree of that interest and reverence -with which he regarded those of the master. For a time it is evident they -exercised a strong fascination on his mind. - -It has already been mentioned, that the influence of the Dionysian -writings upon the Neo-Platonists of Florence was natural, seeing that they -were in fact the embodiment of the result of the effervescence produced by -the mixture of Neo-Platonic speculations with the Christianity of a -thousand years earlier. - -But whilst it was their _Neo-Platonic_ element which attracted the -attention of Florentine philosophers, it was chiefly, as it seems to me, -their _Christian_ element which fascinated Colet. - -[Sidenote: Their intrinsic power.] - -Nor can we of the nineteenth century altogether afford to ignore these -writings as forgeries. There must have been in them enough of intrinsic -power, apart from their supposed authorship, to account for the enormous -influence exerted by them for centuries over the highest minds in the -church, in spite of the wildness of speculation in which they seemed to -revel; just as there was enough of intrinsic power in St. Augustine to -account for _his_ mighty influence, in spite of his narrow views upon some -points. It is quite possible that, as the very dogmatism of St. Augustine -may have increased his influence in a dogmatic age, so, inasmuch as the -dogmatic theology of the Schoolmen aimed at a pan-theological settlement -of every possible question, their very wildness of speculation may have -aided the influence of the Dionysian writings. This may partly account for -the remarkable extent to which the works of St. Augustine and Dionysius -furnished, as it were, the weft and woof out of which Aquinas wove his -scholastic web.[132] But nothing but some intrinsic power in these works -themselves, apart from their dogmatism and speculation, could account for -their double position as forming the basis, not only of the Scholastic -Theology itself, but also of so many reactions against the results of its -supremacy. These reactions were not always Augustinian. Some of them were -mystic, and the supposed Dionysius was, so to speak, the prophet of the -Mystics. - -One main secret of the intrinsic power of the Dionysian writings, -especially to such men as Colet, lay, undoubtedly, in the severe rebuke -they gave to the ecclesiastical scandals of the times. The state of the -church under Alexander VI. was such that earnest men in Italy had -practically either ceased to believe in it, and in Christianity, as of -divine institution; or were seeking a solution of their difficulties -through those Neo-Platonic speculations, out of which these -Pseudo-Dionysian writings had themselves sprung. - -[Sidenote: What the Dionysian writings were.] - -Colet doubtless, when he came to Italy, had the same difficulties to -fight. Could this ecclesiastical system, so degraded, so vicious, so -hollow and pernicious, be of God? He could not, and probably there was not -anyone in Europe at that moment who could, from his standing-point, wholly -reject it, without rejecting Christianity along with it. The Dionysian -writings presented a way of escape from this terrible alternative. If they -were genuine (and Colet believed them to be so), then the hierarchical -system and its sacraments, however perverted, were yet of apostolic -origin. These writings apparently described, in the words of a disciple of -St. Paul, their apostolic institution and their original intention and -meaning. But the notion gathered by Colet from Dionysius of the apostolic -intention presented an ideal so utterly pure and holy, as compared with -the hollowness and wickedness of ecclesiastical practice, as he saw it in -Italy, that he must indeed have had a heart of stone had he not been moved -by it. - -The following passage will show, in Colet's own words, how, following the -lead of such men as Pico and Ficino (with whose writings, we have seen, he -was acquainted), he was led to regard the Jewish traditions of the Cabala -as genuine Mosaic traditions, committed to writing by Ezra; and, in like -manner, to accept the Pseudo-Dionysian traditions as genuine apostolic -traditions, committed to writing by a disciple of St. Paul; and, further, -it will place in a clear light the connection between his faith in -Dionysius, his grief over the scandals of the church, and his zeal for -reform. - - [Sidenote: Colet sees the difference between the Dionysian and the - Papal rites.] - - 'I know not by what rashness of bishops, in later ages, the ancient - custom fell into disuse--a custom which, owing to its apostolic - institution, had the highest authority.... And had not St. Dionysius - (who seems to me to be such in our church as was Ezra in the synagogue - of Moses, who willed that the mysteries of the old law should be - committed to writing, lest in the confusion of affairs and of men the - record of so much wisdom should perish)--had not Dionysius, I say, in - like manner, as though divining the future carelessness of mankind, - left written down by his productive pen what he retained in memory of - the institutions of the apostle in arranging and regulating the - church, we should have had no record of this ancient custom.... How it - befel, (Colet continued) without grievous guilt, that these became - afterwards wholly changed, I know not; since we must believe that it - was by the teaching of the Holy Spirit that they ordained all things - in the church. For the words of our Saviour in St. John are these: - "Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you - into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he - shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come." - It is because their most holy traditions have been superseded and - neglected, and men have fallen away from the Spirit of God to their - own inventions, that, beyond doubt, all things have been wretchedly - disturbed and confounded; and, as I said before, unless God shall - have mercy upon us, all things will 'go to ruin.'[133] - -[Sidenote: Purity of the Dionysian standard.] - -The truth was that the Dionysian writings, though not of apostolic origin -as Colet supposed, presented, nevertheless, a picture of the -ecclesiastical usages of an age a thousand years earlier than Colet's; and -putting the earlier and the later usages in contrast, it was impossible -for him not to perceive at once how much more pure and rational in its -spirit and tendencies was the ancient Dionysian system than the more -modern Papal one. - -[Sidenote: The Dionysian sacerdotal and ritualistic system is radically -different from the Papal.] - -Both were sacerdotal and ritualistic; but the sacerdotalism and ritualism -of Dionysius were radically opposed in spirit to those of the more modern -system. During the interval between the fifth and the fifteenth century, -sacerdotalism had had time to turn almost literally upside-down, and -ritualism with it. It was thus quite natural that Colet, in the light of -Dionysius, should find 'all things wretchedly disturbed and confounded.' - -[Sidenote: The object of religion not to propitiate the Deity, but to -change the heart of man.] - -The Dionysian theory, however speculative and vicious as such, at least -according to Colet's version of it, did not, like the modern theory, tend -towards that grossest heathen conception of religion, according to which -its main object is the propitiation of the Deity, rather than the changing -of the heart of man. - -Its gospel was not that Christ offered his sacrifice to propitiate an -unreconciled God--to reconcile God to man. On the contrary, it told of a -God who is 'beautiful and good,'[134] who had created all things because -He is good, because He is good recalling[135] all things to Himself, by -the sacrifice of Himself redeeming them, not from His own wrath, but from -the power of Evil. - -[Sidenote: Cur Deus Homo?] - -[Sidenote: Colet on the 'marvellous victory' of a 'suffering Christ.'] - -The following passage may be taken in illustration of this:--'When, -directly after the creation, foolish human nature was allured by the -seductive enticements of the enemy, and fell away from God into a womanish -and dying condition, and was rolling headlong down with rapid course to -death itself, then at length, in His own time, our good, and tender, and -kind, and gentle, and merciful God, giving us all good things at once in -place of all that was bad, willed to take upon Him human nature, and to -enter into it, and rescue it from the power of the adversary, overthrowing -and destroying his empire. For, as St. Paul writes to the Hebrews, -"Forasmuch as the children"--or servants--"are partakers of flesh and -blood," ... therefore also God himself "made himself of no reputation, and -took upon him the form of a servant," and "himself likewise took part of -the same" flesh and blood--that is, human nature--"that through death he -might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and -deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to -bondage:" that he might destroy, I say, that enemy, not by force, but (as -Dionysius says) by judgment and righteousness; which he calls a hidden -thing and a _mystery_.[136] For it was a marvellous victory, that the -Devil, though victorious, in the very fact of his conquering, should be -conquered; and that Jesus should conquer in the very fact of his being -vanquished on the cross; so that in reality, in the victory on each side, -the matter was otherwise than it seemed. And thus when the adversary that -vanquished man was himself vanquished by God, man was restored, without -giving any just cause of complaint to the devil, to the liberty and light -of God. There was shown to him the path to heaven, trodden by the feet of -Christ, whose footsteps we must follow if we would arrive where he has -gone. A suffering Christ, I say (most marvellous!), and dying as though -vanquished, overcame.... By that death we have been rescued from the dead, -and are the servants of God.'[137] - -[Sidenote: Object of Christ's death.] - -Quaint and curious as this view of the connection between the sacrifice of -Christ and the just conquest of the power of Evil may seem to modern ears, -it reflects faithfully the view most current amongst the early Greek -Fathers; and it has at least this merit, that it cannot be translated into -the language of the heathen doctrine of propitiation. - -[Sidenote: Modern 'priests' act _on behalf of man_ before God.] - -It followed that, as the Dionysian theory left no place for the notion -that the sacrifice of Christ was offered to reconcile God to man (seeing -that it upheld the doctrine that it was the sheep that had gone astray, -and rejected the doctrine that the Shepherd had ever deserted the sheep), -so it left no place for a sacerdotal order, according to the heathen -notion of a priesthood. Its priests were not priests according to the -modern definition. It did not--it could not--represent its priesthood as -appearing as heathen priests did (and as some modern priests seem to think -they do)[138] on _behalf of man_ before God, presenting men's offerings to -him. If Christ's office, according to Dionysius, were emphatically to -_plead with men_, to bring _them_ back, so the priest's office was to act -in his stead in the same work. - -[Sidenote: According to Dionysius and Colet, priests act on behalf of God -towards man.] - -The following passage from Colet's abstract presents these two dependent -facts in their proper connection:--'Christ's office on earth the bishops -[elsewhere he speaks of priests and bishops as identical] everywhere -discharge, and in Him act as He acted, and with like zeal strive for the -purification, illumination, and salvation of mankind by constant preaching -of the truth and diffusion of Gospel light, even as He strove. St. Paul -says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing -their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of -reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ." Acting in -Christ's stead, they fan the fire which Christ came to send upon the -earth.... (Luke xii. 49, 50.) He baptized, as John testifies, "with the -Holy Ghost and with fire." For fire purifies, illumines, and perfects. -That fire of the Spirit does this in the souls of men. For the increasing -of this wholesome conflagration amid the forest of men, the bishops are -vicars and ministers of Jesus, and they seek the kindling of mankind in -God. Now this fire is, I doubt not, the holy love of God.[139]... And the -messenger of this goodness, compassion, love, and tenderness of God was -his lovely son Jesus Christ, who ... brought down love to men, that they -being born anew by love, might in turn love their heavenly Father along -with Him.'[140] - -[Sidenote: Modern and Dionysian ritualism very different.] - -The Dionysian theory of sacerdotalism being thus, in its spirit and -attitude, an exact inversion of the modern one, it might naturally be -expected that the Dionysian ritualism would, in like manner, involve an -inversion of modern ritualistic notions. - -This was the case. Instead of idolizing the sacraments as of mystic power -and virtue in themselves, the Dionysian theory represented them as -divinely instituted ceremonies intended to draw mankind by types and -shadows upward to God. - -[Sidenote: The Eucharist.] - -[Sidenote: Baptism.] - -[Sidenote: Sponsors.] - -[Sidenote: Priests have no power of loosing and binding.] - -It did not, like modern ritualism, tend towards the view that the -Eucharist is a _sacrifice_ in the heathen sense--a continued offering by a -human priesthood of the sacrifice of Christ.[141] On the contrary, it -represented this sacrament as commemorative of the death of Christ, and as -symbolic of the professed communion on the part of men with Christ, and -with one another.[142] It did not set forth the sacrament of baptism as -modern ritualists are so fond of doing, as effecting there and then the -regeneration of the person baptized. But it regarded baptism as a symbolic -_profession_ of change of heart--as the ceremony in which the believer -openly takes his soldier's oath to Christ, and promises amended -life.[143] It did not represent the sponsors as promising or professing -_in the child's stead_, that he is then and there regenerated, but -promising that they themselves will do all they can to bring him up as a -child of God.[144] It did not admit in any sacerdotal order, any power to -remit or retain sin, to bind or to loose. On the contrary, it regarded -the priests as God's ministers, who ought to keep in communion with Him, -so that receiving intimation by the Spirit of what is already bound or -loosed in heaven, they may disclose it on earth.[145] - - * * * * * - -If any sacerdotal theory could be believable, it must be confessed, there -is an intrinsically rational and _Christian_ tone about the Dionysian -theory according to Colet's rendering of it, strangely lacking in that of -modern sacerdotalists. - -Forgetting for the moment the speculative adjuncts to the theory, the -professed knowledge of mysteries unknown, which Colet's belief in -Dionysius obliged him to accept, but which did not add any force to the -theory itself, it will be seen at once how powerful a rebuke he must have -felt it to be to the ecclesiastical scandals of the closing years of the -fifteenth century. It assumed, as the essential attribute of any -sacerdotal order laying claim to apostolic institution, the attribute of a -really pure and personal holiness. No merely official sanctity imputed -outwardly to a consecrated order, by virtue of its outward consecration, -could possibly satisfy its requirements.[146] And in the same way the -sacraments were nothing apart from the personal spiritual realities which -they were meant to symbolize. - -[Sidenote: Religion consists in _love_.] - -Underneath, therefore, the wild excess of symbolism and speculation which -lay on the surface, and formed, as it were, the _froth_ of the Dionysian -theology, Colet seems to have found this basis of eternal truth, that -religion is a thing of the heart, not of creed nor of ceremonial -observances; that, in Colet's own rendering of the Dionysian -theory:--'Knowledge leads not to eternal life, but _love_. Whoso loveth -God is known of Him. Ignorant love has a thousand times more power than -cold wisdom.'[147] - -Colet's abstracts of the Dionysian treatises abound with passages -expressive of the purity and holiness of heart required of the Christian, -and of the necessity of his love not being merely of the contemplative -kind, but an active love working for Christ and his fellowmen. The -following extracts may be taken as illustrations of this. - -[Sidenote: The purity of Christians.] - -In concluding the chapter on the meaning of baptism Colet -exclaims:--'Gracious God! here may one perceive how cleansed and how pure -he that professes Christ ought to be; how inwardly and thoroughly washed; -how white, how shining, how utterly without blemish or spot; in fine, how -perfected and filled, according to his measure, with Christ himself.... -May Jesus Christ himself bring it to pass, that we who profess Christ may -both be, and set our affections on, and do all things that are worthy of -our profession.'[148] - -[Sidenote: Self-sacrifice for others a blessed thing.] - -Speaking of the anointing after baptism of the soldier of Christ, Colet -says:--'You must strive that you may conquer; you must conquer that you -maybe crowned. Fight in Him who fights in you and prevails--even Jesus -Christ, who has declared war against death, and fights in all.... It is -the rule of combat that we should imitate our leader.... We have no -enemies except sin (which is ever against us), and the evil spirits that -tempt to sin. When these are vanquished in ourselves, then let us, armed -with the armour of God, in charity succour others, even though they be not -for suffering us, even though in their folly they see not their bondage, -even though they would put their deliverers to death. So to love man as to -die in caring for his salvation is most blessed.'[149] - -[Sidenote: Colet on the Pope.] - -These passages may also be taken as evidence how fully Colet had caught -hold of the spirit, not merely of the froth, of the Dionysian doctrine; -how he had approached it in earnest search after practical religion, and -not merely in the love of speculation. They will also do much to explain -how, drinking deeply at this well of mystic religion, he came back from -Italy, not a mere Neo-Platonic philosopher or 'humanist,' but a practical -Reformer. In Italy he had become acquainted with the scandals of Alexander -VI. In his abstract of Dionysius, in speaking of '_the highest Bishop whom -we call "the Pope,"_' he bursts out into these indignant sentences:--'If -he be a lawful bishop, he of himself does nothing, but God in him. But if -he do attempt anything of _himself_, he is then a breeder of poison. And -if he also bring this to the birth, and carry into execution his own will, -he is wickedly distilling poison to the destruction of the Church. This -has now indeed been done for many years past, and has by this time so -increased as to take powerful hold on all members of the Church; so that, -unless that Mediator who alone can do so, who created and founded the -church out of nothing for Himself (therefore does St. Paul often call it a -"creature")--unless, I say, the Mediator Jesus lay to his hand with all -speed, our most disordered church cannot be far from death.... Men consult -not God on what is to be done, by constant prayer, but take counsel with -men, whereby they shake and overthrow everything. All (as we must own with -grief, and as I write with both grief and tears) seek their own, not the -things which are Jesus Christ's, not heavenly things but earthly, what -will bring them to death, not what will bring them to life eternal.'[150] - -[Sidenote: Colet on the wickedness of priests.] - -The following passage also burns with Colet's zeal for ecclesiastical -reform:--'Here let every priest observe, by that sacrament of washing -[before celebration of the eucharist], how clean, how scoured, how fresh -he ought to be, who would handle the heavenly mysteries, and especially -the sacrament of the Lord's body; how such ought to be so washed and -scoured and polished inwardly, as that not so much as a shadow be left in -the mind whereby the incoming light may be in any wise obscured, and that -not a trace of sin may remain to prevent God from walking in the temple of -our mind. Oh priests! Oh priesthood! Oh the detestable boldness of wicked -men in this our generation! Oh the abominable impiety of those miserable -priests, of whom this age of ours contains a great multitude, who fear not -to rush from the bosom of some foul harlot into the temple of the Church, -to the altar of Christ, to the mysteries of God! Abandoned creatures! on -whom the vengeance of God will one day fall the heavier, the more -shamelessly they have intruded themselves on the Divine office. O Jesu -Christ, wash for us, not our feet only, but our hands and our head!'[151] - -[Sidenote: The zeal is Colet's, not Dionysian.] - -In conclusion, I must remind the reader that it would not be fair to take -this sketch of Colet's abstract of the Dionysian treatises as in any sense -an abstract of the treatises themselves. What I have tried to do is, to -show in what Colet's own mind was influenced by them. The passages I have -quoted are not passages from Dionysius but from Colet. The radical -conception is most often due to Dionysius; the passages themselves -represent the effervescence produced by the Dionysian conceptions in -Colet's mind. The enthusiasm--the fire which they kindled there they would -not have kindled in every one's breast. The fire was indeed very much -Colet's own. I find passages which _burn_ in Colet's abstract _freeze_ in -the original. Whilst, therefore, acknowledging the influence of the -Dionysian writings upon Colet's mind, it must not be forgotten that this -influence was exerted upon the mind of a man not only already acquainted -with the writings of the modern Neo-Platonists and of the Greek Fathers, -but also already devoted to the study of the Scriptures, and bent upon -drawing out for himself from themselves their direct practical meaning. - -[Sidenote: Germs of true scientific thought in Dionysius.] - -The truth is, that just as in the Greek Fathers, with all their tendency -to allegorise Scripture, there was combined a rational critical element -which formed the germ of a sounder and more scientific method of -Scriptural interpretation--a germ which fructified whenever it fell into a -soil suited to its growth, whether in the fifth and sixth or in the -fifteenth and sixteenth centuries--so in the Pseudo-Dionysian philosophy, -with all its unscientific tendency to revel in the wildest speculation, -there were combined germs of true scientific thought, which in like manner -were sure to fructify in such a mind as Colet's. - -[Sidenote: The relativity of all knowledge.] - -Thus in the Dionysian doctrine that God is inscrutable--that all human -knowledge is relative--that man cannot rise to a knowledge of the -absolute--that therefore no conceptions men can form of God can be -accurate, and no language in which they speak of Him can be more than -clumsy analogy--in this principle there is the germ of a rational -understanding of the necessary conditions of Divine revelation involving -the admission of the necessity of _accommodation_ and the _human_ element -in Scripture. Again, in the doctrine that whilst, in this sense, the -_knowledge_ of God is impossible to man, the _love_ of God is not so, -there lies the basis of truth on which alone science can be reconciled -with religion, and religion itself become a power of life. - -Lastly, in the very attempt, so striking throughout Dionysius, to find -out in the sacerdotal and sacramental system a symbolic meaning, who does -not recognise the attempt to find out a _rational intention_ in its -institution, which should make it believable in an age of reviving -philosophy and science? - - -V. COLET LECTURES ON 'I. CORINTHIANS' (1497?). - -[Sidenote: Colet's lectures on Corinthians. MSS. at Cambridge.] - -If the manuscript exposition of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians -preserved at Cambridge, apparently in Colet's own handwriting, with his -own latest corrections,[152] may be taken as evidence of what his lectures -on this epistle were, it may be of some value, apart from its own -intrinsic interest, in enabling us to judge how far he adhered to the same -leading views and method of exposition which he had before adopted, and -how far, in preceding chapters, we have been able to judge rightly of what -they were. - -I think it will be found that this exposition of the Epistle to the -Corinthians is in perfect harmony with all which had preceded it, and that -it shows evident traces of those phases of thought through which Colet had -been passing since his arrival at Oxford. - -Its striking characteristic, like that on the 'Romans,' would seem to be -the pains taken to regard it throughout as the letter of a living apostle -to an actual church. - -[Sidenote: Colet's love for St. Paul.] - -On the one hand, it teems with passages which show the depth of Colet's -almost personal affection for St. Paul, and the clearness with which he -realised the special characteristics of St. Paul's character; his extreme -consideration for others,[153] his modesty,[154] his tolerance, his wise -tact and prudence,[155] his self-denial for others' good.[156] - -[Sidenote: Colet studies the character of the Corinthians.] - -On the other hand, no less conspicuous is the attempt on Colet's part to -realise the condition and peculiar character and circumstances of the -Corinthians, to whom the apostle was writing, as the true key to the -practical meaning of the epistle. - -[Sidenote: Pride of the Greek nation.] - -Thus Colet, in treating of the commencement of the epistle--an epistle -intended to correct the conduct of the Corinthians in some practical -points in which they had erred--stops to admire the wisdom of St. Paul's -method in speaking first of that part of their conduct which he could -praise, before he proceeded to blame. And this he did, Colet thought, -'that by this gentle and mild beginning he might draw them on to read the -rest of his epistle, and lead them to listen more easily to what he had to -blame in their conduct. For (Colet continues) had he at once at starting -been rougher, and accused them more severely, he might indeed have driven -away from himself and his exhortations minds as yet tender and -inexperienced in religion, especially those of that Greek nation, so -arrogant and proud, and prone to be disdainful.[157] Prudently, therefore, -and cautiously had the matter to be handled, having due regard to persons, -places, and seasons, in his observance of which Paul was surely the one -most considerate of all men, who knew so well how to accommodate the means -to the end, that while he sought nothing else but the glory of Jesus -Christ upon earth, and the increase of faith and charity, this man with -divine skill neither did nor omitted anything ever amongst any which -should impede or retard these objects.'[158] - -[Sidenote: Colet describes the state of the Corinthian Church.] - -The same method receives a further illustration from the way in which -Colet draws a picture of the condition of the Corinthian church, evidently -feeling while he did so, how closely in some points it resembled the -condition of the church in his own day. He surely must have had the -Schoolmen in his mind, as he described some among the Corinthians, -'derogating from the authority of the Apostles, and especially of St. -Paul, whose name ought to have had the greatest weight amongst them, -setting up institutions in the church according to their own fancy and in -their own wisdom, making the people believe that they knew all about -everything which pertained to the Christian religion, and that they could -easily solve and give an opinion upon every point of doubt that might -arise. So that, in this infant church, many things had come to be allowed -which were abhorrent from the institutions of Paul, wherefrom had arisen -divisions and factions, between which were constant contentions and -altercations, so that all things were going wrong.'[159] - -[Sidenote: St. Paul's modesty and tact.] - -Colet's almost personal affection for St. Paul enabled him also to -realise how, being the 'first parent of the Corinthian church,' he was -'troubled' at this state of things, not so much at their having tried to -undermine his own authority, as at the danger they were in of making -shipwreck of their faith, after all his pains in piloting their vessel. -'Therefore, as far as he dared and could' (writes Colet), 'he upbraided -those who wished to seem wise, and who conducted the affairs of the -Christian republic more according to their own fancies than according to -the will of God. Which, however, he did everywhere most modestly; the most -pious man seeking rather the reformation of the evils than the blame of -any.' And therefore it was (Colet thought), that St. Paul in his whole -epistle, and especially in the first part of it, strove to assert that men -of themselves can know and do nothing, to eradicate the false foundation -of trust in themselves, and to lead them to Christ, who alone is the -wisdom of God and the power of God.[160] - -And here again, after following St. Paul's statement, that the wisdom of -man being foolishness, God had chosen the foolish rather than the wise to -hear him and to preach his gospel, Colet was led off into a train of -thought which harmonises well with what has been stated in previous -chapters, in that it shows how fully he had accepted the Dionysian -writings as the genuine writings of St. Paul's disciple, and how closely -he associated in his mind the name of the disciple with that of the -master. - -[Sidenote: Dionysius the Areopagite.] - -For he exclaims, 'What if sometimes some men, endowed with secular wisdom -such as Paul and his disciple, Dionysius the Areopagite, and a few -others, were chosen both to receive the truths of his wisdom, and to teach -them to others, these indeed in teaching others what they had learned from -God, took the greatest pains to appear to know nothing according to this -world, thinking it unworthy to mix up human reason with Divine -revelations.... Hence Paul, in wise and learned Greece, was not afraid to -seem in himself a fool and weak, and to profess that he knew nothing but -Jesus Christ and Him crucified.'[161] - -Then follows a passage in which Colet states, in his own language, what -Paul meant when he preached 'Christ crucified;'[162] a passage very -similar to that already quoted from his abstract of Dionysius, and bearing -the same marks of the modes of thought of a man who, as is affirmed of -Colet, was more inclined to follow Dionysius, Origen, and Jerome, than St. -Augustine. - -[Sidenote: The election of men by God not capricious.] - -Nor did Colet in this exposition show himself to be any more inclined to -follow Augustine upon the question of election than he showed himself in -his exposition of 'the Romans.' He is indeed ready enough to admit, that -men never could of themselves rise out of the darkness of worldly wisdom -to 'accept the wonderful miracle of Christ,'--'such is the miserable and -lost condition of men;' and yet he does not fall into the pitfall of -Augustine's doctrine, that men were chosen wholly without reference to -their own characters. 'It would seem,' he said, 'that it was not without -reason that God chose, out of the crowd of men grovelling in the darkness -of worldly wisdom, those who had not fallen so far into the depths of this -darkness, and so could more easily be touched by the divine light.... If -God himself be nobility, wisdom, and power, who does not see that Peter, -John, and James, and others like them, even before the truth of God had -shone in the world, surpassed others in wisdom and strength, in proportion -as they were free from their foolishness and impotence, so that no wonder -if God chose those _held_ foolish and impotent, since indeed they were -really the most noble of all the world, most separate, and standing out -farthest from the vileness of the world; so that just as that land which -rises highest is touched by the rays of the rising sun most easily and -most quickly, so in the same way it was of necessity that, at the rising -of that light which lighteth every man coming into this world, it should -first light up those who rose highest amongst men, and stood out, like -mountains in the valleys of men.'[163] - -[Sidenote: Accommodation.] - -The striking characteristic of Colet's letters to Radulphus was the stress -laid upon the principle of _accommodation_ on the part of the teacher to -the limited capacities of the taught. This is another point which crops up -again in the MS. on Corinthians. When Colet turned to the practical -teaching of St. Paul to the Corinthians, he seems to have been struck with -the fact, that the rules which St. Paul laid down with reference to -marriage and the like, were to be explained upon this principle.[164] - -[Sidenote: Colet on marriage.] - -Carried away by the authority of the Dionysian writings, Colet seems not -only to have held the doctrine of the celibacy of the clergy, but even to -have regarded marriage as allowed to the laity only by way of concession -to the weakness of the flesh. He had expressed this view in his MS. -treatise on 'the Sacraments,' and he repeated it, under cover of St. -Paul's allusions to marriage in the Epistle to the Corinthians. - -[Sidenote: Dionysian influence visible.] - -[Sidenote: The celestial spheres and hierarchy.] - -The influence of the Dionysian writings is indeed very frequently evident. -Again and again the phraseology used by Colet betrays it, and sometimes a -Dionysian turn of thought leads to a long digression. As might be -expected, a notable example of this occurs when Colet treats of the -chapters in the epistle with which the Dionysian theory of the celestial -hierarchy was intimately connected; in which St. Paul speaks, on the one -hand, of the church as one body with many members, and, on the other, of -celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial, and their differing order of -glory. It was probably about the time that Colet was lecturing on -Corinthians that Linacre was translating the work of Proclus, a -Neo-Platonist of the Alexandrian School, 'De Spherâ;' and Grocyn writing a -preface to Linacre's translation in the form of a letter to Aldus, the -great printer at Venice, by whom it was afterwards published in 1499, in -an edition of the 'Astronomi veteres.'[165] Astronomy was one of the -sciences which the revival of learning had brought into prominence.[166] -At this very moment Copernicus was pursuing in Italy those studies which -resulted in the overturning of the Ptolemaic system. That system, however, -which had become inseparably interwoven with scholastic theology, was as -yet in undisputed ascendancy. Its crystalline spheres had for generations -been devoutly believed in by the Schoolmen, and classed by them among -'things celestial;' and as Luther stood in awe at their magic motions, as -'no doubt done by some angel,'[167] so poor Colet was led, by Dionysian -influence, to draw strange fanciful analogies between their 'differing -order of glory' and that of the 'celestial hierarchy.'[168] Thus it came -to pass that his exposition of the Epistle to the Corinthians was even -disfigured with diagrams to illustrate these fancied analogies. - -[Sidenote: Colet's zeal for reform.] - -Whilst thus pointing out the evidence that Colet was led astray by his -unsuspecting confidence in the genuineness of the Dionysian writings, into -doubtful speculations of this kind, and notions upon even practical -points, from which his own English common sense, if left to itself, might -have protected him, it is but fair to point out also the evidence -contained in this manuscript, of that zeal for ecclesiastical reform which -the purity of the Dionysian ideal of the priesthood at all events helped -to inflame. There is one passage especially, in which he bursts out into -an indignant rebuke of those 'narrow and small minds' who do not see that -constant contention and litigation about secular matters on the part of -the clergy 'is a scandal to the church.' Their folly, he thinks, would be -ridiculous, were it not rather to be wept over than laughed at, seeing -that it so injures and almost destroys the church. 'These lost fools (he -continues) of which this our age is full, amongst whom there are some who, -to say the least, ought not to be clergymen at all, but who nevertheless -are regarded as bishops in the church--these lost fools, I say, utterly -ignorant of gospel and apostolic doctrine, ignorant of Divine justice, -ignorant of Christian truth, are wont to say, that the cause of God, the -rights of the church, the patrimony of Christ, the possessions of priests, -_ought_ to be defended by them, and that it would be a sin to neglect to -defend them. O narrowness, O blindness of these men!... with eyes duller -than fishes!' Colet then points out how the church is brought into -disrepute with the laity by their worldly proceedings; whereas, if the -clergy lived in the love of God and their neighbour, how soon would their -'true piety, religion, charity, goodness towards men, simplicity, -patience, tolerance of evil ... conquer evil with good! How would it stir -up the minds of men everywhere to think well of the church of Christ! How -would they favour it, love it, be good and liberal towards it, heap gift -upon gift upon it, when they saw in the clergy no avarice, no abuse of -their liberality!'... Finally, after saying that to a priesthood seeking -first the promotion and extension of the kingdom of God upon earth, -neither asking nor expecting anything, all things would have been added; -and asking with what face those, who differ from the laity only in dress -and external appearance, can demand much from the laity, Colet exclaims, -'Good God! how should we be ashamed of this descent into the world, if we -were mindful of the love of God towards us, of the example of Christ, of -the dignity of the Christian religion, of our name and profession.'[169] - -[Sidenote: Imitation of Christ.] - -[Sidenote: Character of Christ.] - -Passing from this one example of Colet's zeal for ecclesiastical reform, -there remains only to be mentioned one other feature of this exposition of -Colet's which must not be overlooked; a feature which might seem to show -that Colet was not wholly unacquainted with the writings of men of the -school of Tauler and Thomas à Kempis, and which seems to connect itself -with a remark of Colet's, reported by Erasmus, that he had met on his -travels with some German monks, amongst whom were still to be found traces -of primitive religion.[170] I allude to the warmth with which Colet urges -the necessity of following the perfect but not impossible[171] _example of -Christ_, of Christians being bound in a relationship with Him, so close -that their joint love for Christ shall form a bond of brotherhood between -themselves more close than that of blood:[172] so that what is for the -good of the brethren will become the test of what is lawful in Christian -practice[173]--the earnestness with which he tried to realise the secret -of that wonderful example, concluding that it lay in Christ's keeping -himself as retired as possible from the world--from the lust of the flesh, -the lust of the eye, and the pride of life--and as close as possible to -God--in his whole soul being dedicated to God. 'He was,' writes Colet, -altogether 'pious, kind, gentle, merciful, patient of evil, bearing -injuries, in his own integrity shunning empty popular fame, forbidding -both men and demons to publish his mighty power, in his goodness always -doing good even to the evil, as his Father makes His sun to rise on the -just and on the unjust.... His body He held altogether in obedience and -service to his blessed mind ...; eating after long fasts, sleeping after -long watching ...; caring nothing for what belongs to wealth and fortune. -His eye was single, so that his whole body was full of light.... Such is -the leader whom we have on the heavenly road ...; whom, without doubt, if -we do not follow with our whole strength toward heaven, as far as we are -able, we shall never get there!'[174] - -[Sidenote: Colet's love for St. Paul, but greater love for Christ.] - -If Colet had risen out of Neo-Platonism to Dionysius and from Dionysius to -St. Paul, it is evident that he did not rest even there. How in the -following few words, overflowing as they do with his personal love for -St. Paul, does he give vent to a still more tender love and reverence for -_Christ_! - - [Sidenote: Colet's love for Christ.] - - 'Here I stand amazed, and exclaim those words of _my Paul_, "Oh the - depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" O wisdom! - wonderfully good to men and merciful, how justly thy loving-kindness - can be called the "depth of riches"!--Thou who commending thy love - towards us hast chosen to be so bountiful to us that Thou givest - thyself for us, that we may return to Thee and to God. O holy, O kind, - O beneficent wisdom! O voice, word, and truth of God in man! - truth-speaking and truth-acting! who hast chosen to teach us humanly - that we may know divinely; who hast chosen to be in man that we may be - in God; who lastly hast chosen in man to be humbled even unto - death--the death even of the cross--that we may be exalted even unto - life, the life even of God.'[175] - -[Sidenote: Contrast between Colet's method and the Schoolmen's.] - -It may safely be concluded, that if Colet's manuscript expositions -preserved at Cambridge may be taken as evidence of the nature of his -public lectures, they may well have excited all the interest which they -seem to have done. Doctors of Divinity, coming to listen at first that -they might find something definite to censure, might well indeed find -something to learn. Amongst the students, probably, the seed found a soil -in some degree prepared to receive it. But it must have required an effort -on the part of the most candid and honest adherents of the traditional -school to reach the standpoint from which alone Colet's method of free -critical interpretation could be found to be in perfect harmony with his -evident love and reverence for the Scriptures. _They_ attributed an extent -of Divine inspiration to the apostle which placed his words on a level in -authority with those of the Saviour himself; while Colet, we are told (and -some of the passages last quoted seem to confirm the statement), was wont -to declare, 'that when he turned from the Apostles to the wonderful -majesty of Christ, their writings, much as he loved them, seemed to him to -become poor, as it were, in comparison' [with the words of their -Lord].[176] - -Yet they could hardly fail to see, whether they would or not, that while -their own system left the Scriptures hidden in the background, Colet's -method brought them out into the light, and invested them with a sense of -reality and sacredness which pressed them home at once to the heart. - - -VI. GROCYN'S DISCOVERY (1498 ?). - -Colet was not alone at Oxford in his regard for the Pseudo-Dionysian -writings. - -[Sidenote: Grocyn discovers that the Pseudo-Dionysius was not the disciple -of St. Paul.] - -Grocyn was so impressed with the genuineness and value of the 'Celestial -Hierarchy,' that he consented to deliver a course of lectures upon it, -about this time, in St. Paul's Cathedral. But having commenced his course -by very strongly asserting its genuineness, and harshly condemning -Laurentius Valla and others who had started doubts, it chanced that when -he had proceeded with his lectures for some weeks, he became himself -convinced, by strong internal evidence, that the work was not written by a -disciple of St. Paul; and being an honest man seeking for truth, and not -arguing for argument's sake, was obliged candidly to confess the -unpleasant discovery to his audience.[177] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Effect of the discovery on Colet's mind.] - -What effect this unexpected discovery of Grocyn's had upon the mind of -Colet we are not distinctly informed. Whether Grocyn was able to convince -him of the truth of his mature judgment does not directly appear.[178] He -had so earnestly embraced the Dionysian writings, and they had produced so -profound an impression upon his mind, that it may readily be believed that -he would be very unwilling to admit that they were spurious. Nor, perhaps, -was it needful that he should do so. For, however clearly it might be -proved that they were not written by the disciple of St. Paul, it did not -therefore follow that they were merely a forgery. The Pseudo-Dionysius, -whoever he was, must have been not the less a man of vast moral power and -deep Christian feeling; and possibly he may have had no fraudulent -intention in using the pseudonym of the Areopagite, if he did so. The -conscience of the age in which he lived, so lax on the point of pious -fraud, may possibly have sanctioned his doing so. - -It has already been seen that, in accepting the Dionysian speculations, -Colet did so because he believed Dionysius himself to have simply -committed to writing what he had heard from the Apostles themselves, and -because he felt bound to believe that he '_took the greatest pains to -appear to know nothing according to this world, thinking it unworthy to -mix up human reason with divine revelations_.'[179] - -Supposing that Grocyn's discovery had convinced Colet that the -speculations of the Dionysian writings were not of apostolic origin--were, -in fact, products of merely 'human reason' which the Pseudo-Dionysius had -'mixed up' with Scripture truth, as Augustine and the Schoolmen had mixed -up with it their scholastic speculations, it is clear that he would be -bound by the principle set forth in the above passage, to reject the -Dionysian speculations as he had already rejected those of the Schoolmen. - -[Sidenote: Colet driven more than ever to the Bible.] - -He would be bound to treat the speculations of the Pseudo-Dionysius as of -no more authority than those of St. Augustine or Origen, and the practical -result would be likely to be, that he would be thrown back more completely -than ever upon the Bible itself, and continue all the more earnestly to -apply to its interpretation the sound, common-sense, historical methods -which he had already applied so successfully to the exposition of the -Epistles of St. Paul. - -In the meantime it may be readily imagined that, to a man of such deep -feeling and impulsive nature, as the occasional outbursts of burning zeal -in his writings show Colet to have been, such a disappointment would leave -a sore place to which he would not care often to recur in conversation -with his friends. - -Such a shock as Grocyn's discovery must have been to him, may have simply -produced in his mind a sense of bewilderment ending in a suspended -judgment. He may have returned to his accustomed work feeling more than -ever the uncertainty of human speculations, an humbler, a stronger, though -perhaps a sadder man, more than ever inclined to cling closely to the -Scriptures and his beloved St. Paul, and even ready sometimes to turn with -relief, as we are told he did with admiration, from the involved -logic[180] of the Apostle to the simple majesty of Christ! - - - - -CHAPTER III. - - -I. ERASMUS COMES TO OXFORD (1498). - -[Sidenote: The character of Erasmus.] - -In the spring or summer of 1498, the foreign scholar--Erasmus of -Rotterdam--arrived at Oxford, brought over to England by Lord Mountjoy -from Paris.[181] Erasmus was an entire stranger in England; he did not -know a word of English, but was at once most hospitably received into the -College of St. Mary the Virgin, by the prior Richard Charnock. Colet had -indeed, as already mentioned, heard Erasmus spoken of at Paris as a -learned scholar,[182] but as yet no work of his had risen into note, nor -was even his name generally known. He was scarcely turned thirty--just the -age of Colet;[183] but in his wasted sallow cheeks and sunken eyes were -but few traces left of the physical vigour of early manhood. In place of -the glow of health and strength, were lines which told that midnight oil, -bad lodging, and the harassing life of a poor student, driven about and -ill-served as he had been, had already broken what must have been at best -a frail constitution. But the worn scabbard told of the sharpness and -temper of the steel within. His was a mind restless for mental work, now -fighting through the obstacles of ill-health and poverty, in pursuit of -its natural bent, as it had once had to fight its way out of monastic -thraldom to secure the freedom of action which such a mind required. - -[Sidenote: His object in coming to Oxford.] - -Though well schooled and stored with learning, yet he had not come to -Oxford to teach, or to make a name by display of intellectual power, but -simply to add new branches of knowledge to those already acquired. Greek -was now to be learned there--thanks to the efforts of Grocyn and -Linacre--and Erasmus had come to Oxford bent upon adding a knowledge of -Greek to his Latin lore. To belong to that little knot of men north of -the Alps who already knew Greek--whose number yet might be counted on his -fingers--this had now become his immediate object of ambition. What he -meant to do with his tools when he had got them, probably was a question -to be decided by circumstances rather than by any very definite plan of -his own. To gain his living by taking pupils, and to live the life of a -scholar at some continental university, was probably the future floating -indistinctly before him. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus is introduced to Colet.] - -Prior Charnock seems to have at once appreciated Erasmus. He did all in -his power to give him a warm welcome to the university.[184] He seems to -have taken him at once to hear Colet lecture;[185] and he very soon -informed Colet that his new guest turned out to be no ordinary man.[186] -Upon this report Colet wrote to Erasmus a graceful and gentlemanly -letter,[187] giving him a hearty welcome to England and to Oxford, and -professing his readiness to serve him. - -Erasmus replied, warmly accepting Colet's friendship, but at the same time -telling him plainly that he would find in him a man of slender or rather -of no fortune, with no ambition, but warm and open-hearted, simple, -liberal, honest, but timid, and of few words. Beyond this he must expect -nothing. But if Colet could love such a man--if he thought such a man -worthy of his friendship--he might then count him as his own.[188] - -[Sidenote: Colet and Erasmus become warm friends.] - -Colet _did_ think such a man worthy of his friendship, and from that -moment Erasmus and he were the best of friends. The lord mayor's son, born -to wealth and all that wealth could command, whilst steeling his heart -against the allurements of city and court life, eagerly received into his -bosom-friendship the poor foreign scholar, whom fortune had used so -hardly, whose orphaned youth had been embittered by the treachery of -dishonest guardians, and who, robbed of his slender patrimony and cast -adrift upon the world without resources, had hitherto scarcely been able -to keep himself from want by giving lessons to private pupils. Whether he -was likely to find in the foreign scholar the fulfilment of his yearnings -after fellowship, it will be for further chapters of this history to -disclose. - - -II. TABLE-TALK ON THE SACRIFICE OF CAIN AND ABEL (1498?). - -[Sidenote: Table-talk at Oxford.] - -It chanced that, after the delivery of a Latin sermon, the preacher--an -accomplished divine--was a guest at the long table in one of the Oxford -halls. Colet presided. The divine took the seat of honour to the left of -Colet; Charnock, the hospitable prior, sat opposite; Erasmus next to the -divine; and a lawyer opposite to him. Below them, on either side, a mixed -and nameless group filled up the table. At first the tide of table-talk -ebbed and flowed upon trivial subjects. The conversation turned at length -upon the sacrifices of Cain and Abel--why the one was accepted and the -other not. - -[Sidenote: Colet's views upon sacrifice.] - -[Sidenote: The difference between Cain and Abel in the _men_, not in the -offerings.] - -Colet--if we may judge from the earnest way in which, in his exposition of -the Epistle to the Romans, he had urged the uselessness of outward -sacrifices, unless accompanied by that _living sacrifice_ of heart and -mind which they were meant to typify--was not likely to advocate any view -which should attribute the acceptance of the one offering and the -rejection of the other, merely to any difference in the offerings -themselves. He would be sure to place the difference in the _character of -the men_. Colet seems on this occasion to have done so, and to have -fancied he saw in the different occupations chosen by the two brothers -evidence of the different spirit under which they acted. The exact course -of the conversation we have no means of following. All we know is, that -Colet took one side, and Erasmus and the divine the other, and that the -chief bone of contention was the suggestion thrown out by Colet, that Cain -had in the first instance offended the Almighty by his distrust in the -Divine beneficence, and too great confidence in his own art and industry, -and that this was proved by his having been the first to attempt to till -the cursed ground; while Abel, with greater resignation, and resting -content with what nature still spontaneously yielded, had chosen the -gentle occupation of a shepherd.[189] - -There may have been something fanciful in the view urged by Colet, but it -is evident that it covered a truth which he could not give up, however -hard and long his opponents might argue. - -Erasmus was astonished at Colet's earnestness and power. He seemed to him -'like one inspired. In his voice, his eye, his whole countenance and -mien, he seemed raised, as it were, out of himself.'[190] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus makes up a story about Cain.] - -Erasmus and the divine both felt themselves beaten; but it is not always -easy for the vanquished to yield gracefully, and the discussion, growing -warmer as it proceeded, might have risen even to intemperate heat, had not -Erasmus dexterously wound it round to a happy conclusion by pretending to -remember that he had once met with a curious story about Cain in an old -wormeaten manuscript whose title-page time had destroyed. The disputants -were all attention, and Erasmus, having thus tickled their curiosity, was -induced to tell the story, after extracting a promise from the listeners -that they would not treat it as a fable. He then drew upon his ready wit, -and improvised the following story:-- - -'This Cain was a man of art and industry, and withal greedy and covetous. -He had often heard from his parents how, in the garden from which they had -been driven, the corn grew as tall as alder-bushes unchoked by tares, -thorns, or thistles. When he brooded over these things, and saw how meagre -a crop the ground produced, after all his pains in tilling it, he was -tempted to resort to treachery. He went to the angel who was the appointed -guardian of paradise, and, plying him with crafty arts, tempted him with -promises to give him secretly just a few grains from the luxuriant crops -of Eden. He argued that so small a theft could not be noticed, and that if -it were, the angel could but fall to the condition men were in. Why was -his condition better than theirs? Men were driven out of the garden -because they had eaten the apple. He, being set to guard the gate, could -enjoy neither paradise nor heaven. He was not even free, as they were, to -wander where he liked upon earth! Many good things were still left to men. -With care and labour the world might be cultivated, and human misery so -far lessened by discoveries and arts of all kinds, that at length men -might not need to be envious even of Eden. It was true that they were -infested by diseases, but human art would find the cure for these in time. -Perhaps some day something might even be found which would make life -immortal. When man by his industry had made the earth into one great -garden, the angel would be shut out from it, as well as from heaven and -Eden. Let him do what he could for men without harm to himself, and then -men would do what they could for him in return. The worst man will carry -the weakest cause, if he be but the best talker. A few grains were -obtained by stealth, and carefully sown by Cain. These being sprung up, -produced an increased number. The multiplied seed was again sown, and the -process repeated time after time. Before many harvests had passed the -produce of the stolen seed covered a wide tract of country. When what was -taking place on earth became too conspicuous to be longer concealed from -heaven, God was exceedingly wroth. "I see," He said, "how this fellow -delights in toil and sweat; I will heap it upon him to his fill." He -spoke, and sent a dense army of ants and locusts to blight Cain's -cornfields. He added to these hailstorms and hurricanes. He sent another -angel to guard the gate of paradise, and imprisoned the one who had -favoured man in a human body. Cain tried to appease God by burnt-offerings -of fruits, but found that the smoke of his sacrifice would not rise -towards heaven. Understanding from this that the anger of God was -determined against him, _he despaired_!'[191] - -Thus, with this clever impromptu fable did Erasmus gracefully contrive to -throw the weight of his altered opinion into Colet's scale, and at the -same time to restore the whole party to wonted good-humour. Meanwhile what -he had seen of Colet made a deep impression upon him. He himself declared -that he never had enjoyed an after-dinner talk so much. It was, he said, -wanting in nothing.[192] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The position of Colet and Erasmus at Oxford.] - -This little glimpse given by Erasmus himself of his first experience of -Oxford life is of value, not only as revealing his own early impressions -of Colet and Oxford, but also as throwing some little light upon the -position which Colet himself had taken in the University after a year's -labour at his post. That he should be chosen to preside at the long table -on this occasion was a mark at least of honour and respect; while the way -in which _he_ evidently gave the tone to the conversation, and became so -thoroughly the central figure in the group, shows that this respect was -true homage paid to character, and not to mere wealth and station. Then, -again, the fact that Erasmus, a stranger, without purse or name, should -have had assigned to him the second seat of honour, second only to the -special guest of the day, was in itself a proof of the same hearty -appreciation by Charnock and Colet of character, without regard to rank -or station. Would it have been so everywhere? Had Erasmus been so treated -at Paris?[193] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus delighted with Colet and Charnock.] - -No wonder that the letters of Erasmus, written during these his first -months spent at Oxford, should bear witness to the delight with which he -found himself received, all stranger as he was, into the midst of a group -of warm-hearted friends, with whom, for the first time in his life, he -found what it was to be at _home_. 'I cannot tell you,' he wrote to his -friend Lord Mountjoy, 'how delighted I am with your England. With two such -friends as Colet and Charnock, I would not refuse to live even in -Scythia!'[194] - - -III. CONVERSATION BETWEEN COLET AND ERASMUS ON THE SCHOOLMEN (1498 or -1499). - -But although Erasmus had formed the closest friendship with Colet, and was -learning more and more to understand and admire him, it was long before he -was sufficiently one in heart and purpose to induce Colet to unburden to -him his whole mind. - -[Sidenote: Scholastic skill of Erasmus.] - -He did so only by degrees. When he thought his friend really in earnest in -any passing argument he would tell him fully what his own views were. But -Colet hated the Schoolmen's habit of arguing for argument's sake, and felt -that Erasmus was as yet not wholly weaned from it. It was a habit which -had been fostered by the current practice of asserting wiredrawn -distinctions and abstruse propositions for the mere display of logical -skill; and Colet's reverence for truth shrunk from this public vivisection -of it merely to feed the pride of the dissector. It pained and disgusted -him. - -Erasmus had been educated at Paris in the 'straitest sect' of Scholastic -theologians. He had there studied theology in the college of the Scotists, -and been trained in that logical subtlety for which the school of Duns -Scotus was distinguished.[195] - -[Sidenote: Colet dislikes the Scotists.] - -But he found Colet, instead of regarding the Scotists as wonderfully -clever, declaring that 'they seemed to him to be stupid and dull and -anything but clever. For to cavil about different sentences and words, now -to gnaw at this and now at that, and to dissect everything bit by bit, -seemed to him to be the mark of a poor and barren mind.'[196] - -But Colet had not quarrelled only with the logical method of the -Schoolmen; he owed the scholastic philosophy itself a still deeper grudge. - -[Sidenote: What the system of the Schoolmen was.] - -The system of the Schoolmen professed to embrace the whole range of -universal knowledge. It was not confined strictly to religion; it -included, also, questions of philosophy and science. And these were -settled by isolated texts from the Bible, or dicta of the earlier -Schoolmen, and not by the investigation of facts. A theology so dogmatic -and capricious could consistently admit of no progress. Every discovery of -science or philosophy, contrary to the dicta of the Schoolmen, must be -regarded as a crime. It was the logical result of an inherent vice in the -system that Brunos and Galileos, in after ages, were tortured by -successors of the Schoolmen into the denial of inconvenient truths. - -[Sidenote: The scholastic system not adapted to an age of progress and -discovery.] - -This might do all very well in stagnant times, but in an age when the new -art of printing was reviving ancient learning, and new worlds were turning -up in hitherto untracked seas, men who, like Colet, entered into the -spirit of the new era, soon found out that the _summæ theologiæ_ of the -Schoolmen were no sum of theology at all; that their science and -philosophy were grossly deficient; and that if Christianity must in truth -stand or fall with scholastic dogmas, then the accession of new light -would be likely to lead honest enquirers after truth to reject it, and to -accept in its place the refined semi-pagan philosophy which had -accompanied the revival of learning in Italy. Yet these were the -alternatives which the Schoolmen, in common with the champions of dogmatic -creeds in all ages, tried to force upon mankind. Their cry was, as that of -their scholastic successors has been, and is, '_Our_ Christianity or -_none_.' - -[Sidenote: Colet's faith in facts and free enquiry.] - -[Sidenote: Colet rests on the person of Christ and the 'Apostles' Creed.'] - -Colet had seen in Italy which of these two alternatives those who came -within the influence of the new learning were inclined to take. But he had -seen or heard, too, in Italy, of a third alternative. He had found a -Christianity, not scholastic, not dogmatic, which did not seem to him to -have anything to fear from free enquiry, for it was itself one of those -facts which free enquiry had brought once more to light: the reproduction -of its ancient records in their original languages was itself one of the -results of the new learning. He had found in the New Testament a simple -record of the facts of the life of Christ, and a few apostolic letters to -the churches. It had brought him, not to an endless web of propositions -to the acceptance of which he must school his mind, but to a _person_ whom -to love, in whom to trust, and for whom to work. He would not rest even in -the teaching of his beloved St. Paul. He had been taught by the Apostle to -look up from him to the 'wonderful majesty of Christ;'[197] and loyalty to -Christ had become the ruling passion of his life.[198] - -Having rejected the _summæ theologiæ_ of the Schoolmen, even before his -faith had been shaken, by Grocyn's discovery, in Dionysian speculations, -his disappointment also in the latter would seem to have driven him back -upon the Scriptures, upon the writings of St. Paul, above all upon Christ -himself; until at last he had seemed to find in the simple facts of the -Apostles' Creed the true sum of Christian theology. Having entrenched his -faith behind its simple bulwarks, he could look calmly out upon the world -of philosophy and nature, with a mind free to accept truth wherever he -might find it, without anxiety as to what the revival of ancient learning, -or the discoveries of new-born science, might reveal, anxious chiefly to -find out his own life's work and duty, and right heartily to do it. - -[Sidenote: Colet's advice to theological students to keep to the Bible and -the Apostles' Creed.] - -And having escaped the trammels of scholastic theology himself, he could -urge others also to do the same. When, therefore, young theological -students came to him in despair, on the point of throwing up theological -study altogether, because of the vexed questions in which they found it -involved, and dreading lest in these days, when everything was called in -question, they might be found unorthodox, he was wont, it seems, to tell -them 'to keep firmly to the Bible and the Apostles' Creed, and let -divines, if they like, dispute about the rest.'[199] - -But Erasmus as yet had far from attained the same standpoint. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus came to England disgusted with theology.] - -He was himself in the very position above described. His experience in the -Scotist college in Paris had not been lost upon him. It was not only that -its filthy chambers and diet of rotten eggs[200] had ruined his -constitution for life. He had contracted within its walls a disgust of all -theological study. He describes himself as, previously to his visit to -England, 'abhorring the study of theology;' and gives, as his double -reason for it, the fear lest he might run foul of settled opinions; and -lest, if he did so, he should be branded with the name of 'heretic.'[201] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus still a Schoolman.] - -Disgusted, however, as he was with theology, all his theological training -had hitherto been scholastic in its character, and, apart from his -disgust of theology in general, he does not seem as yet to have contracted -any special disgust of scholastic theology in particular. He was still too -much enamoured of the logic of the Schoolmen, and too often was found to -take the Schoolmen's side in his discussions with his friend. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus praises Aquinas.] - -[Sidenote: Colet's reply.] - -Colet and Erasmus[202] had been conversing one day upon the character of -the Schoolmen. Colet had expressed his sweeping disapprobation of the -whole class. Erasmus, whose knowledge of their works was, as he afterwards -acknowledged, by no means deep, at length ventured, in renewing the -conversation at another time, to except Thomas Aquinas from the common -herd, as worthy of praise, alleging in his favour that he seemed to have -studied both the Scriptures and ancient literature--which doubtless he -had. Colet made no reply. And when Erasmus pursued the subject still -further, Colet again passed it off, feigning inattention. But when -Erasmus, in the course of further conversation, again expressed the same -opinion in favour of Aquinas, and spoke more strongly even than before, -Colet turned his full eye upon him in order to learn whether he really -were speaking in earnest; and concluding that it was so--'What,' he said -passionately, 'do you extol to me such a man as Aquinas? If he had not -been very arrogant indeed, he would not surely so rashly and proudly have -taken upon himself to define _all_ things. And unless his spirit had been -somewhat worldly, he would not surely have corrupted the whole teaching of -Christ by mixing with it his profane philosophy.'[203] - -Erasmus was taken aback, as he had been at the discussion at the public -table. He had again been arguing without sufficient knowledge to justify -his having any strong opinion at all. Which side he took on the question -at issue was a matter almost of indifference to him. But he saw plainly -that it was not so with Colet. His first allusion to Aquinas, Colet had -resolutely shunned. When compelled to speak his opinion, his soul was -moved to its depths, and had burst forth into this passionate reply. There -must be something real and earnest at the bottom of Colet's dislike for -Aquinas, else he could not have spoken thus. - -So Erasmus betakes himself to the more careful study of the great -schoolman's writings. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus studies Aquinas.] - -One may picture him taking down from the shelf the 'Summa Theologiæ,' and, -as the first step toward the exploration of its contents, turning to the -prologue. He reads:-- - -[Sidenote: The 'Summa.'] - -'Seeing that the teacher of catholic truth should instruct not only those -advanced in knowledge, but that it is a part of his duty to teach -_beginners_ (according to the words of the Apostle to the Corinthians, -"even as unto babes in Christ, I have fed you with milk and not with -strong meat"), it is our purpose in this book to treat of those things -which pertain to the Christian religion in a manner adapted to the -instruction of beginners. - -'For we have considered that novices in this learning have been very much -hindered in [the study of] works written by others; partly, indeed, on -account of the multiplication of useless questions, articles and -arguments, and partly [for other reasons]. To avoid these and other -difficulties we shall endeavour, relying on Divine assistance, to treat of -those things which belong to sacred learning, so far as the subject will -admit, with _brevity_ and clearness.' - -[Sidenote: Scholastic 'milk for babes.'] - -What could be better or truer than this? Erasmus might almost have fancied -that Colet himself had written these words, so fully do they seem to fall -in with his views. But turning from the prologue, nothing surely could -open the eyes of Erasmus more thoroughly to the real nature of scholastic -theology than a further glance at the body of the treatise. For what was -he to think of a system of theology a '_brief_' compendium of which -covered no fewer than 1150 folio pages, each containing 2000 words! And -what was he to think of the wisdom of that Christian doctor who prescribed -this 'Summa' as '_milk_' specially adapted for the sustenance of -theological '_babes_'! To be told first to digest forty-three propositions -concerning the nature of God, each of which embraced several distinct -articles separately discussed and concluded in the eighty-three folios -devoted to this branch of the subject; then fifteen similar propositions -regarding the nature of _angels_, embracing articles such as these:-- - - Whether an angel can be in more than one place at one and the same - time? - - Whether more angels than one can be in one and the same place at the - same time? - - Whether angels have local motion? - - And whether, if they have, they pass through intermediate space?[204] - ---then ten propositions regarding _the Creation_, consisting of an -elaborate attempt to bring into harmony the work of the six days recorded -in Genesis with mediæval notions of astronomy; then forty-five -propositions respecting the nature of _man_ before and after the Fall, the -physical condition of the human body in Paradise, the mode by which it was -preserved immortal by eating of the tree of life, the place where man was -created before he was placed in Paradise, &c.; and then, having mastered -the above subtle propositions, stated 'briefly and clearly' in 216 of the -aforesaid folio pages, to be told for his consolation and encouragement -that he had now mastered _not quite one-fifth_ part of this 'first book' -for beginners in theological study, and that these propositions, and more -than five times as many, were to be regarded by him as the settled -doctrine of the Catholic Church!--what student could fail either to be -crushed under the dead weight of such a creed, or to rise up, and, like -Samson, bursting its green withes, discard and disown it altogether? - -[Sidenote: Erasmus goes over to Colet's view.] - -No marvel that Erasmus was obliged to confess that, in the process of -further study of the works of Aquinas, his former high opinion had been -modified.[205] He could understand now how it was that Colet could hardly -control his indignation at the thought, how the simple facts of -Christianity had been corrupted by the admixture of the subtle philosophy -of this 'best of the Schoolmen.' - -And yet we may well be free to own that Colet's not unnatural hatred of -the scholastic philosophy had blinded him in some degree to the personal -merits of the early Schoolmen. Deeper knowledge of the history of their -times, and study of the personal character at least of some of them, might -have enabled him not only to temper his hatred, but even to recognise that -they occupied in their day a standpoint not widely different altogether -even from his own. - -[Sidenote: The merit of the early Schoolmen.] - -For as earnestly as Colet himself was now seeking to bring the -Christianity and advanced thought of _his_ age into harmony, the early -Schoolmen had tried to do the same thing in _theirs_. The misfortune of -the Schoolmen was, that they had inherited from St. Augustine, and the -Pseudo-Dionysius, the vicious tendency to fill up blanks in theology by -indulging in hypotheses, capable of receiving the sanction of -ecclesiastical authority, and then to be treated as established, although -altogether unverified by facts. They had also to harmonise the dogmatic -theology so manufactured with a scientific system as dogmatic as itself. -For while theologians had been indulging in hypotheses respecting -'original sin,' 'absolute predestination,' and 'irresistible grace,' -natural philosophers had been indulging in similar hypotheses respecting -the 'crystalline spheres,' 'epicycloids,' and '_primum mobile_.'[206] And -seeing that the method by which the Schoolmen attempted to fuse these -_two_ dogmatic systems into _one_, itself consisted of a still further -indulgence in the same vicious mode of procedure, it was but natural that -their attempt as a whole, however well meant, should leave 'confusion -worse confounded.' - -[Sidenote: The demerits of their successors.] - -Still it must not be forgotten that they did succeed by this vicious -process in reconciling theology and science to the satisfaction of their -own dogmatic age. This praise is, at least, their due. On the other hand, -their successors in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries could not put -forward any such claims for themselves. _They_ did not succeed in -harmonising the theology and the advanced thought of _their_ age. They -strained every nerve to keep them hopelessly apart. They blindly held on -to a worn-out system inherited from their far worthier predecessors, and -spent their strength in denouncing, in no measured terms, the scientific -spirit and inductive method of the 'new learning.' - -Hence there can be little doubt that Colet's hatred of what in his day was -in truth a huge and bewildering mass of dreary and lifeless subtlety, was -a just and righteous hatred. And though it took some time for Erasmus -thoroughly to accept it, he could in after years, when Colet was no more, -endorse, from the bottom of his heart, Colet's advice to young theological -students: '_Keep to the Bible and the Apostles' Creed; and let divines, if -they like, dispute about the rest_.' - - -IV. ERASMUS FALLS IN LOVE WITH THOMAS MORE (1498). - -Amongst the broken gleams of light which fall, here and there only, upon -the Oxford intercourse of Erasmus with Colet, there are one or two which -reveal an already existing friendship with Thomas More, but unfortunately -without disclosing how it had begun. - -[Sidenote: Introduction of More to Erasmus.] - -Erasmus, when passing through London on his way to Oxford, had probably -been introduced by Lord Mountjoy to his brilliant young friend. It is even -possible that there may be a foundation of fact in the story that they had -met for the first time, unknown to each other, at the lord mayor's table, -or, as is more likely still, at the table of the _ex_-lord mayor, Sir -Henry Colet. Erasmus, having perhaps been told Colet's saying, that there -was but one genius in England, and that his name was Thomas More, may have -been set opposite to him at table without knowing who he was. More in his -turn may have been told of the logical subtlety of the great scholar newly -arrived from the Scotist college in Paris, without having been personally -introduced to him. If this were so, the rest of the story may easily be -true. They are said to have got into argument during dinner, Erasmus, in -Scotist fashion, 'defending the worser part,' till finding in his young -opponent 'a readier wit than ever he had before met withal,' he broke -forth into the exclamation, '_Aut tu es Morus aut nullus_;' to which the -ready tongue of More retorted--so runs the story, '_Aut tu es Erasmus aut -Diabolus_.'[207] Whether at the lord mayor's table, or elsewhere, they -_had_ become acquainted, and a correspondence had grown up between them, -one letter of which, like a solitary waif, has been left stranded on the -shore of the gulf which has swallowed the rest. It reads thus:-- - - _Erasmus Thomæ Moro suo, S.D._ - - 'I scarcely can get any letters, wherefore I have showered down curses - on the head of this letter-carrier, by whose laziness or treachery I - fancy it must be that I have been disappointed of the most eagerly - expected letters of my dear More (Mori mei). For that you have failed - on your part I neither want nor ought to suspect. Albeit, I - expostulated with you most vehemently in my last letter. Nor am I - afraid that you are at all offended by the liberty I took, for you are - not ignorant of that Spartan method of fighting "usque ad cutem." - This, joking aside, I do entreat you, sweetest Thomas, that you will - make amends with interest for the suffering occasioned me by the too - long continued deprivation of yourself and your letters. I expect, in - short, not a letter, but a huge bundle of letters, which would weigh - down even an Egyptian porter,' - - * * * * * - - 'Vale jucundissime More.[208] - - 'Oxoniæ: Natali Simonis et Judæ. 1499.' - -[Sidenote: Friendship between More and Erasmus.] - -Such being the friendship already existing between them, and beginning to -show itself in the use of those endearing superlatives without which -Erasmus, from the first to the last, never could write a letter to More, -it is not surprising that, as winter came on, Erasmus should take the -opportunity afforded by the approaching vacation for a visit to London. -Accordingly we get one chance glimpse of him there, writing a letter to -one of his friends, and expressing his delight with everything he had met -with in England. - -Staying as he most likely was with Mountjoy or with More, enjoying the -warmth of their friendship, and feeling himself at home in London as he -had done in Oxford, but never had done before anywhere else, it was -natural that the foreign scholar should paint, in the warmest colours, -this land of friends. Especially of Mountjoy, who had brought him to -England, and who found him the means of living at Oxford, he would -naturally speak in the highest terms. Such was the politeness, the -goodnature, and affectionateness of his noble patron, that he would -willingly follow him, he said, _ad inferos_, if need be. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus delighted with England, and with Mountjoy, Colet, -Grocyn, Linacre, and More.] - -Nor was it only the warm-heartedness of his English friends which filled -him with delight. His purpose in coming to Oxford he declared to be fully -answered. He had come to England because he could not raise the means for -a longer journey to Italy. To prosecute his studies in Italy had been for -years an object of anxious yearning; but now, after a few months' -experience of Oxford life, he wrote to his friend, who was himself going -to Italy, 'that he had found in England so much polish and learning--not -showy, shallow learning, but profound and exact, both in Latin and -Greek--that now he would hardly care much about going to Italy at all, -except for the sake of having been there.' 'When,' he added, 'I listen to -my friend Colet it seems to me like listening to Plato himself. In Grocyn, -who does not admire the wide range of his knowledge? What could be more -searching, deep, and refined than the judgment of Linacre?' And after this -mention of Colet, Grocyn, and Linacre, he adds: 'Whenever did nature mould -a character more gentle, endearing, and happy than Thomas More's?'[209] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus falls in love with More.] - -So that while here, as elsewhere, Colet seems to take his place again as -the chief of the little band of English friends, we learn from this letter -that the picture would not have been complete without the figure of the -fascinating youth with whom Erasmus, like the rest of them, had fallen in -love. - -The letter itself was written to Robert Fisher, from London 'tumultuarie,' -5th December, in 1498 or 1499. - - -V. DISCUSSION BETWEEN ERASMUS AND COLET ON 'THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN,' AND -ON THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES (1499). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus attributes the agony of Christ to fear of death.] - -The greater part of 1499 was spent by Erasmus apparently at Oxford. On one -occasion Colet and Erasmus were spending an afternoon together.[210] Their -conversation fell upon the agony of Christ in the garden. They soon, as -usual, found that they did not agree. Erasmus, following the common -explanation of the Schoolmen, saw only in the agony suffered by the -Saviour that natural fear of a cruel death to which in his human nature he -submitted as one of the incidents of humanity. It seemed to him that in -His character as truly _man_, left for the moment unaided by His divinity, -the prospect of the anguish in store for Him might well wring from Him -that cry of fearful and trembling human nature, 'Father, if it be -possible, let this cup pass from me!' while the further words, 'not my -will but Thine be done,' proved, he thought, that He had not only felt, -but conquered, this human fear and weakness. Erasmus further supported -this view by adducing the commonly received scholastic distinction between -what Christ felt as _man_ and what He felt as _God_, alleging that it was -only as _man_ that He thus suffered. - -[Sidenote: Colet objects to this view.] - -[Sidenote: Christ was thinking of the Jews, not of Himself.] - -Colet dissented altogether from his friend's opinion. It might be the -commonly received interpretation of recent divines, but in spite of that -he declared his own entire disapproval of it. Nothing could, he thought, -be more inconsistent with the exceeding love of Christ, than the -supposition that, when it came to the point, He shrank in dread from that -very death which He desired to die in His great love of men. It seemed -utterly absurd, he said, to suppose that while so many martyrs have gone -to torture and death patiently and even with joy--the sense of pain being -lost in the abundance of their love--Christ, who was love itself, who came -into the world for the very purpose of delivering guilty man by his own -innocent death, should have shrunk either from the ignominy or from the -bitterness of the cross. The sweat of great drops of blood, the exceeding -sorrow even unto death, the touching entreaty to His Father that the cup -might pass from Him--was all this to be attributed to the mere fear of -death? Colet had rather set it down to anything but that. For it lies in -the essence of love, he said, that it should cast out fear, turn sorrow -into joy, think nothing of itself, sacrifice everything for others. It -could not be that He who loved the human race more than anyone else should -be inconstant and fearful in the prospect of death. In confirmation of -this view he referred to St. Jerome, who alone of all the church fathers -had, he thought, shown true insight into the real cause of Christ's agony -in the garden. St. Jerome had attributed the Saviour's prayer, that the -cup might pass from Him, not to the fear of death but to the sense felt by -Him of the awful guilt of the Jews, who, by thus bringing about that death -which He desired to die for the salvation of _all mankind_, seemed to be -bringing down destruction and ruin on themselves--an anxiety and dread -bitter enough, in Colet's view, to wring from the Saviour the prayer that -the cup might pass from Him, and the drops of bloody sweat in the garden, -seeing that it afterwards did wring from Him, whilst perfecting his -eternal sacrifice on the cross, that other prayer for the very ministers -of his torture, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!' -Such was the view expressed by Colet in reply to Erasmus, and in -opposition to the view which he was aware was generally received by -scholastic divines. - -Whilst they were in the heat of the discussion it happened that Prior -Charnock entered the room. Colet, with a delicacy of feeling which Erasmus -afterwards appreciated, at once broke off the argument, simply remarking, -as he took leave, that he did not doubt that were his friend, when alone, -to reconsider the matter with care and accuracy, their difference of -opinion would not last very long. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus writes to Colet.] - -When Erasmus found himself alone and at leisure in his chambers he at -once followed Colet's advice. He reconsidered Colet's argument and his -own. He consulted his books. By far the most of the authorities, both -Fathers and Schoolmen, he found beyond dispute to be on his own side. And -his reconsideration ended in his being the more convinced that he had -himself been right and Colet wrong. Naturally finding it hard to yield -when there was no occasion, and feeling sure that this time he had the -best of the argument, he eagerly seized his pen, and with some parade, -both of candour and learning, stated at great length what he thought might -be said on both sides. After having written what, in type, would fill -about fifty of these pages, he confidently wound up his long letter by -saying that, so far as he could see, he had demonstrated his own opinion -to be in accordance with that of the Schoolmen and most of the early -Fathers, and, whilst not contrary to nature, clearly consistent with -reason. But he knew, he said, to whom he was writing, and whether he had -convinced _Colet_ he could not tell. For, he wrote in conclusion, 'how -rash it is in me, a mere tyro, to dare to encounter a commander--for one, -_whom you call a rhetorician_, to venture upon theological ground, to -enter an arena which is not mine! Still I have not shrunk from daring -everything even with _you_, who are so skilled in all elegant and ancient -lore, who have brought with you from Italy such stores of Greek and Latin, -and who, on this very account, are not as yet appreciated as you ought to -be by theologians. Wherefore, in discussing with you, I have chosen to use -the old and free way of arguing; not only because I prefer it myself, but -also because I knew your dislike to the modern and new-fangled method of -disputation, which, keen and ready as it may seem to some, is in your view -complicated, superstitious, spiritless, and plainly sophistical. And -perhaps you are right.... Yet I would have you take care lest you should -not be able to stand _alone_ against so many thousands. Let us not, -contented with the plain homespun sense of Origen, Ambrose, Jerome, -Augustine, Chrysostom, and others as ancient, grudge to these modern -disputants their more elaborated doctrines. - -'And now I await your attack. I await your mighty war-trumpet. I await -those "Coletian" arrows, surer even than the arrows of Hercules. In the -meantime I will array the forces of my mind; I will concentrate my ranks; -I will prepare my reserves of books, lest I should not be able to stand -your first charge. - -'As to the rest, the matters which you have propounded from the Epistles -of St. Paul, since they are such as it would be dangerous to dispute of, I -had rather enter into them by word of mouth when we are together than by -letter. _Vale!_' - -The reply of Colet was short, and very characteristic of the man. - -[Sidenote: Colet replies.] - -[Sidenote: Colet's love of truth.] - -'Your letter, most learned Erasmus, as it is very long, so also is it most -eloquent and happy. It is a proof of a tenacious memory, and gives a -faithful review of our discussion.... But it contains nothing to alter or -detract from the opinions which I imbibed from St. Jerome. Not that I am -perverse and obstinate with an uncandid pertinacity, but that (though I -may be mistaken) I think I hold and defend the truth, or what is most like -the truth.... I am unwilling, just now, to grapple with your letter as a -whole; for I have neither leisure nor strength to do so at once, and -without preparation. But I will attack the first part of it--your first -line of battle as it were.... In the meantime do you patiently hear me, -and let us both, if, when striking our flints together, any spark should -fly out, eagerly catch at it. For we seek, not for victory in argument, -but for _truth_, which perchance may be elicited by the clash of argument -with argument, as sparks are by the clashing of steel against steel!'[211] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus had followed the theory of the 'manifold senses' of -Scripture.] - -Erasmus, at the commencement of his long letter, feeling, perhaps, that -after all there might be some truth in Colet's view not embraced in his -own, had fallen back upon the strange theory, already alluded to as held -by scholastic divines, that the words of the Scriptures, because of their -magic sacredness and absolute inspiration, might properly be interpreted -in several distinct senses. 'Nothing' (he had said) 'forbids our drawing -various meanings out of the wonderful riches of the sacred text, so as to -render the same passage in more than one way. I know that, according to -Job, "the word of God is manifold." I know that the manna did not taste -alike to all. But if you so embrace _your_ opinion that you condemn and -reject the received opinion, then I freely dissent from you.' - -[Sidenote: Colet's view.] - -This was the first line of battle which Colet, in his letter, declared -that he would at once attack. It was a notion of Scripture interpretation -altogether foreign to his own. He yielded to none in his admiration of -the wonderful fulness and richness of the Scriptures. He had made it the -chief matter of his remark to the priest who had called on him during the -winter vacation of 1496-7, and had written to the Abbot of Winchcombe an -account of the priest's visit in order to press the same point upon him. -But from the method adopted in his expositions of St. Paul's Epistles, and -the first chapter of Genesis, it appears that he did not hold the theory -of uniform verbal inspiration, which ignored the human element in -Scripture, round which had grown this still stranger theory of the -manifold senses, and upon which alone it could be at all logically held. - -It is true that, in his abstract of the Dionysian writings, he had, upon -Dionysian authority, accepted, in a modified form,[212] the doctrine of -the 'four senses' of Scripture; and in his letters to Radulphus, whilst -confining himself to the literal sense, he guarded himself against the -denial of the same theory. But he had never sanctioned the gross abuse of -the doctrine to which Erasmus had appealed, which asserted that even the -_literal_ sense of the same passage might be interpreted to mean different -things. It was one thing to hold that some passages must be allegorically -understood and not literally, and that other passages have both a literal -and an allegorical meaning (which Colet seems to have held), or even that -_all_ passages have both a literal and an allegorical meaning (which Colet -did not hold). It was quite another thing to hold that the words of the -same passage might, in their _literal_ sense, mean several different -things, and be used as _texts_ in support of statements not within the -direct intention of their human writer. - -[Sidenote: Aquinas on the 'manifold senses.'] - -Thomas Aquinas, in his 'Summa,' had indeed laid down a proposition, which -practically amounted to this. For in discussing the doctrine of the 'four -senses' of Scripture, he had not only stated that the spiritual sense of -Scripture was threefold, viz. allegorical, moral, and anagogical, but also -that the _literal sense was manifold_. He had laid down the doctrine, that -'Inasmuch as the literal sense is that which _the author intends_, and -_God_ is the author of Holy Scripture, who comprehends all things in His -mind at one and the same time, it is not inconsistent, as Augustine says -in his twelfth Confession, if even according to the literal sense in the -one letter of the Holy Scriptures there are many senses.'[213] - -It may, however, well be doubted whether Aquinas would have sanctioned -altogether the absurd length to which this doctrine was carried by -scholastic disputants. - -[Sidenote: Colet on the 'manifold senses.'] - -Whether Colet, since Grocyn's discovery, had or had not altogether -repudiated the doctrine of 'manifold senses,' as one of the notions which -he had once held on Dionysian authority, but which the authority of the -_Pseudo_-Dionysius was not sufficient to establish, it is clear that in -his reply to Erasmus he utterly repudiated the abuse of it to which -Erasmus had appealed. 'In the first place' (he wrote), 'I cannot agree -with you when you state, along with many others, and as I think -mistakenly, that the Holy Scriptures, at least _uno in aliquo genere_, are -so prolific that they give birth to many senses. Not that I would not have -them to be as prolific as possible--their overflowing fecundity and -fulness I, more than others, admire--but that I consider their fecundity -to consist in their giving birth not to many [senses], but to only one, -and that the most true one.' - -[Sidenote: Colet's views on 'Inspiration.'] - -After remarking that whilst the lower forms of life produce the most -numerous offspring, the highest forms of life tend towards _unity_ of -offspring, he argues that the Holy Spirit gives birth in the Scripture, -according to its own power, to one and the same simple truth. What if from -the simple, divine, and truth-speaking words of the Scriptures of the -Spirit of Truth, whether heard or read, many and various persons draw many -and varying senses? He set that down, he said, not to the fecundity of the -Scriptures, but to the sterility of men's minds, and their incapacity of -getting at the pure and simple truth. If they could but reach _that_, -they would as completely agree as now they differ. He then remarked how -mysterious the inspiration of the Scriptures was; how the Spirit seemed to -him, by reason of its majesty, to have a peculiar method of its own, -singularly absolute and free, blowing where it lists, making prophets of -whom it will, yet so that the spirit of the prophets is subject to the -prophets. He repeated, in conclusion, that he admired the fulness of the -Scriptures, not because each word may be construed in several senses--that -would be want of fulness--but because _quot sententiæ totidem sunt verba, -et quot verba tot sententiæ_. Having said this, he was ready to descend -into the arena, and to join battle with Erasmus on the matter in dispute, -but he could not do so now; he was called away by other engagements, and -must end his letter for the present.[214] - -The letters which followed in which Colet further pursued the subject of -the Agony in the Garden, have unfortunately been lost. But enough remains -to give, by a passing glimpse, some idea of the pleasant colloquies and -earnest converse, both by mouth and letter, in which the happy months of -college intercourse glided swiftly by. - - -VI. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN COLET AND ERASMUS ON THE INTENTION OF ERASMUS -TO LEAVE OXFORD (1499-1500). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus at Court.] - -The winter vacation of 1499-1500 had apparently dispersed for a while the -circle of Oxford students. Erasmus having, it would seem, some friend at -Court, had joined the Royal party, probably spending Christmas at -Woodstock or some other hunting station. He was at first delighted with -Court manners and field sports, and in a letter,[215] written about this -time, he jocosely told a Parisian friend, that the Erasmus whom he once -had known was now a hunter, and his manners polished up into those of an -experienced courtier. He was greatly struck, he added, with the beauty and -grace of the English ladies, and urged him to let nothing less than the -gout hinder his coming to England. - -[Sidenote: But soon tires of Court life.] - -But while Court life might captivate at first, Erasmus had soon found out -that its glitter was not gold. As the wolf in the fable lost his relish -for the dainties and delicate fare of the house-dog when he saw the mark -of the collar on his neck, so when Erasmus had seen how little of freedom -and how much of bondage there was in the courtier's life he had left it -with disgust; choosing rather to return to Oxford to share the more -congenial society of what students might be found there during these -vacation weeks, than to remain longer with 'be-chained courtiers.'[216] He -was waiting only for time and tide to return to Paris. At present the -weather was too rough for so bad a sailor; and, owing to political -disquiet and danger, it was difficult to obtain the needful permission to -leave the realm. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Erasmus proposes to leave Oxford.] - -[Sidenote: Colet urges him to remain at Oxford.] - -The fear that Erasmus was so soon to leave Oxford was one which troubled -Colet's vacation thoughts. To be left alone at Oxford again to fight his -way single-handed was by no means a cheering prospect. But his saddest -feeling was one not merely of sorrow at parting with his new friend--it -was a feeling of disappointment. He had hoped for more than he had found -in Erasmus. That he could have won over Erasmus all at once to his own -views and plans he had never dreamed. The scholar had his own bent of -mind, and of course his own plans. Such was his love of learning for its -own sake, that he was bent on constant and persevering study; and his stay -at Oxford he looked upon merely as one step in the ladder, valuable -chiefly because it led to the next. But Colet longed for fellowship. In -his friend he had sought, and in some measure found, fellow-feeling. But -feeling and action to him were too closely linked to make that all he -wanted. Fellow-feeling was to him but a half-hearted thing unless it -ripened into fellow work; and he had hoped for this in Erasmus. He had -purposely left Erasmus to find out his views and to discern his spirit by -degrees. He had not tried to force him in anywise. He had shown his wisdom -in this. But now that Erasmus talked of leaving Oxford, it was Colet's -duty to speak out. He could not let him go without one last appeal. He -therefore wrote to him, telling him plainly of his disappointment. He -urged him to remain at Oxford. He urged him, once for all, to come out -boldly, as he himself had done, and to do his part in the great work of -restoring that old and true theology of Christ, so long obscured by the -subtle webs of the Schoolmen, in its pristine brightness and dignity. What -could he do more noble than this? There was plenty of room for both of -them. He himself was doing his best to expound the New Testament. Why -should not Erasmus take some book of the Old Testament, say Genesis or -Isaiah, and expound it, as he had done the Epistles of St. Paul? If he -could not make up his mind to do this at once, Colet urged that, as a -temporary alternative, he should lecture on some secular branch of study. -Anything was better than that he should leave Oxford altogether.[217] - -Erasmus received this letter soon after his return from his short -experience of Court life. The tone of disappointment and almost reproof -pervading it Erasmus felt was undeserved on his part, yet it evidently -made a deep impression upon him. Looking back upon his intercourse with -Colet at Oxford, he must have seen how much it had done to change his -views, and felt how powerfully Colet's influence had worked upon him. Yet -he knew how far his views were from being matured like Colet's, and how -foolish it would be to begin publicly to teach before his own mind was -fully made up. He knew that Colet had brought him over very much to his -way of thinking, and he was ready to confess himself a disciple of -Colet's; but he must digest what he had learned, and make it thoroughly -his own, before he could publicly teach it. Perhaps he might one day be -able to join Colet in his work at Oxford; but he thought, and probably -wisely, that the time had not yet come. This at least may be gathered from -his reply to Colet's letter. With some abridgment and unimportant -omissions, it may be translated thus:-- - - - _Erasmus to Colet._[218] - - [Sidenote: Reply of Erasmus to Colet's entreaties.] - - ... 'In what you say of your dislike to the modern race of divines, - who spend their lives in mere logical tricks and sophistical cavils, - in very truth I entirely agree with you. - - [Sidenote: Agrees with Colet in disliking the Scholastic System.] - - 'Not that, valuing as I do all branches of study, I condemn the - studies of these men _as such_, but that when they are pursued for - themselves alone, unseasoned by more ancient and elegant literature, - they seem to me to be calculated to make men sciolists and - contentious; whether they can make men wise I leave to others. For - they exhaust the mental powers by a dry and biting subtlety, without - infusing any vigour or spirit into the mind. And, worst of all, - theology, the queen of all science--so richly adorned by ancient - eloquence--they strip of all her beauty by their incongruous, mean, - and disgusting style. What was once so clear, thanks to the genius of - the old divines, they clog with some subtlety or other, thus involving - everything in obscurity while they try to explain it. It is thus we - see that theology, which was once most venerable and full of majesty, - now almost dumb, poor, and in rags. - - 'In the meantime we are allured by a never-satiated appetite for - strife. One dispute gives rise to another, and with wonderful gravity - we fight about straws. Then, lest we should seem to have added nothing - to the discoveries of the old divines, we audaciously lay down certain - positive rules according to which God has performed his mysteries, - when sometimes it might be better for us to believe that a thing _was_ - done, leaving the question of _how_ it was done to the omnipotence of - God. So, too, for the sake of showing our ingenuity, we sometimes - discuss questions which pious ears can hardly bear to hear; as, for - instance, when it is asked whether the Almighty could have taken upon - Him the nature of the devil or of an ass. - - 'Besides all this, in our times those men in general apply themselves - to theology, the chief of all studies, who by reason of their - obtuseness and lack of sense are hardly fit for any study at all. I - say this not of learned and upright professors of theology, whom I - highly respect and venerate, but of that sordid and haughty pack of - divines who count all learning as worthless except their own. - - [Sidenote: He honours Colet and his work.] - - 'Wherefore, my dear Colet, in having joined battle with this - redoubtable race of men for the restoration, in its pristine - brightness and dignity, of that old and true theology which they have - obscured by their subtleties, you have in very truth engaged in a work - in many ways of the highest honour--a work of devotion to the cause of - theology, and of the greatest advantage to all students, and - especially the students of this flourishing University of Oxford. - Still, to speak the truth, it is a work of great difficulty, and one - sure to excite ill-will. Your learning and energy will, however, - conquer every difficulty, and your magnanimity will easily overlook - ill-will. There are not a few, even among divines themselves, both - able and willing to second your honest endeavours. There is no one, - indeed, who would not give you a hand, since there is not even a - doctor in this celebrated University who has not given attentive - audience to your public readings on the Epistles of St. Paul, now of - three years' standing. And which is the most praiseworthy in this, - _their_ modesty in not being ashamed to learn from a young man without - doctor's degree, or _your_ remarkable learning, eloquence, and - integrity of life, which they have thought worthy of such honour? - - [Sidenote: Erasmus agrees with Colet but is not ready yet to join him - in fellow-work.] - - 'I do not wonder that _you_ should put your shoulder under so great, a - burden, for you are able to bear it, but I do wonder greatly that you - should call _me_, who am nothing of a man, into the fellowship of so - glorious a work. For you exhort,--yes, you almost reproachfully urge - me, that, by expounding either the ancient Moses[219] or the eloquent - Isaiah, in the same way as you have expounded St. Paul, I should try, - as you say, to kindle up the studies of this University, now chilled - by these winter months. But I, who have learned to live in solitude, - know well how imperfectly I am furnished for such a task; nor do I lay - claim to sufficient learning to justify my undertaking it. Nor do I - judge that I have strength of mind enough to enable me to sustain the - ill-will of so many men stoutly maintaining their own ground. Matters - of this kind require not a tyro, but a practised general. Nor can you - rightly call me immodest in refusing to do what I should be far more - immodest to attempt. You act, my dear Colet, in this matter as wisely - as they who (as Plautus says) "demand water from a rock." With what - face can I teach what I myself have not learned? How shall I kindle - the chilled warmth of others while I am altogether trembling and - shivering myself?... - - 'But you say you expected this of me, and now you complain that you - were mistaken. You should rather blame yourself than me for this. For - I have not deceived you. I have neither promised nor held out any - prospect of any such thing. But you have deceived yourself in not - believing me when I told you truly what I meant to do. - - [Sidenote: Erasmus is returning to Paris.] - - 'Nor indeed did I come here to teach poetry and rhetoric, for these - ceased to be pleasant to me when they ceased to be necessary. I refuse - the one task because it does not come up to my purpose, the other - because it is beyond my strength. You unjustly blame me in the one - case, my dear Colet, because I never intended to follow the profession - of what are called secular studies. As to the other, you exhort me in - vain, as I know myself to be too unfit for it. But even though I were - most fit, still it must not be. For soon I must return to Paris. - - 'In the meantime, whilst I am detained here, partly by the winter, and - partly because departure from England is forbidden, owing to the - flight of some duke,[220] I have betaken myself to this famous - University that I might rather spend two or three months with men of - your class than with those be-chained courtiers. - - [Sidenote: But some day will join Colet in fellow-work.] - - 'Be it, indeed, far from me to oppose your glorious and sacred - labours. On the contrary, I will promise (since not fitted as yet to - be a coadjutor) sedulously to encourage and further them. For the - rest, whenever I feel that I have the requisite firmness and strength - I will join you, and, by your side, and in theological teaching, I - will zealously engage, if not in successful at least in earnest - labour. In the meantime, nothing could be more delightful to me than - that we should go on as we have begun, whether daily by word of mouth, - or by letter, discussing the meaning of Holy Scripture. - - 'Vale, mi Colete. - - 'Oxford: at the College of the Canons of the Order of St. Augustine, - commonly called the College of St. Mary.'[221] - - -VII. ERASMUS LEAVES OXFORD AND ENGLAND (1500). - -Erasmus took leave of Colet, and left Oxford early in January, 1500. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus at Lord Mountjoy's.] - -He proceeded to Greenwich, to the country seat of Lord and Lady Mountjoy; -for his patron had, apparently, since his arrival in England, married a -wife.[222] - -While he was resting under this hospitable roof, Thomas More came down to -pay him a farewell visit. He brought with him another young lawyer named -Arnold--the son of Arnold the merchant, a man well known in London, and -living in one of the houses built upon the arches of London Bridge.[223] - -[Sidenote: More and Erasmus visit the Royal Nursery.] - -More, whose love of fun never slept, persuaded Erasmus, by way of -something to do, to take a walk with himself and his friend to a -neighbouring village. - -He took them to call at a house of rather imposing appearance. As they -entered the hall, Erasmus was struck with the style of it; it rivalled -even that of the mansion of his noble patron. It was in fact the Royal -Nursery, where all the children of Henry VII., except Arthur the Prince of -Wales, were living under the care of their tutor. In the middle of the -group was Prince Henry (afterwards Henry VIII.), then a boy of nine years -old. To his right stood the Princess Margaret, who afterwards was married -to the King of Scotland. On the left was the Princess Maria, a mere child -at play. The nurse held in her arms the Prince Edmund, a baby about ten -months old.[224] - -[Sidenote: They see the Prince Henry.] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus writes verses upon England.] - -More and Arnold at once accosted Prince Henry, and presented him with some -verses, or other literary offering. Erasmus, having brought nothing of -the kind with him, felt awkward, and could only promise to prove his -courtesy to the Prince in the same way on some future occasion. They were -invited to sit down to table, and during the meal the Prince sent a note -to Erasmus to remind him of his promise. The result was that More received -a merited scolding from Erasmus, for having led him blindfold into the -trap; and Erasmus, after parting with More, had to devote three of the few -remaining days of his stay in England to the composition of Latin verses -in honour of England, Henry VII., and the Royal children.[225] He was in -good humour with England. He had been treated with a kindness which he -never could forget; and he was leaving England with a purse full of golden -crowns, generously provided by his English friends to defray the expenses -of his long-wished-for visit to Italy. Under these circumstances it was -not surprising if his verses should be laudatory.[226] - -[Sidenote: Leaves for Dover.] - -By the 27th January,[227] he was off to Dover, to catch the boat for -Boulogne. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The three friends are scattered.] - -So the three friends were scattered. Each had evidently a separate path of -his own. Their natures and natural gifts were, indeed, singularly -different. They had been brought into contact for one short year, as it -were by chance, and now again their spheres of life seemed likely to lie -wide apart. - -How could it be otherwise? Even Colet, who had longed that his friendship -for Erasmus might ripen into the fellowship of fellow-work, could not hope -against hope. The chances that his dream might yet be realised, seemed -slight indeed. 'Whenever I feel that I have the requisite firmness and -strength, I will join you!' So Erasmus had promised. But Colet might well -doubtfully ask himself--'When will that be?' - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - - -I. COLET MADE DOCTOR AND DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S (1500-5.) - -Colet, left alone to pursue the even tenor of his way at Oxford, worked -steadily at his post. It mattered little to him that for years he toiled -on without any official recognition on the part of the University -authorities of the value of his work. What if a Doctor's degree had never -during these years been conferred upon him? The want of it had never -stopped his teaching. Its possession would have been to him no triumph. - -[Sidenote: Colet's work at Oxford.] - -That young theological students were beginning more and more to study the -Scriptures instead of the Schoolmen--for this he cared far more. For this -he was casting his bread upon the waters, in full faith that, whether he -might live to see it or not, it would return after many days. And in -truth--known or unknown to Colet--young Tyndale, and such as he, yet in -their teens, were already poring over the Scriptures at Oxford.[228] The -leaven, silently but surely, was leavening the surrounding mass. But -Colet probably did not see much of the secret results of his work. That it -was his duty to do it was reason enough for his doing it; that it bore at -least some visible fruit was sufficient encouragement to work on with good -heart. - -So the years went by; and as often as each term came round, Colet was -ready with his gratuitous course of lectures on one or another of St. -Paul's Epistles.[229] - -[Sidenote: Colet made Doctor and Dean of St. Paul's.] - -It happened that, in 1504, Robert Sherborn, Dean of St. Paul's, was -nominated, being then in Rome on an embassy, to the vacant see of St. -David's. It was probably at the same time[230] that Colet was called to -discharge the duties of the vacant deanery, though, as Sherborn was not -formally installed in his bishopric till April 1505, Colet did not receive -the temporalities of his deanery till May in the same year.[231] - -Colet is said to have owed this advancement to the patronage of King Henry -VII. The title of Doctor was at length conferred upon him, preparatory to -his acceptance of this preferment, and it would appear as an honorary mark -of distinction.[232] - -[Sidenote: Colet's work in London.] - -It was to the work, writes Erasmus, and not to the dignity of the deanery, -that Colet was called. To restore the relaxed discipline of the -College--to preach sermons from Scripture in St. Paul's Cathedral as he -had done at Oxford--to secure permanently that such sermons should be -regularly preached--this was his first work.[233] - -By his remove from Oxford to St. Paul's the field of his influence was -changed, and in some respects greatly widened. His work now told directly -upon the people at large. The chief citizens of London, and even stray -courtiers, now and then, heard the plain facts of Christian truth, instead -of the subtleties of the Schoolmen, earnestly preached from the pulpit of -St. Paul's by the son of an ex-lord mayor of London. The citizens found -too, in the new Dean, a man whose manner of life bore out the lessons of -his pulpit. - -[Sidenote: The habits of the new Dean.] - -He retained as Dean of St. Paul's the same simplicity of character and -earnest devotion to his work for which he had been so conspicuous at -Oxford. As he had not sought ecclesiastical preferment, so he was not -puffed up by it. Instead of assuming the purple vestments which were -customary, he still wore his plain black robe. The same simple woollen -garment served him all the year round, save that in winter he had it lined -with fur. The revenues of his deanery were sufficient to defray his -ordinary household expenses, and left him his private income free. He gave -it away, instead of spending it upon himself.[234] The rich living of -Stepney, which, in conformity with the custom of the times, he might well -have retained along with his other preferment, he resigned at once into -other hands on his removal to St. Paul's.[235] - -It would seem too that he shone by contrast with his predecessor, whose -lavish good cheer had been such as to fill his table with jovial guests, -and sometimes to pass the bounds of moderation.[236] - -[Sidenote: The Dean's table.] - -There was no chance of this with Colet. His own habits were severely -frugal. For years he abstained from suppers, and there were no nightly -revels in his house. His table was neatly spread, but neither costly nor -excessive. After grace, he would have a chapter read from one of St. -Paul's Epistles or the Proverbs of Solomon, and then contrive to engage -his guests in serious table-talk, drawing out the unlearned, as well as -the learned, and changing the topics of conversation with great tact and -skill. Thus, when the citizens dined at his table, they soon found, as his -Oxford friends had found at _their_ public dinners, that, without being -tedious or overbearing, somehow or other he contrived so to exert his -influence as to send his guests away better than they came.[237] - -[Sidenote: Inner circle of intimate friends.] - -[Sidenote: Colet's personal loyalty to Christ.] - -Moreover, Colet soon gathered around him here in London, as he had done at -Oxford, an inner circle of personal friends.[238] These were wont often to -meet at his table and to talk on late into the night, conversing sometimes -upon literary topics, and sometimes speaking together of that invisible -Prince whom Colet was as loyally serving now in the midst of honour and -preferment as he had done in an humbler sphere.[239] Colet's loyalty to -_Him_ seemed indeed to have been deepened rather than diminished by -contact with the outer world. The place which St. Paul's character and -writings had once occupied in his thoughts and teaching, was now filled by -the character and words of St. Paul's Master and his.[240] He never -travelled, says Erasmus, without reading some book or conversing of -Christ.[241] He had arranged the sayings of Christ in groups, to assist -the memory, and with the intention of writing a book on them.[242] His -sermons, too, in St. Paul's Cathedral bore witness to the engrossing -object of his thoughts. It was now no longer St. Paul's Epistles but the -'Gospel History,' the 'Apostles' Creed,' the 'Lord's Prayer,'[243] which -the Dean was expounding to the people. And highly as he had held, and -still held, in honour the apostolic writings, yet, as already mentioned, -they seemed to him to shrink, as it were, into nothing, compared with the -wonderful majesty of Christ himself. - -[Sidenote: Colet's sermons at St. Paul's.] - -The same method of teaching which he had applied at Oxford to the writings -of St. Paul he now applied in his cathedral sermons in treating of these -still higher subjects. For he did not, we are told, take an isolated text -and preach a detached discourse upon it, but went continuously through -whatever he was expounding from beginning to end in a course of -sermons.[244] Thus these cathedral discourses of Colet's were continuous -expositions of the facts of the Saviour's life and teaching, as recorded -by the Evangelists, or embodied in that simple creed which in Colet's view -contained the sum of Christian theology. And thus was he practically -illustrating, by his own public example in these sermons, his advice to -theological students, to 'keep to the Bible and the Apostles' Creed, -letting divines, if they like, dispute about the rest.' - - -II. MORE CALLED TO THE BAR--IN PARLIAMENT--OFFENDS HENRY VII.--THE -CONSEQUENCES (1500-1504). - -After the departure of Erasmus, More worked on diligently at his legal -studies at Lincoln's Inn. A few more terms and he received the reward of -his industry in his call to the bar. - -[Sidenote: More's legal studies.] - -During the years devoted to his legal curriculum, he had been wholly -absorbed in his law books. - -[Sidenote: Grocyn, Linacre, and More all in London.] - -[Sidenote: More lectures on the 'De Civitate Dei.'] - -Closely watched by his father, and purposely kept with a stinted -allowance, as at Oxford, so that 'his whole mind might, be set on his -book,' the law student had found little time or opportunity for other -studies. But being now duly called to the bar, and thus freed from the -restraints of student life, his mind naturally reverted to old channels of -thought. Grocyn and Linacre in the meantime had left Oxford and become -near neighbours of his in London. Thus the old Oxford circle partially -formed itself again, and with the renewal of old intimacies returned, if -ever lost, the love of old studies. For no sooner was More called to the -bar than he commenced his maiden lectures in the church of St. -Lawrence,[245] in the Old Jewry, and chose for a subject the great work of -St. Augustine, 'De Civitate Dei.' - -His object, we are told, in these lectures was not to expound the -theological creed of the Bishop of Hippo, but the philosophical and -historical[246] arguments contained in those first few books in which -Augustine had so forcibly traced the connection between the history of -Rome and the character and religion of the Romans, attributing the former -glory of the great Roman Commonwealth to the valour and virtue of the old -Romans; tracing the recent ruin of the empire, ending in the sack of Rome -by Alaric, to the effeminacy and profligacy of the modern Romans; -defending Christianity from the charge of having undermined the empire, -and pointing out that if it had been universally adopted by rulers and -people, and carried out into practice in their lives, the old Pagan empire -might have become a truly Christian empire and been saved,--those books -which, starting from the facts of the recent sack of Rome, landed the -reader at last in a discussion of the philosophy of free-will and fate. - -Roper tells us that the young lawyer's readings were well received, being -attended not only by Grocyn, his old Greek master, but also by 'all the -chief learned of the city of London.'[247] - -[Sidenote: More a reader at Furnival's Inn.] - -More was indeed rising rapidly in public notice and confidence. He was -appointed a reader at Furnival's Inn about this time, and when a -Parliament was called in the spring of 1503-4, though only twenty-five, -he was elected a member of it. - -[Sidenote: More in Parliament.] - -Sent up thus to enter public life in a Parliament of which the notorious -Dudley was the speaker,[248] the last and probably the most subservient -Parliament of a king who now in his latter days was becoming more and more -avaricious, the mettle of the young member was soon put to the test, and -bore it bravely. - -[Sidenote: Demands of the King.] - -[Sidenote: More opposes the King's demands;] - -At the last Parliament of 1496-7,[249] the King, in prospect of a war with -Scotland, had exacted from the Commons a subsidy of two-fifteenths, and, -finding they had submitted to this so easily, had, even before the close -of the session, pressed for and obtained the omission of the customary -clauses in the bill, releasing about 12,000_l._ of the gross amount in -relief of decayed towns and cities.[250] Now all was peace. The war with -Scotland had ended in the marriage of the Princess Margaret, whom More had -seen in the royal nursery a few years before, to the King of Scots. But by -feudal right the King, with consent of Parliament,[251] could claim a -'reasonable aid' in respect of this marriage of the Princess Royal, in -addition to another for the knighting of Prince Arthur, who, however, in -the meantime, had died. This Parliament of 1503-4 was doubtless called -chiefly to obtain these 'reasonable aids.' But with Dudley as speaker the -King meant to get more than his strictly feudal rights. Instead of the two -'aids,' he put in a claim (so Roper was informed[252]) for -three-fifteenths! i.e. for half as much again as he had asked for to -defray the cost of the Scottish war. And Dudley's flock of sheep were -going to pass this bill in silence! Already it had passed two readings, -when 'at the last debating thereof,' More, probably the youngest member of -the House, rose from his seat 'and made such arguments and reasons there -against,' that the King's demands (says Roper) 'were thereby clean -overthrown.' 'So that' (he continues) 'one of the King's Privy Chamber, -named Maister Tyler,[253] being present thereat, brought word to the King, -out of the Parliament House, that a beardless boy had disappointed all his -purpose.' - -[Sidenote: and successfully.] - -Instead of three-fifteenths, which would have realised 113,000_l._[254] or -more, the Parliament Rolls bear witness that the King, with royal clemency -and grace, had to accept a paltry 30,000_l._, being less than a third of -what he had asked for![255] - -[Sidenote: Henry VII. offended with More.] - -No wonder that, soon after, the King devised a quarrel with More's father -(who, by the way, was one of the commissioners for the collection of the -subsidy),[256] threw him into the Tower, and kept him there till he had -paid a fine of 100_l._ No wonder that young More himself was compelled at -once to retire from public life, and hide himself from royal displeasure -in obscurity.[257] - - -III. THOMAS MORE IN SECLUSION FROM PUBLIC LIFE (1504-5). - -[Sidenote: More and Lilly think of becoming monks or priests.] - -Compelled to seek safety in seclusion, More shut himself up in his -lodgings near the Charterhouse with William Lilly, another old Oxford -student, a contemporary of Colet's, if not of More's, at Oxford, who -having spent some years travelling in the East, had recently returned home -fresh from Italy. More seems to have shared with him the intention of -becoming a monk or a priest.[258] - -It was possibly not the first time his thoughts had turned in this -direction; but he had hitherto gone cautiously to work, taking no vow, -determined to feel his way, and not to rush blindly into what he might -afterwards repent of. - -[Sidenote: More thinks of entering the Charterhouse.] - -He had now taken to wearing an 'inner sharp shirt of hair,' and to -sleeping on the bare boards of his chamber, with a log under his head for -a pillow, and was otherwise schooling, by his powerful will, his quick and -buoyant nature into accordance with the strict rules of the Carthusian -brotherhood.[259] - -[Sidenote: Escapes a royal trap laid for him.] - -It was a critical moment in his life. Soon after his father had been -imprisoned and fined, having some business with Fox, Bishop of Winchester, -that great courtier called him aside, pretending to be his friend, and -promised that if he would be ruled by him, he would not fail to restore -him into the King's favour. But Fox was only setting a trap for him, from -which he was saved by a friendly hint from Whitford,[260] the bishop's -chaplain. This man told More that his master would not stick to agree to -his own father's death to serve the King's turn, and advised him to keep -quite aloof from the King. This hint was not reassuring, but it may have -saved More's life. - -What would have happened to him had he been left alone with misadvising -friends to give hasty vent to the disappointment which thus had crushed -his hopes at the very outset of his career--whether the cloister would -have received him as it did his friend Whitford afterwards, to be another -'_wretch of Sion_,' none can tell. - -[Sidenote: When Colet comes to London, More chooses him as his spiritual -guide.] - -Happily for him it was at this critical moment that Colet came up to -London to assume his new duties at St. Paul's. More was a diligent -listener to his sermons, and chose him as his father confessor. Stapleton -has preserved a letter from More to Colet,[261] which throws much light -upon the relation between them. It was written in October, 1504, whilst -Colet, after preaching during the summer, was apparently spending his long -vacation in the country. It shows that, under Colet's advice, More was not -altogether living the life of a recluse. - -[Sidenote: More's letter to Colet.] - -[Sidenote: More alludes to Colet's preaching at St. Paul's.] - -Colet had for some time been absent from his pulpit at St. Paul's. As More -was one day walking up and down Westminster Hall, waiting while other -people's suits were being tried, he chanced to meet Colet's servant. -Learning from him that his master had not yet returned to town, More wrote -to Colet this letter, to tell him how much he missed his wonted delightful -intercourse with him. He told him how he had ever prized his most wise -counsel; how by his most delightful fellowship he had been refreshed; how -by his weighty sermons he had been roused, and by his example helped on -his way. He reminded him how fully he relied upon his guidance--how he had -been wont to hang upon his very beck and nod. Under his protection he had -felt himself gaining strength, now without it he was flagging and undone. -He acknowledged that, by following Colet's leading, he had escaped almost -from the very jaws of hell; but now, amid all the temptations of city life -and the noisy wrangling of the law courts, he felt himself losing ground -without his help. No doubt the country might be much more pleasant to -Colet than the city, but the city, with all its vice, and follies, and -temptations, had far more need of his skill than simple country folk! -'There sometimes come, indeed,' he added, 'into the pulpit at St. Paul's, -men who promise to heal the diseases of the people. But, though they seem -to have preached plausibly enough, their lives so jar with their words -that they stir up men's wounds, rather than heal them.' But, he said, his -fellow-citizens had confidence in Colet, and all longed for his return. He -urged him, therefore, to return speedily, for their sake and for his, -reminding Colet again that he had submitted himself in all things to his -guidance. 'Meanwhile,' he concluded, 'I shall spend my time with Grocyn, -Linacre, and Lilly; the first, as you know, is the director of my life in -your absence; the second, the master of my studies; the third, my most -dear companion. Farewell, and, as you do, ever love me.' - -'London: 10 Calend. Novembris' [1504].[262] - -[Sidenote: More buries himself in his studies with Lilly.] - -Surrounded as he was by Colet, Grocyn, and Linacre, More soon began to -devote his leisure to his old studies. Lilly, too, had returned home well -versed in Greek. He had spent some years in the island of Rhodes, to -perfect his knowledge of it.[263] Naturally enough, therefore, the two -friends busied themselves in jointly translating Greek epigrams;[264] and -as, with increasing zeal, they yielded to the charms of the new learning, -it is not surprising if the fascinations of monastic life began to lose -their hold upon their minds. The result was that More was saved from the -false step he once had contemplated. - -He had, it would seem, seen enough of the evil side of the 'religious -life' to know that in reality it did not offer that calm retreat from the -world which in theory it ought to have done. He had cautiously abstained -from rushing into vows before he had learned well what they meant; and his -experience of ascetic practices had far too ruthlessly destroyed any -pleasant pictures of monastic life in which he may have indulged at first, -to admit of his ever becoming a Carthusian monk. - -Still we may not doubt that, in truth, he had a real and natural yearning -for the pure ideal of cloister holiness. Early disappointed love -possibly,[265] added to the rude shipwreck made of his worldly fortunes on -the rock of royal displeasure, had, we may well believe, effectually -taught him the lesson not to trust in those 'gay golden dreams' of worldly -greatness, from which, he was often wont to say, 'we cannot help awaking -when we die;' and even the penances and scourgings inflicted by way of -preparatory discipline upon his 'wanton flesh,' though soon proved to be -of no great efficacy, were not the less without some deep root in his -nature; else why should he wear secretly his whole life long the '_sharp -shirt of hair_' which we hear about at last?[266] - -So much as this must be conceded to More's Catholic biographers, who -naturally incline to make the most of this ascetic phase of his life.[267] - -[Sidenote: More disgusted with the cloister.] - -But that, on the other hand, he did turn in disgust from the impurity of -the cloister to the better chances which, he thought, the world offered of -living a chaste and useful life, we know from Erasmus; and this his -Catholic biographers have, in their turn, acknowledged.[268] - - -IV. MORE STUDIES PICO'S LIFE AND WORKS. HIS MARRIAGE (1505). - -More appears to have been influenced in the course he had taken, mainly by -two things:--first, a sort of hero-worship for the great Italian, Pico -della Mirandola; and, secondly, his continued reverence for Colet. - -[Sidenote: More translates the life and works of Pico.] - -[Sidenote: Pico's warm piety and zeal.] - -[Sidenote: A layman to the end.] - -The 'Life of Pico,' with divers Epistles and other 'Works' of his, had -come into More's hands. Very probably Lilly may have brought them home -with him amongst his Italian spoils. More had taken the pains to -translate them into English. He had doubtless heard all about Pico's -outward life from those of his friends who had known him personally when -in Italy. But here was the record of Pico's inner history, for the most -part in his own words; and reading this in More's translation, it is not -hard to see how strong an influence it may have exercised upon him. It -told how, suddenly checked, as More himself had been, in a career of -worldly honour and ambition, the proud vaunter of universal knowledge had -been transformed into the humble student of the Bible; how he had learned -to abhor scholastic disputations, of which he had been so great a master, -and to search for truth instead of fame. It told how, 'giving no great -force to outward observances,' 'he cleaved to God in very fervent love,' -so that, 'on a time as he walked with his nephew in an orchard at Ferrara, -in talking of the love of Christ, he told him of his secret purpose to -give away his goods to the poor, and fencing himself with the crucifix, -barefoot, walking about the world, in every town and castle to preach of -Christ.' It told how he, too, 'scourged his own flesh in remembrance of -the passion and death that Christ suffered for our sake;' and urged others -also ever to bear in mind two things, 'that the Son of God died for thee, -and that thou thyself shall die shortly;' and how, finally, in spite of -the urgent warnings of the great Savonarola, he remained a layman to the -end, and in the midst of indefatigable study of the Oriental languages, -and, above all, the Scriptures, through their means, died at the early age -of thirty-five, leaving the world to wonder at his genius, and Savonarola -to preach a sermon on his death.[269] - -[Sidenote: The Works of Pico.] - -And turning from the '_Life_ of Pico' to his '_Works_,' and reading these -in More's translation, they present to the mind a type of Christianity, so -opposite to the ceremonial and external religion of the monks, that one -may well cease to wonder that More, having caught the spirit of Pico's -religion, could no longer entertain any notion of becoming a Carthusian -brother. - -It will be worth while to examine carefully what these works of Pico's -were. - -[Sidenote: Pico's letter to his nephew.] - -The first is a letter from Pico to his nephew--a letter of advice to a -young man somewhat in More's position, longing to live to some 'virtuous -purpose,' but finding it hard to stem the tide of evil around him. To -encourage his nephew, he speaks of the 'great peace and felicity it is to -the mind when a man hath nothing that grudgeth his conscience, nor is -appalled with the secret touch of any privy crime.'... 'Doubtest thou, my -son, whether the minds of wicked men be vexed or not with continual -thought and torment?... The wicked man's heart is like the stormy sea, -that may not rest. There is to him nothing sure, nothing peaceable, but -all things fearful, all things sorrowful, all things deadly. Shall we, -then, envy these men? Shall we follow them, forgetting our own -country--heaven, and our own heavenly Father--where we were free-born? -Shall we wilfully make ourselves bondmen, and with them, wretched living, -more wretchedly die, and at the last most wretchedly in everlasting fire -be punished?' - -[Sidenote: Pico's faith in Christianity.] - -Having warned his nephew against wicked companions, Pico proceeds to make -evident allusion to the sceptical tendencies of Italian society. 'It is -verily a great madness' (he says) 'not to believe the Gospel, whose -_truth_ the blood of martyrs crieth, the voice of Apostles soundeth, -miracles prove, _reason confirmeth_, the world testifieth, the elements -speak, devils confess!'[270] 'But,' he continues, 'a far greater madness -is it, if thou doubt not but that the Gospel is true, to live then as -though thou doubtest not but that it were false.' - -[Sidenote: Its reasonableness and harmony with the laws of nature.] - -And it is worth notice, that the perception of the reasonableness of -Christianity, and its harmony with the laws of nature, breaks out again a -little further on. Pico writes to his nephew: 'Take no heed what thing -_many_ men do, but [take heed] _what thing the very law of nature_, what -thing _very reason_, what thing _our Lord himself showeth thee to be -done_.' - -[Sidenote: Pico on prayer.] - -[Sidenote: Pico on the Scriptures.] - -A little further on Pico points out two remedies, or aids, whereby his -nephew may be strengthened in his course. First, charity; and secondly, -prayer. With regard to the first he wrote:--'Certainly He shall not hear -thee when thou callest on _Him_, if thou hear not first the poor man when -he calleth upon _thee_.' With regard to prayer, he wrote thus:--'When I -stir thee to prayer, I stir thee not to the prayer that standeth in many -words, but to that prayer which, in the secret chamber of the mind, in the -privy-closet of the soul, with very affect speaketh unto God, and in the -most lightsome darkness of contemplation, not only presenteth the mind to -the Father, but also uniteth it with Him by unspeakable ways, which only -_they_ know that have assayed. Nor I care not how long or how short thy -prayer be, but how effectual, how ardent.... Let no day pass, then, but -thou once at the leastwise present thyself to God by prayer, and falling -down before Him flat to the ground, with an humble affect of devout mind, -not from the extremity of thy lips, but out of the inwardness of thine -heart, cry these words of the prophet: "The offences of my youth, and mine -ignorances, remember not, good Lord, but after thy goodness remember me." -What thou shalt in thy prayer ask of God, both the Holy Spirit, which -prayeth for us and eke thine own necessity, shall every hour put into thy -mind, and also what thou shalt pray for thou shalt find matter enough _in -the reading of Holy Scripture_, which that thou wouldst now (setting -poets, fables, and trifles aside) take ever in thine hand I heartily pray -thee; ... there lieth in _them_ a certain heavenly strength quick and -effectual, which with marvellous power transformeth and changeth the -readers' mind into the love of God, if they be clean and lowly entreated.' -Lastly, he said he would 'make an end with this one thing. I warn thee (of -which when we were last together I often talked with thee) that thou never -forget these two things; that both the Son of God died for thee, and that -thou thyself shalt die shortly!'[271] - -This, then, was the doctrine which Pico, 'fencing himself with a crucifix, -barefoot, walking about the world, in every town and castle,' purposed to -preach! - - * * * * * - -The next letter is a reply to a friend of his who had urged him to leave -his contemplative and studious life, and to mix in political affairs, in -which, as an Italian prince, lay his natural sphere. He replied, that his -desire was 'not _so to embrace Martha as utterly to forsake Mary_'--to -'love them and use them both, as well study as worldly occupation.' 'I -set more' (he continued) 'by my little house, my study, the pleasure of my -books, the rest and peace of my mind, than by all your king's palaces, all -your business, all your glory, all the advantage that ye hawke after, and -all the favour of the court!' - -[Sidenote: Pico's study of Eastern languages.] - -Then he tells his friend that what he looks to do is, '_to give out some -books of mine to the common profit_,' and that he is mastering the Hebrew, -Chaldee, and Arabic languages.[272] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Another letter to his nephew.] - -Then follows another letter to his nephew, who, in trying to follow the -advice given in his first letter, finds himself slandered and called a -hypocrite by his companions at court. It is a letter of noble -encouragement to stand his ground, and to heed not the scoffs and sneers -of his fellows. - -These letters are followed by an exposition of Psalm xvi., in which Pico -incidentally uses his knowledge of the Hebrew text and of Eastern -customs.[273] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Pico's verses.] - -All the foregoing are in prose; after them come More's translations of -some of Pico's verses. - -The first is entitled, 'Twelve rules, partly exciting and partly directing -a man in spiritual battle,' and reminds one of the 'Enchiridion' of -Erasmus. The second is named, 'The twelve weapons of spiritual battle.' -The striking feature in both these metrical works is the holding up of -Christ's example as an incentive to duty and to love. Thus:-- - - 'Consider, when thou art movèd to be _wroth_, - He who that was God and of all men the best, - Seeing himself scorned and scourgèd both, - And as a thief between two thievès threst, - With all rebuke and shame; yet from his breast - Came never sign of wrath or of disdain, - But patiently endurèd all the pain!' - -And again, after speaking of the shortness of life-- - - 'How fast it runneth on, and passen shall - As doth a dream or shadow on a wall.' - -he continues:-- - - 'Think on the very lamentable pain, - Think on the piteous cross of woeful Christ, - Think on his blood, beat out at every vein, - Think on his precious heart carvèd in twain: - Think how for thy redemption all was wrought. - _Let him not lose, what he so dear hath bought._' - -There is another poem in which the feelings of a lover towards his love -are made to show what the Christian's feelings ought to be to Christ; and -lastly, there is a solemn and beautiful 'Prayer of Picus Mirandola to -God,' glowing with the same adoration of - - ... 'that mighty love - Which able was thy dreadful majesty - To draw down into earth from heaven above - And crucify God, that we poor wretches, _we_ - Should from our filthy sin yclensèd be!' - -and the same earnest longing - - 'That when the journey of this deadly life - My silly ghost hath finished, and thence - Departen must,' ... - 'He may Thee find ... - In thy lordship, not as a lord, but rather - As a very tender, loving father!' - -[Sidenote: Pico's enlightened piety.] - -I have made these quotations, and thus endeavoured to put the reader in -possession of the contents of this little volume, which More in his -seclusion was translating, because I think they throw some light upon the -current in which his thoughts were moving, and because, whilst the name of -Pico is known to fame as that of a great linguist and most precocious -genius, his enlightened piety and the extent of the influence of his -heroic example have scarcely been appreciated. - -This little book, indeed, has a special significance in relation to the -history of the Oxford Reformers. Whatever doubt may rest upon the direct -connection between _their_ views and those of Savonarola, there is here in -More's translation of these writings of a disciple of Savonarola, another -_in_direct connection between them and that little knot of earnest -Christian men in Italy of which Savonarola was the most conspicuous. - -[Sidenote: Position of the Neo-Platonic philosophers of Florence.] - -The extracts made and translated by More from Pico's writings may also -help us to recognise in the Neo-Platonic philosophers of Florence, by -whose writings Colet had been so profoundly influenced, a vein of earnest -Christian feeling of which it may be that we know too little. Like their -predecessors of a thousand years before, they stood between the old world -and the new. They were the men who, when the learning of the old Pagan -world was restored to light, and backed against the dogmatic creed of -priest-ridden degraded Christendom, built a bridge, as it were, between -Christian and Pagan thought. That their bridge was frail and insecure it -may be, but, to a great extent, it served its end. A passage was effected -by it from the Pagan to the Christian shore. Ficino, the representative -Neo-Platonist, who, as has been seen, had aided in its building, had -himself passed over it. Savonarola too had crossed it. Pico had crossed -it. It is true that these men may, to some extent, have Platonised -Christianity in becoming Christian; but it will be recognised at once that -the earnest Christian feeling found by More in Pico, so to speak, rose far -above his Platonism. - -[Sidenote: More calls Savonarola a 'man of God.'] - -That the life and writings of such a man should have awakened in his -breast something of hero-worship[274] is, therefore, not surprising. That -he should have singled out these passages, and taken the trouble to -translate them, is some proof that he admired Pico's practical piety more -than his Neo-Platonic speculations; that he shared with Colet those -yearnings for practical Christian reform with which Colet had returned -from Italy ten years before. That a few years after this translation -should be published and issued in English in More's name was further proof -of it. For here was a book not only in its drift and spirit boldly taking -Cole's side against the Schoolmen, and in favour of the study of Scripture -and the Oriental languages, but as boldly holding up Savonarola as 'a -preacher, as well in cunning as in holiness of living, most famous,'--'a -holy man'--'a man of God'[275]--in the teeth of the fact that he had been -denounced by the Pope as a 'son of blasphemy and perdition,' -excommunicated, tortured, and, refusing to abjure, hung and burned as a -heretic![276] - -[Sidenote: Colet's influence on More.] - -And if the fire of hero-worship for Pico had lit up something of heroism -in More's heart--something which yearned for the battle of life, and not -for the rest of the cloister--so the living example of Colet was ready to -feed the flame into strength and steadiness. - -[Sidenote: More marries under Colet's advice.] - -The result was that, in 1505,[277] in spite of early disappointments, and, -it is said, under Colet's 'advice and direction,'[278] More married Jane -Colt, of New Hall in Essex, took a house in Bucklersbury, and gave up for -ever all longings for monastic life. - - -V. HOW IT HAD FARED WITH ERASMUS (1500-5). - -Soon after Colet's elevation to the dignities of Doctor and Dean, a letter -of congratulation arrived from Erasmus. - -Colet had written no letter to him, and had almost lost sight of him -during these years. It would seem that, after his departure from Oxford, -Colet had given up all hopes of his aid. Nor had any other kindred soul -risen up to take that place in fellow-work beside him, which at one time -he had hoped the great scholar might have filled. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus had not forgotten Colet.] - -[Sidenote: The legal robbery of Erasmus at Dover.] - -But Erasmus on his side had not forgotten Colet. His intercourse with -Colet at Oxford had changed the current of his thoughts, and the course of -his life. Colet little knew by what slow and painful steps he had been -preparing to redeem the promise he had made on leaving Oxford. - -We left him making the best of his way to Dover, with his purse full of -golden crowns, kindly bestowed by his English friends in order that he -might now carry out his long-cherished intention of going to Italy. But -the Fates had decreed against him. King Henry VII. had already reached the -avaricious period of his life and reign. Under cover of an old obsolete -statute, he had given orders to the Custom House officers to stop the -exportation of all precious metals, and the Custom House officers in their -turn, construing their instructions strictly to the letter, had seized -upon Erasmus's purseful of golden crowns, and relieved him of the burden, -for the benefit of the King's exchequer.[279] The poor scholar proceeded -without them to cross to Boulogne. - -He was a bad sailor, and the hardships of travel soon told upon his -health. He was heart-sick also; as well he might be, for this unlucky loss -of his purse had utterly disconcerted once more his long-cherished plans. -On his arrival at Paris, after a wretched and dangerous journey,[280] he -was taken ill, and recovered only to bear his bitter disappointment as -best he could. Before he had yet recovered from his illness he wrote this -touching letter to Arnold, the young legal friend of More, with whom a few -weeks before he and More had visited the Royal nursery. - - _Erasmus to Arnold._[281] - - [Sidenote: Erasmus gives up all hope of going to Italy.] - - 'Salve, mi Arnolde. Now for six weeks I having been suffering much - from a nocturnal ague, of a lingering kind but of daily recurrence, - and it has nearly killed me. I am not yet free from the disease, but - still somewhat better. I don't yet _live_ again, but some hope of life - dawns upon me. You ask me to tell you my plans. Take this only, to - begin with: To mortify myself to the world, I dash my hopes. I long - for nothing more than to give myself rest, in which I might live - wholly to God alone, weep away the sins of a careless life, devote - myself to the study of the Holy Scriptures, either read somewhat or - write. This I cannot do in a monastery or college. One could not be - more delicate than I am; my health will bear neither vigils, nor - fasts, nor any disturbance, even when at its best. Here, where I live - in such luxury, I often fall ill; what should I do amid the labours of - college life? - - [Sidenote: Cost of going to Italy.] - - 'I had determined to go to Italy this year, and to work at theology - some months at Bologna; also there to take the degree of Doctor; then - in the year of Jubilee to visit Rome; which done, to return to my - friends and then to settle down. But I am afraid that these things - that I _would_, I shall _not be able_ to accomplish. I fear, in the - first place, that my health would not stand such a journey and the - heat of the climate. Lastly, I reckon that I could not go to Italy, - nor live there without great expense. It costs a great deal also to - prepare for a degree. And the Bishop of Cambray gives very sparingly. - He altogether loves more liberally than he gives, and promises - everything much more largely than he performs. It is partly my own - fault for not pressing him. There are so many who are even - _extorting_. In the meantime I shall do what seems for the best. - Farewell.' - -What was he to do? It was clear that he did not know what to do. The worst -of it was that the unfortunate loss of the price of many months' -leisure,[282] not only obliged him to postpone _sine die_ his project of -visiting Italy, but also to spend a large portion of his time and strength -for the next few years in a struggle almost for subsistence. For the wolf -must in some way or other be kept from the door; and Erasmus was _poor_! - -[Sidenote: Poverty of Erasmus.] - -[Sidenote: His Greek studies.] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus visits Holland.] - -For a few months he struggled on at Paris, living in lodgings with an old -fellow student 'sparingly,'[283] hard at work at a collection of Greek and -Latin proverbs--his _Adagia_--partly in order to raise the wind, partly to -improve himself in Greek. Sometimes borrowing and sometimes begging, -whatever money came to his hands went forthwith first in buying Greek -books and then in clothes.[284] Later in the year, the prevalence of the -Plague in Paris drove him to Orleans. He would have gone to Italy, but he -had not the means.[285] In December he returned to Paris to continue his -struggling life.[286] In a letter written in January, 1501, on the -anniversary of his misfortune at Dover, he described himself 'as having -now for a whole year been sailing under a stormy sky against the waves and -against the winds.'[287] To add to his troubles, the Plague again broke -out in Paris; and, terrified by the number of funerals passing his door, -the poor scholar fled from the city to spend a few weeks in his native -country.[288] During his stay in Holland he visited the monastery at -Stein,[289] where in early years he had tasted the bitters of the monastic -life. Neither there nor elsewhere in Holland did he find a resting-place. - -[Sidenote: Princess of Vere and Battus.] - -Fortunately for him, one true friend at least turned up, willing and able -to enter into sympathy with him. This was Battus, tutor to the Marchioness -of Vere. Erasmus had already corresponded with him from Paris, pouring out -his troubles to him, and declaring that he had no other hope but in him -alone.[290] Kept away from Paris by the Plague, and finding not even a -temporary home in Holland, he at last found a refuge for a while from his -fears and cares in a visit to the castle of Tornahens,[291] the residence -of the Marchioness of Vere and of Battus. It had the additional -attraction of being near to St. Omer, where lived a former patron of -Erasmus, the Abbot of St. Bertin. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus would like to visit Colet again.] - -Whilst staying with Battus he wrote to a friend, that he sometimes thought -of returning to England to spend a month or two more with Colet, in order -to confer further with him on some theological questions. He knew well, he -said, how much good he should gain from doing so, but he could not get -over the unlucky experience of his last voyage. As to his journey to -Italy, that, too, was knocked on the head. He told his friend that he -longed to visit Italy as ardently as ever, but it was out of the question; -for, according to the adage of Plautus, 'Sine pennis volare haud facile -est.'[292] - -[Sidenote: Writes his 'Enchiridion.'] - -Battus also wrote to Lord Mountjoy to tell him with what pleasure he had -embraced Erasmus, but, 'alas, how ill-treated and spoiled!' He told him -how he had been commiserating Erasmus on his ill-fortune in England, and -how the philosopher had smiled and bade him put a good face on it, He did -not regret having visited England; he cared more for the friends he had -found in England than for all the gold of Croesus. Battus concluded by -telling Lord Mountjoy how Erasmus had described to him the courtesy of the -Prior Charnock, the learning of Colet, the good nature of More, the -virtues of his noble patron.[293] It was during this visit to St. Omer, in -the summer of 1501, that Erasmus wrote his 'Enchiridion.' - -There happened to be staying in the castle a lady, a friend of Battus, who -had a bad husband. The latter, whilst holding other divines at arm's -length, took to Erasmus. The wife, thinking that he possibly might have -some influence over her husband, begged him, without betraying that it -was at her instigation, to write something which might produce in him some -religious impressions.[294] The 'Enchiridion' was the result, of which -more will be said by and by. - -[Sidenote: John Vitrarius.] - -It was at St. Omer also that Erasmus became acquainted with John -Vitrarius--a second John Colet in the earnestness of his Christian zeal -against the corruptions of the church and vices of the clergy, in his love -for St. Paul, in his outspoken preaching, and even in his manner of -preaching, in his dislike of the Scholastic subtlety of Scotus, and even -in his preference for Ambrose, Cyprian, Jerome, and Origen over Augustine. -Erasmus ever afterwards linked the names of Colet and Vitrarius together, -and admitted them both deservedly into his calendar of uncanonised -saints.[295] The 'Enchiridion' was submitted to the judgment of Vitrarius, -and obtained his approval.[296] - -[Sidenote: Return of Erasmus to Paris.] - -After many refreshing days passed at St. Omer, Erasmus returned to Paris -to pursue his literary labours. These, notwithstanding all the hindrances -of ill-health and poverty, never seemed to have flagged.[297] He had -already made up his mind to devote himself to the Herculean task of -correcting the text of St. Jerome's voluminous works, with a view to their -publication.[298] The first edition of his 'Adagia' had been printed in -1501; and during a visit to Louvain and Antwerp, in 1503, he was able to -publish some other works--his afterwards famous 'Enchiridion' amongst the -rest.[299] But notwithstanding all his indomitable energy, and the often -repeated kindness of Battus and the Marchioness, it would be difficult to -imagine a longer catalogue of troubles and disappointments--and these too -of that harassing and vexatious kind which are most trying to the -temper--than is contained in the letters of Erasmus during these dreary -years.[300] - -He might well have been excused if, lost sight of as it would seem by his -English friends, he had himself forgotten his promise to Colet on leaving -Oxford, amidst the cares of his continental life. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus remembers his promise to Colet.] - -But whilst these necessities not a little interrupted, as was likely, -those studies to which Colet's example and precept had urged him, and -lengthened out the preliminary labours which Erasmus had made up his mind -must precede his active participation in Colet's work, they did not, it -seems, damp his energy, or induce him to look back after putting his hand -to the plough. This and more lies touchingly hinted in the following -letter written by Erasmus to Colet on receipt of the news of the elevation -of his friend to the dignity of Doctor and Dean. - - _Erasmus to Colet._[301] - - 'If our friendship, most learned Colet, had been of a common-place - kind, or your habits those of the common run of men, I should indeed - have been somewhat fearful lest it might have been extinguished, or at - least cooled, by our long and wide separation.... But I prefer to - believe that the cause of my having received no letter from you now - for _several years_, lies rather in your press of business, or - ignorance of my whereabouts, or even in myself, than in your - forgetfulness of an old friend.... - - 'I am much surprised that you have not yet given to the world any of - your commentaries on St. Paul and the Gospels. I know your modesty, - but surely you ought to conquer that, and print them for the _public - good_. - - [Sidenote: Erasmus congratulates Colet on his preferment.] - - 'As to the title of Doctor and Dean, I do not so much congratulate - _you_ about these--for I know well they will bring you nothing but - labour--as those for whose good you are to bear them. - - [Sidenote: Wants to devote himself to Scripture studies.] - - [Sidenote: Greek and Hebrew studies.] - - 'I cannot tell you, dearest Colet, how, by hook and by crook, I - struggle to devote myself to the study of sacred literature--how I - regret everything which either delays me or detains me from it. But - constant ill-fortune has prevented me from extricating myself from - these hindrances. When in France, I determined that if I could not - conquer these difficulties I would cast them aside, and that once - freed from them, with my whole mind I would set to work at these - sacred studies, and devote the rest of my life to them. Although three - years before I had attempted something on St. Paul's Epistle to the - Romans,[302] and had completed four volumes at one pull, I was - nevertheless prevented from going on with it, owing chiefly to the - want of a better knowledge of Greek. Consequently, for nearly these - three years past, I have buried myself in Greek literature; nor do I - think the labour has been thrown away. I began also to dip into - Hebrew, but, deterred by the strangeness of the words, I desisted, - knowing that one man's life and genius are not enough for too many - things at a time. I have read through a good part of the works of - Origen, under whose guidance I seemed really to get on, for he opened - to me, as it were, the springs and the method of theological science. - - [Sidenote: The 'Enchiridion.'] - - 'I send you [herewith], as a little literary present, some - lucubrations of mine. Among them is our discussion, when in England, - on the Agony of Christ, but so altered that you will hardly know it - again. Besides, your reply and my rejoinder to it could not be found. - The "Enchiridion" I wrote to display neither genius nor eloquence, but - simply for this--to counteract the vulgar error of those who think - that religion consists in ceremonies, and in more than _Jewish_ - observances, while they neglect what really pertains to piety. I have - tried to teach, as it were, the _art_ of piety in the same way as - others have laid down the rules of [military] discipline.... The rest - were written against the grain, especially the "Pæan" and - "Obsecratio," which I wrote to please Battus and Anna, the Princess - of Vere. As to the "Panegyric,"[303] it was so contrary to my taste, - that I do not remember ever having written anything more reluctantly; - for I saw that such a thing could not be done without adulation.... - - [Sidenote: The 'Adagia.'] - - [Sidenote: Erasmus wants help from his friends.] - - 'I wrote, if you recollect, sometime past, about the 100 copies of the - "Adagia" which I sent at my own expense into England, now three years - ago. Grocyn wrote me word that he would arrange with the greatest - fidelity and diligence that they should be sold according to my wish, - and I do not doubt but that he has performed his promise, for he is - the best and most honourable man that ever lived in England. Will you - be so good as to aid me in this matter, so far as to advise and spur - on those by whom you think the business ought to be settled? For one - cannot doubt but that, in so long a time, the books must be sold; and - the money must of necessity have come to somebody's hand; and it is - likely to be of more use to me now than ever before. For, by some - means or other, I must contrive to have a few months entirely to - myself, that I may extricate myself somehow from my labours in secular - literature. This I trusted I could have done this winter, had not so - many hopes proved illusive. Nor, indeed, "with a great sum can I - obtain this freedom," even for a few months. I entreat you, therefore, - to do what you can to aid me, panting as I do eagerly after sacred - studies, in disengaging myself from those [secular] studies which have - now ceased to be pleasant to me. It would not do for me to beg of my - friend, Lord Mountjoy, although it would not seem unreasonable or - impertinent if, of his own good will, he had chosen to aid me, both - on the ground of his habitual patronage of my studies, and also - because the "Adagia" were undertaken at his suggestion, and inscribed - with his name. I am ashamed of the first edition [of the "Adagia"] - both on account of the blundering mistakes of the printers, which seem - made almost on purpose, and because, urged on by others, I hurried - over the work which had now begun to seem to me dry and poor after my - study of the Greek authors. Consequently, another edition is resolved - upon, in which the errors of both author and printer are to be - corrected, and the work made as useful as possible to students. - - [Sidenote: His Greek studies not thrown away.] - - 'Although, however, I may for a while be engaged upon an humble task, - yet whilst thus working in the Garden of the Greeks, I am gathering - much fruit by the way for the time to come, which may hereafter be of - use to me in sacred studies. For I have learned this by experience, - that without Greek one can do nothing in any branch of study; for it - is one thing to conjecture, and quite another thing to judge--one - thing to see with other people's eyes, and quite another thing to - believe what you see with your own. - - 'But to what a length this letter has grown! Love, however, will - excuse loquacity. Farewell, most learned and excellent Colet. - - 'Pray let me know what has happened to our friend Sixtinus; also what - your friend the Prior Richard Charnock is doing. - - 'In order that whatever you may write or send to me may duly come to - hand, be so good as to have them addressed to Christopher Fisher (a - most loving friend and patron of all learned men, and you amongst the - rest), in whose family I am now a guest.' Paris, 1504 [in error for - 1505]. - -Thus had the poor scholar worked on, for the most part in silence, during -these years, struggling alone, yet manfully, in the midst of the manifold -hindrances cast in his way by ill-health and straitened means, neither -free-born (as his friend Colet was), and thus able to tread unencumbered -the path of duty, nor finding himself able even 'with a great sum to -obtain freedom' for a while. Yet through all had Erasmus kept courageously -to the collar, steadily toiling on through five years of preliminary -labours, with earnest purpose to redeem his promise to Colet--first, fully -to equip himself with the proper tools and then, but not till then, to -join him in fellow work. - -[Sidenote: Why Colet had not written.] - -Colet surely had forgotten the promise of Erasmus on leaving Oxford, or -perchance the hope it held out was too slender for him to rest on, else he -would hardly have left him during these years without letters of brotherly -encouragement. - -It is true that Erasmus still confessed himself to be occupied in merely -preliminary labours. His great work, no less than it had been five years -before, was still in the future. Yet the fire caught from his contact with -Colet at Oxford was at least flickering on the hearth, and with fresh -stirring and fuel might perhaps after all be kindled into active flame. - -Colet's reply to this letter has not come down to us, but from the result -we may be sure that it contained a pressing invitation to revisit England, -and the promise of a warm reception. - - -VI. THE 'ENCHIRIDION,' ETC. OF ERASMUS (1501-5). - -In the meantime, closer inspection of the literary present sent by -Erasmus, must have proved to Colet to how large an extent, after so long a -process of study and digestion, his friend had really adopted the views -which he himself had held and consistently preached for the last ten -years. - -[Sidenote: The 'Enchiridion.'] - -The 'Enchiridion' was, in truth, a re-echo of the very key-note of Colet's -faith. It openly taught, as Colet now for so many years had been teaching, -that the true Christian's religion, instead of consisting in the -acceptance of scholastic dogmas, or the performance of outward rites and -ceremonies, really consists in a true, self-sacrificing loyalty to Christ, -his ever-living Prince; that life is a warfare, and that the Christian -must sacrifice his evil lusts and passions, and spend his strength, not in -the pursuit of his own pleasure, but in active service of his -Prince;--such was the drift and spirit of this 'Handybook of the Christian -Soldier.'[304] - -It must not be assumed, however, that Erasmus had adopted all the views -which Colet had expressed in their many conversations at Oxford. On the -contrary, I think there may be traced in the 'Enchiridion'[305] a tendency -to interpret the text of Scripture _allegorically_, rather than to seek -out its _literal_ meaning--a tendency which must have been somewhat -opposed to the strong convictions of Colet, and even to those of Erasmus, -in after years. But he had just then been studying Origen, and it is not -strange that he should for a while be fascinated, as so many others have -been, by the allegorical method of interpretation adopted by that father. -He had learned so much from his writings, that he yielded the more readily -perhaps in this particular to the force of Origen's rich imagination.[306] - -[Sidenote: Not a success at first.] - -[Sidenote: A favourite with the Protestants.] - -But if Colet did not find his own views reflected in all points in this -early production of Erasmus, he would not the less rejoice to find its -general tone so spiritual, so anti-ceremonial, and so free from -superstitious adherence to ecclesiastical authority. That it was so, no -stronger proof could be given than the fact that, whilst for years after -it was written it was known only in select circles, and was far from being -a popular book; yet no sooner had the Protestant movement commenced than, -with a fresh preface, it passed through almost innumerable editions with -astonishing rapidity. Nor was it read only by the learned. It was -translated into English by Tyndale, and again in an abridged form reissued -in English by Coverdale. And whilst in this country it was thus treated -almost as a Protestant book, so in Spain also it had a remarkably wide -circulation. 'The work,' wrote the Archdeacon of Alcor, in 1527--twenty -years after its first silent publication--'has gained such applause and -credit to your name, and has proved so useful to the Christian faith, that -there is no other book of our time which can be compared with the -"Enchiridion" for the extent of its circulation, since it is found in -everybody's hands. There is scarcely anyone in the court of the Emperor, -any citizen of our cities, or member of our churches and convents, no not -even a hotel or country inn, that has not a copy of the "Enchiridion" of -Erasmus in Spanish. The Latin version was read previously by the few who -understood Latin, but its full merit was not perfectly perceived even by -these. Now in the Spanish it is read by all without distinction; and this -short work has made the name of Erasmus a household word in circles where -it was previously unknown and had not been heard of.'[307] - -[Sidenote: Anti-Augustinian on free will and grace.] - -Strong as must have been the Protestant tendencies of this little book to -have made it so great a favourite with Protestant Reformers, it is worthy -of note that its tone was as moderate and anti-Augustinian upon the great -questions of free will and grace, and in this respect as decidedly opposed -to the extreme Augustinian views adopted by the Protestant Reformers, as -anything that Erasmus ever afterwards wrote during the heat of the -controversy. - -To abridge what is said in the 'Enchiridion' on this subject into a few -sentences, but retaining, as nearly as may be, the words of Erasmus, it is -this:-- - -'The good man is he whose body is a temple of the Holy Spirit; the bad man -is like a whited sepulchre full of dead men's bones. If the soul loathes -its proper food, if it cannot see what is truth, if it cannot discern the -Divine voice speaking in the inner ear; if, in fact, it has become -_senseless_, it is _dead_. And wherefore dead? Because God, who is its -life, has forsaken it. Now if the soul be dead it cannot be raised into -life again but by the gracious power of God only. But we have God on our -side. Our enemy has been conquered by Christ. In ourselves we are weak; in -Him we are strong. The victory lies in his hands, but he has put it also -in ours. No one need fail to conquer, unless he does not choose to -conquer. Aid is withheld from none who desire it. If we accept it, he will -fight for us, and impute his love as merit to us. The victory is to be -ascribed to him, who alone being sinless, overcame the tyranny of sin; but -we are not on that account to expect it without our own exertions. We must -steer our course between Scylla and Charybdis. We must neither sit down in -idle security, relying on Divine grace; nor, in view of the hardness of -the struggle, lay down our arms in despair.'[308] - -Thus early had Erasmus, following the lead of Colet, taken up the position -as regards this question to which he adhered through life. - -[Sidenote: Other works of Erasmus.] - -[Sidenote: Conversation at Oxford on the 'Agony of Christ.'] - -But the 'Enchiridion' was not the only work published by Erasmus during -this interval. Probably annexed to it, and under the same cover, he had -published his long report of the conversation between himself and Colet at -Oxford on the causes of the Agony of Christ in the Garden. This showed at -least that he had not forgotten what had passed between them on that -occasion. As, however, he did not append to it Colet's reply, it cannot be -concluded that he had given up his own opinion, either on the question -directly in dispute, or on the still more important one, which came out -of it, on the inspiration of the Scriptures and the theory of 'manifold -senses.' - -[Sidenote: The 'Adagia.'] - -Very clearly, however, did the letter which accompanied these works show -that Erasmus had already resolved to dedicate his life to the great work -of bringing out the Scriptures into their proper prominence, and thereby -throwing into the background all that mass of scholastic subtlety which -had for so long formed the food of theologians. If now for years he had -been wading through Greek literature, it was not merely for its own sake, -but with this great object in view. If, on account of his learning and -eloquence, his friends at the court of the Netherlands had pressed him -into their service, and induced him to compose a flattering oration on the -occasion of the return of Philip from Spain, he had counted the labour as -lost, except so far as it probably helped to keep the wolf from the door -for a week or two. Even the two editions of the 'Adagia' were evidently -regarded only as stepping-stones to that knowledge without which he felt -that it would be useless for him to attempt to master the Greek New -Testament. Of this he gave further practical proof before his arrival -again in England. For whilst still under the hospitable roof of his friend -Fisher, the Papal protonotary at Paris, he brought out his edition of -Laurentius Valla's 'Annotations upon the New Testament;' a copy of which -he had chanced to light upon in an old library during the previous summer. -And to this edition was prefixed a prefatory letter to this kind host, -remarkable for the boldness of its tone and the freedom of its thought. - -[Sidenote: Preface to an edition of Valla's 'Annotations on the New -Testament.'] - -[Sidenote: Correction of the text of Scripture.] - -He knew well, he wrote, that some readers would cry out, 'Oh, Heavens!' -before they had got to the end of the titlepage; but such as these he -reminded of the advice of Aristophanes: 'First listen, my friends, and -then you may shriek and bluster!' He knew, he went on to say, that -theologians, who ought to get more good out of the book than any one else, -would raise the greatest tumult against it; that they would resent as a -sacrilegious infringement of their own sacred province, any interference -of Valla, the grammarian, with the sacred text of the Scriptures. But he -boldly vindicated the right and the necessity of a fair criticism, as in -many passages the Vulgate was manifestly at fault, was a bad rendering of -the original Greek, or had itself been corrupted. If any one should reply -that the theologian is above the laws of grammar, and that the work of -interpretation depends solely upon inspiration, this were, he said, indeed -to claim a new dignity for divines. Were they alone to be allowed to -indulge in bad grammar? He quoted from Jerome to show that he claimed no -inspiration for the translator; and asked what would have been the use of -Jerome's giving directions for the translation of Holy Scripture if the -power of translating depended upon inspiration. Again, how was it that -Paul was evidently so much more at home in Hebrew than in Greek? Finally -he urged, if there be errors in the Vulgate, is it not lawful to correct -them? Many indeed he knew would object to change any word in the Bible, -because they fancy that in every letter is hid some mystic meaning. -Suppose that it were so, would it not be all the more needful that the -exact original text should be restored?[309] - -This was a bold public beginning of that work of Biblical criticism to -which Colet's example so powerfully urged Erasmus. - -The edition of Valla's 'Annotations,' with this letter prefixed to it, was -published at Paris in 1505, while he was busily engaged in bringing out -the second edition of the 'Adagia.' And it would seem that he only waited -for the completion of these works before again crossing the Straits to pay -another visit to his English friends. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - - -I. SECOND VISIT OF ERASMUS TO ENGLAND (1505-6). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus again is More's guest.] - -Towards the close of 1505, Erasmus arrived in England, to renew his -intimacy with his English friends.[310] He had not this time to visit -Oxford in order to meet them. Colet, Grocyn, Linacre, More, and his friend -Lilly, all were ready to receive him with open arms in London. He seems, -for a time at least, to have been More's guest.[311] - -Since Erasmus had last seen him, the youth had matured into the man. He -had passed through much discipline and mental struggle. But his grey eye -sparkled still with native wit, and a hasty glance round his rooms was -enough to assure his old friend that his tastes were what they used to -be--that in heart and mind, in spite of all that had befallen him, he was -the same high-toned and happy-hearted soul he always had been. - -[Sidenote: More's wife.] - -More's young and gentle wife, fresh from the retirement of her father's -country home, was too uncultured to attract much notice from the learned -foreigner; but he tells us More had purposely chosen a wife whom he could -mould to his own liking for a life companion. Both were young, and she was -apt to learn. Whilst, therefore, he himself found time to devote to his -favourite Greek books and his lyre, he was imparting by degrees to her his -own fondness for literature and music.[312] - -[Sidenote: More's epigrams.] - -Erasmus found him writing Latin epigrams and verses, in which the pent-up -bitter thoughts of the past year or two were making their escape. Some -were on priests and monks--sharp biting satires on their evil side, and by -no means showing abject faith in monkhood.[313] - -Nor was he courting back again the favour of offended royalty by melodious -and repentant whinings. Rather his pen gave vent to the chafed and untamed -spirit of the man who knew he had done his duty, and was unjustly -suffering for it. His unrelenting hatred of the king's avarice and tyranny -may be read in the very headings of his epigrams.[314] - -[Sidenote: Translations from Lucian.] - -[Sidenote: Fascination of Erasmus for More.] - -Erasmus joined More in his studies.[315] He was translating into Latin -some of Lucian's Dialogues and his 'Declamatio pro Tyrannicidâ.' At More's -suggestion they both wrote a full answer to Lucian's arguments in favour -of tyrannicide, imitating Lucian's style as nearly as possible; and -Erasmus, in sending a copy of these essays to a friend, spoke of More in -terms which show how fully he had again yielded to the fascination and -endearing charms of his character. As he had once spoken of the youth, so -now he spoke of the man. Never, he thought, had nature united so fully in -one mind so many of the qualities of genius--the keenest insight, the -readiest wit, the most convincing eloquence, the most engaging manners--he -possessed, he said, every quality required to make a perfect -advocate.[316] - -Such a man, with fair play and opportunity, was sure to rise into -distinction. But as yet he must bide his time, waiting for the day when he -could pursue his proper calling at the bar without risk of incurring royal -displeasure. - - -II. ERASMUS AGAIN LEAVES ENGLAND FOR ITALY (1506). - -Erasmus seems to have spent some months during the spring of 1506 with his -English friends, busying himself, as already mentioned, in translating in -More's company portions of Lucian's works, and, so far as his letters show -at first sight, not very eagerly pursuing those sacred studies at which he -had told Colet that he longed to labour. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus longs to visit Italy, but wants funds.] - -Nor was there really anything inconsistent in this. The truth was that, in -order to complete his knowledge of Greek, without which he had declared he -could do nothing thoroughly, he had yet to undertake that journey to Italy -which had been the dream of his early manhood, and the realisation of -which six years ago had only been prevented by his unlucky accident at -Dover. This journey to Italy lay between him and the great work of his -life, and still the adage of Plautus remained inexorable, 'Sine pennis -volare haud facile est.' - -It was therefore that he was translating Lucian. It was therefore that he -dedicated one dialogue to one friend, another to another.[317] It was -therefore that he paid court to this patron of learning and that. It was -not that he was importunate and servilely fond of begging, but that, by -hook or by crook, the necessary means must be found to carry out his -project. - -It was thus that we find Grocyn rowing with him to Lambeth to introduce -him to Archbishop Warham, and the two joking together as they rowed back -to town, upon the small pecuniary result of their visit.[318] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus leaves for Italy, with two pupils.] - -Funds, it appeared, did not come in as quickly as might have been wished, -but at length the matter was arranged. Erasmus was to proceed to Italy, -taking under his wing two English youths, sons of Dr. Baptista, chief -physician to Henry VII. A young Scotch nobleman, the Archbishop of St. -Andrew's, was also to be placed under the scholar's care.[319] By this -arrangement Erasmus was, as it were, to work his passage; which he -thankfully agreed to do, and set out accordingly. With what feelings he -left England, and with what longings to return, may be best gathered from -the few lines he wrote to Colet from Paris, after having recovered from -the effects of the journey, including a rough toss of four days across the -Straits:-- - - _Erasmus to Colet._ - - 'Paris: June 19, 1506. - - [Sidenote: Letter to Colet from Paris.] - - 'When, after leaving England, I arrived once more in France, it is - hard to say how mingled were my feelings. I cannot easily tell you - which preponderated, my joy in visiting again the friends I had before - left in France, or my sadness in leaving those whom I had recently - found in England. For this I can say truly, that there is no whole - country which has found me friends so numerous, so sincere, learned, - obliging, so noble and accomplished in every way, as the one City of - London has done. Each has so vied with others in affection and good - offices, that I cannot tell whom to prefer. I am obliged to love all - of them alike. The absence of these must needs be painful; but I take - heart again in the recollection of the past, keeping them as - continually in mind as if they were present, and hoping that it may so - turn out that I may shortly return to them, never again to leave them - till death shall part us. I trust to you, with my other friends, to do - your best for the sake of your love and interest for me to bring this - about as soon and as propitiously as you can. - - 'I cannot tell you how pleased I am with the disposition of the sons - of Baptista: nothing could be more modest or tractable; nor could they - be more diligent in their studies. I trust that this arrangement for - them may answer their father's hopes and my desires, and that they may - hereafter confer great honour upon England. Farewell.'[320] - -[Sidenote: Letter to Linacre.] - -To Linacre, too, Erasmus wrote in similar terms. He alluded to the -unpleasant consequences to his health of his four days' experience of the -winds and waves, and wished, he said, that Linacre's medical skill were at -hand to still his throbbing temples. He expressed, as he had done to -Colet, the hope that he soon might be able to return to England, and that -the task he had undertaken with regard to his two pupils, might turn out -well; and he ended his letter by urging his friend to write to him often. -Let it be in few words, if he liked, but he must write.[321] - - -III. ERASMUS VISITS ITALY AND RETURNS TO ENGLAND (1507-10). - -At length Erasmus really was on his way to Italy, trudging along on -horseback, day after day, through the dirt of continental roads, -accompanied by the two sons of Dr. Baptista, their tutor, and a royal -courier, commissioned to escort them as far as Bologna. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus on his way to Italy.] - -[Sidenote: German inns.] - -It is not easy to realise the toil of such a journey to a jaded delicate -scholar, already complaining of the infirmities of age, though as yet not -forty. Strange places, too, for a fastidious student were the roadside -inns of Germany, of which Erasmus has left so vivid a picture, and into -which he turned his weary head each successive night, after grooming his -own horse in the stable. One room serves for all comers, and in this one -room, heated like a stove, some eighty or ninety guests have already -stowed themselves--boots, baggage, dirt and all. Their wet clothes hang on -the stove iron to dry, while they wait for their supper. There are footmen -and horsemen, merchants, sailors, waggoners, husbandmen, children, and -women--sound and sick--combing their heads, wiping their brows, cleaning -their boots, stinking of garlic, and making as great a confusion of -tongues as there was at the building of Babel! At length, in the midst of -the din and stifling closeness of this heated room, supper is spread--a -coarse and ill-cooked meal--which our scholar scarcely dares to touch, and -yet is obliged to sit out to the end for courtesy's sake. And when past -midnight Erasmus is shown to his bedchamber, he finds it to be rightly -named--there is nothing in it but a _bed_; and the last and hardest task -of the day is now to find between its rough unwashed sheets some chance -hours of repose. - -[Sidenote: Journey over the Alps.] - -So, almost in his own words,[322] did Erasmus fare on his way to Italy. -Nor did comforts increase as Germany was left behind. For as the party -crossed the Alps, the courier quarrelled with the tutor, and they even -came to blows. After this, Erasmus was too angry with both to enjoy the -company of either, and so rode apart, composing verses on those -infirmities of age which he felt so rapidly encroaching upon his own frail -constitution.[323] At length the Italian frontier was reached, and -Erasmus, as Luther did three or four years after,[324] began the painful -task of realising what that Italy was about which he had so long and so -ardently dreamed. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus in Italy.] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus returns to England.] - -It is not needful here to trace Erasmus through all his Italian -experience. It presents a catalogue of disappointments and discomforts -upon which we need not dwell. How his arrangement with the sons of -Baptista, having lasted a year, came to an end, and with it the most -unpleasant year of his life;[325] how he took his doctor's degree at -Turin; how he removed to Bologna to find the city besieged by Roman -armies,[326] headed by Pope Julius himself; how he visited Florence[327] -and Rome;[328] how he went to Venice to superintend a new edition of the -'Adagia;' how he was flattered, and how many honours he was promised, and -how many of these promises he found to be, as injuries ought to be, -written on sand;--these and other particulars of his Italian experience -may be left to the biographer of Erasmus. In 1509, on the accession of -Henry VIII. to the English throne, the friends of Erasmus sent him a -pressing invitation to return to England,[329] which he gladly accepted. -For our present purpose it were better, therefore, to see him safely on -his horse again, toiling back on the same packhorse roads, lodging at the -same roadside inns, and meeting the same kind of people as before, but his -face now, after three or four years' absence, set towards England, where -there are hearts he can trust, whether he can or cannot those in Rome, and -where once again, safely housed with More, he can write and talk to Colet -as he pleases, and forget in the pleasures of the present the toils and -disappointments of the past.[330] - -[Sidenote: '_Praise of Folly._'] - -For what most concerns the history of the Oxford Reformers is this--that -it was to beguile these journeys that Erasmus conceived the idea of his -'Praise of Folly,' a satire upon the follies of the times which had grown -up within him at these wayside inns, as he met in them men of all classes -and modes of life, and the keen edge of which was whetted by his recent -visit to Italy and Rome.[331] What most concerns the subject of these -pages is the mental result of the Italian journey, and it was not long -before it was known in almost every wayside inn in Europe. - - -IV. MORE RETURNS TO PUBLIC LIFE ON THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII. (1509-10). - -But little can be known of what happened to Colet and More during the -absence of Erasmus in Italy. - -That Colet was devoted to the work of his Deanery may well be imagined. - -[Sidenote: More thinks of fleeing from England.] - -As to More; during the remaining years of Henry VII.'s reign, he was -living in continual fear--thinking of flying the realm[332]--going so far -as to pay a visit to the universities of Louvain and Paris,[333] as though -to make up his mind where to flee to, if flight became needful.[334] - -[Sidenote: Empson and Dudley.] - -[Sidenote: Henry VII.'s exactions.] - -[Sidenote: Henry VII. dies.] - -Nor were these fears imaginary. More was not alone in his dread of the -King. Daily the royal avarice was growing more unbounded. Cardinal -Morton's celebrated fork--the two-pronged dilemma with which benevolences -were extracted from the rich by the clever prelate--had been bad enough. -The legal plunder of Empson and Dudley was worse. It filled every one with -terror. 'These two ravening wolves,' writes Hall, who lived near enough to -the time to feel some of the exasperation he described, 'had such a guard -of false perjured persons appertaining to them, which were by their -commandment empannelled on every quest, that the King was sure to win -whoever lost. Learned men in the law, when they were required of their -advice, would say, "to agree is the best counsel I can give you." By this -undue means, these covetous persons filled the King's coffers and enriched -themselves. At this unreasonable and extortionate doing noblemen grudged, -mean men kicked, poor men lamented, preachers openly at Paul's Cross and -other places exclaimed, rebuked, and detested, but yet they would never -amend.'[335] Then came the general pardon, the result, it was said, of the -remorse of the dying King, and soon after the news of his death. - -[Sidenote: Accession of Henry VIII.] - -Henry VIII. was proclaimed King, 23rd April, 1509. The same day Empson and -Dudley were sent to the Tower, and on the 17th of August, in the following -year, they were both beheaded. - -More was personally known to the new King, and presented to him on his -accession a richly illuminated vellum book, containing verses of -congratulation.[336] These verses have been disparaged as too adulatory in -their tone. And no doubt they were so; but More had written them evidently -with a far more honest loyalty than Erasmus was able to command when he -wrote a welcome to Philip of Spain on his return to the Netherlands. More -honestly did rejoice, and with good reason, on the accession of Henry -VIII. to the throne. It not only assured him of his own personal safety; -it was in measure like the rise of his own little party into power. - -[Sidenote: The Oxford Reformers in favour with the King; but no mere -courtiers.] - -Not that More and Colet and Linacre were suddenly transformed into -courtiers, but that Henry himself, having been educated to some extent in -the new learning, would be likely at least to keep its enemies in check -and give it fair play. There had been some sort of connection and sympathy -between Prince Henry in his youth and More and his friends; witness More's -freedom in visiting the royal nursery. Linacre had been the tutor of -Henry's elder brother, and was made royal physician on Henry's -accession.[337] From the tone of More's congratulatory verses it may be -inferred that he and his friends had not concealed from the Prince their -love of freedom and their hatred of his father's tyranny. For these -verses, however flattering in their tone, were plain and outspoken upon -this point as words well could be. With the _suaviter in modo_ was united, -in no small proportion, the _fortiter in re_. It would be the King's own -fault if, knowing, as he must have done, More's recent history, he should -fancy that these words were idle words, or that he could make the man, -whose first public act was one of resistance to the unjust exactions of -his father, into a pliant tool of his own! If he should ever try to make -More into a courtier, he would do so at least with his royal eyes open. - -[Sidenote: More made under-sheriff of London.] - -How fully Henry VIII. on his part sided with the people against the -counsellors of his father was not only shown by the execution of Dudley, -but also by the appointment, almost immediately after, of Thomas More to -the office of under-sheriff in the City, the very office which Dudley -himself had held at the time when, as speaker of the House of Commons, he -had been a witness of More's bold conduct--an office which he and his -successor had very possibly used more to the King's profit than to the -ends of impartial justice. - -The young lawyer who had dared to incur royal displeasure by speaking out -in Parliament in defence of the pockets of his fellow-citizens, had -naturally become a popular man in the City. And his appointment to this -judicial office was, therefore, a popular appointment. - -[Sidenote: More's tested high principle.] - -The spirit in which More entered upon its responsible duties still more -endeared him to the people. Some years after, by refusing a pension -offered him by Henry VIII., he proved himself more anxious to retain the -just confidence of his fellow-citizens, in the impartiality of his -decisions in matters between them and the King, than to secure his own -emolument or his Sovereign's patronage.[338] The spirit too in which he -_re_entered upon his own private practice as a lawyer was illustrated both -by his constant habit of doing all he could to get his clients to come to -a friendly agreement before going to law, and also by his absolute refusal -to undertake any cause which he did not conscientiously consider to be a -rightful one.[339] It is not surprising that a man of this tested high -principle should rapidly rise upon the tide of merited prosperity. Under -the circumstances in which More was now placed, his practice at the bar -became rapidly extensive.[340] Everything went well with him. Once more he -was drinking the wine of life. - -[Sidenote: More's domestic happiness.] - -There was probably no brighter home--brighter in present enjoyment, or -more brilliant in future prospects--than that home in Bucklersbury, into -which Erasmus, jaded by the journey, entered on his arrival from Italy. He -must have found More and his gentle wife rejoicing in their infant son, -and the merry voices of three little daughters echoing the joy of the -house.[341] - - -V. ERASMUS WRITES THE 'PRAISE OF FOLLY' WHILE RESTING AT MORE'S HOUSE -(1510 OR 1511). - -For some days Erasmus was chained indoors by an attack of a painful -disease to which he had for long been subject. His books had not yet -arrived, and he was too ill to admit of close application of any kind. - -[Sidenote: The 'Praise of Folly,' written in More's house.] - -To beguile his time, he took pen and paper, and began to write down at his -leisure the satirical reflections on men and things which, as already -mentioned, had grown up within him during his recent travels, and served -to beguile the tedium of his journey from Italy to England. It was not -done with any grave design, or any view of publication; but he knew his -friend More was fond of a joke, and he wanted something to do, to take his -attention from the weariness of the pain which he was suffering. So he -worked away at his manuscript. One day when More came home from business, -bringing a friend or two with him, Erasmus brought it out for their -amusement. The fun would be so much the greater, he thought, when shared -by several together. He had fancied Folly putting on her cap and bells, -mounting her rostrum, and delivering an address to her votaries on the -affairs of mankind. These few select friends having heard what he had -already written, were so delighted with it that they insisted on its being -completed. In about a week the whole was finished.[342] This is the simple -history of the 'Praise of Folly.' - -It was a satire upon follies of all kinds. The bookworm was smiled at for -his lantern jaws and sickly look; the sportsman for his love of butchery; -the superstitious were sneered at for attributing strange virtues to -images and shrines, for worshipping another Hercules under the name of St. -George, for going on pilgrimage when their proper duty was at home. The -wickedness of fictitious pardons and the sale of indulgences,[343] the -folly of prayers to the Virgin in shipwreck or distress, received each a -passing censure. - -[Sidenote: Grammarians and schools.] - -Grammarians were singled out of the regiment of fools as the most servile -votaries of folly. They were described as 'A race of men the most -miserable, who grow old in penury and filth in their schools--_schools_, -did I say? _prisons! dungeons!_ I should have said--among their boys, -deafened with din, poisoned by a foetid atmosphere, but, thanks to their -folly, perfectly self-satisfied, so long as they can bawl and shout to -their terrified boys, and box, and beat, and flog them, and so indulge in -all kinds of ways their cruel disposition.'[344] - -[Sidenote: The scholastic system.] - -After criticising with less severity poets and authors, rhetoricians and -lawyers, Folly proceeded to re-echo the censure of Colet upon the dogmatic -system of the Schoolmen. - -[Sidenote: Scholastic science.] - -She ridiculed the logical subtlety which spent itself on splitting hairs -and disputing about nothing, and to which the modern followers of the -Schoolmen were so painfully addicted. She ridiculed, too, the prevalent -dogmatic philosophy and science, which having been embraced by the -Schoolmen, and sanctioned by ecclesiastical authority, had become a part -of the scholastic system. 'With what ease do they dream and prate of the -creation of innumerable worlds, measuring sun, moon, stars, and earth as -though by a thumb and thread; rendering a reason for thunder, wind, -eclipses, and other inexplicable things; never hesitating in the least, -just as though they had been admitted into the secrets of creation, or as -though they had come down to us from the council of the Gods--_with whom, -and whose conjectures, Nature is mightily amused_!'[345] - -[Sidenote: Scholastic theology.] - -[Sidenote: Foolish questions.] - -From dogmatic science Folly turned at once to dogmatic theology, and -proceeded to comment in her severest fashion on a class whom, she -observes, it might have been safest to pass over in silence--divines.[346] -'Their pride and irritability are such (she said) that they will come down -upon me with their six hundred conclusions, and compel me to recant; and, -if I refuse, declare me a heretic forthwith.... They explain to their own -satisfaction the most hidden mysteries: how the universe was constructed -and arranged--through what channels the stain of original sin descends to -posterity--how the miraculous birth of Christ was effected--how in the -Eucharistic wafer the accidents can exist without a substance, and so -forth. And they think themselves equal to the solution of such questions -as these:--Whether ... God could have taken upon himself the nature of a -woman, a devil, an ass, a gourd, or a stone? And how in that case a gourd -could have preached, worked miracles, and been nailed to the cross? _What_ -Peter would have consecrated if he had consecrated the Eucharist at the -moment that the body of Christ was hanging on the Cross? Whether at that -moment Christ could have been called a man? Whether we shall eat and drink -after the resurrection?'[347] In a later edition[348] Folly is made to say -further:--'These Schoolmen possess such learning and subtlety that I fancy -even the Apostles themselves would need another Spirit, if they had to -engage with this new race of divines about questions of this kind. Paul -was able "to keep the faith," but when he said, "Faith is the substance of -things hoped for," he defined it very loosely. He was full of _charity_, -but he treated of it and defined it very illogically in the thirteenth -chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians.... The Apostles knew the -mother of Jesus, but which of them demonstrated so philosophically as our -divines do in what way she was preserved from the taint of original sin? -Peter received the keys, and received them from Him who would not have -committed them to one unworthy to receive them, but I know not whether -_he_ understood (certainly he never touched upon the subtlety!) in what -way the _key of knowledge_ can be held by a man who _has no knowledge_. -They often baptized people, but they never taught what is the formal, what -the material, what the efficient, and what the ultimate cause of baptism; -they say nothing of its delible and indelible character. They worshipped -indeed, but _in spirit_, following no other authority than the gospel -saying, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in -spirit and in truth." But it hardly seems to have been revealed to them, -that in one and the same act of worship the picture of Christ drawn with -charcoal on a wall was to be adored, as well as Christ _himself_.... -Again, the Apostles spoke of "grace," but they never distinguished between -"gratiam gratis datam," and "gratiam gratificantem." They preached -charity, but did not distinguish between charity "infused" and "acquired," -nor did they explain whether it was an accident or a substance, created or -_un_created. They abhorred "_sin_," but I am a fool if they could define -scientifically _what we call sin_, unless indeed they were inspired by the -spirit of the Scotists!'[349] - -[Sidenote: There are some who hate the scholastic method.] - -After pursuing the subject further, Folly suggests that an army of them -should be sent against the Turks, not in the hope that the Turks might be -converted by them so much as that Christendom would be relieved by their -absence, and then she is made quietly to say:[350]--'You may think all -this is said in joke, but seriously, there are some, even amongst divines -themselves, versed in better learning, who are disgusted at these (as they -think) frivolous subtleties of divines. There are some who execrate, as a -kind of sacrilege, and consider as the greatest impiety, these attempts to -dispute with unhallowed lips and profane arguments about things so holy -that they should rather be adored than explained, to define them with so -much presumption, and to pollute the majesty of Divine theology with cold, -yea and sordid, words and thoughts. But, in spite of these, with the -greatest self-complacency divines go on spending night and day over their -foolish studies, so that they never have any leisure left for the perusal -of the gospels, or the epistles of St. Paul.'[351] - -Finally, Folly exclaims, 'Are they not the most happy of men whilst they -are treating of these things? whilst describing everything in the infernal -regions as exactly as though they had lived there for years? whilst -creating new spheres at pleasure, one, the largest and most beautiful, -being finally added, that, forsooth, happy spirits might have room enough -to take a walk, to spread their feasts, or to play at ball?'[352] - -With this allusion to the 'empyrean' heavens of the Schoolmen, the satire -of Folly upon their dogmatic theology reaches its climax. And in the notes -added by Lystrius to a later edition, it was thus further explained in -terms which aptly illustrate the relation of theology and science in the -scholastic system:-- - -[Sidenote: Dogmatic theology and dogmatic science.] - -'The ancients believed ... in seven spheres--one to each planet--and to -these they added the one sphere of the fixed stars. Next, seeing that -these eight spheres had two motions, and learning from Aristotle that only -one of these motions affected all the spheres, they were compelled to -regard the other motion as _violent_. A superior sphere could not, -however, be moved in its violent motion by an inferior one. So outside all -they were obliged to place a ninth sphere, which they called "primum -mobile." To these, in the next place, _divines added a tenth_, which they -called the "empyrean sphere," as though the saints could not be happy -unless they had a heaven of their own!'[353] - -And that the ridicule and satire of Erasmus were aimed at the dogmatism of -both science and theology is further pointed out in a previous note, where -the presumption of 'neoteric divines' in attempting to account for -everything, however mysterious, is compared to the way in which -'astronomers, not being able to find out the cause of the various motions -of the heavens, constructed eccentrics and epicycles on the spheres.'[354] - -Thus were the scholastic divines censured for just those faults to which -the eyes of Erasmus had been opened ten years before by his conversation -with Colet at Oxford, and words of more bitter satire could hardly have -been used than those now chosen. - -[Sidenote: On Monks.] - -_Monks_ came in for at least as rough a handling. There is perhaps no more -severe and powerful passage anywhere in the whole book than that in which -Folly is made to draw a picture of their appearance on the Judgment Day, -finding themselves with the goats on the left hand of the Judge, pleading -hard their rigorous observance of the rules and ceremonies of their -respective orders, but interrupted by the solemn question from the Judge, -'Whence this race of new Jews? I know only of one law which is really -mine; but of that I hear nothing at all. When on earth, without mystery or -parable, I openly promised my Father's inheritance, not to cowls, matins, -or fastings, but to the practice of faith and charity. I know you not, ye -who know nothing but your own works. Let those who wish to be thought more -holy than I am inhabit their newly-discovered heavens; and let those who -prefer their own traditions to my precepts, order new ones to be built for -them.' When they shall hear this (continues Folly), 'and see sailors and -waggoners preferred to themselves, how do you think they will look upon -each other?'[355] - -[Sidenote: On kings, &c.] - -Kings, princes, and courtiers next pass under review, and here again may -be traced that firm attitude of resistance to royal tyranny which has -already been marked in the conduct of More. If More in his congratulatory -verses took the opportunity of publicly asserting his love of freedom and -hatred of tyranny in the ears of the new King, his own personal friend, as -he mounted the throne, so Erasmus also, although come back to England full -of hope that in Henry VIII. he might find a patron, not only of learning -in general but of himself in particular, took this opportunity of putting -into the mouth of Folly a similar assertion of the sacred rights of the -people and the duties of a king:-- - -[Sidenote: Duties of princes.] - -[Sidenote: Their practice.] - -'It is the duty (she suggests) of a true prince to seek the public and not -his own private advantage. From the laws, of which he is both the author -and executive magistrate, he must not himself deviate by a finger's -breadth. He is responsible for the integrity of his officials and -magistrates.... But (continues Folly) by my aid princes cast such cares as -these to the winds, and care only for their own pleasure.... They think -they fill their position well if they hunt with diligence, if they keep -good horses, if they can make gain to themselves by the sale of offices -and places, if they can daily devise new means of undermining the wealth -of citizens, and raking it into their own exchequer, disguising the -iniquity of such proceedings by some specious pretence and show of -legality.'[356] - -If the memory of Henry VII. was fresh in the minds of More and Erasmus, so -also his courtiers and tools, of whom Empson and Dudley were the -recognised types, were not forgotten. The cringing, servile, abject, and -luxurious habits of courtiers were fair game for Folly. - -From this cutting review of kings, princes, and courtiers, the satire, -taking a still bolder flight, at length swooped down to fix its talons in -the very flesh of the Pope himself. - -[Sidenote: On the Pope.] - -The Oxford friends had some personal knowledge of Rome and her pontiffs. -When Colet was in Italy, the notoriously wicked Alexander VI. was Pope, -and what Colet thought of him has been mentioned. While Erasmus was in -Italy Julius II. was Pope. He had succeeded to the Papal chair in 1503. - -[Sidenote: Pope Julius II.] - -Julius II., in the words of Ranke, 'devoted himself to the gratification -of that innate love of war and conquest which was indeed the ruling -passion of his life.... It was the ambition of Julius II. to extend the -dominions of the Church. He must therefore be regarded as the founder of -the Papal States.'[357] Erasmus, during his recent visit, had himself been -driven from Bologna when it was besieged by the Roman army, led by Julius -in person. He had written from Italy that 'literature was giving place to -war, that Pope Julius was warring, conquering, triumphing, and openly -acting the Cæsar.'[358] Mark how aptly and boldly he now hit off his -character in strict accordance with the verdict of history, when in the -course of his satire he came to speak of popes. Folly drily observes -that-- - -[Sidenote: On the folly of war.] - -'Although in the gospel Peter is said to have declared, "_Lo, we have left -all, and followed thee_," yet these Popes speak of "_St. Peter's -patrimony_" as consisting of lands, towns, tributes, customs, lordships; -for which, when their zeal for Christ is stirred, they fight with fire and -sword at the expense of much Christian blood, thinking that in so doing -they are Apostolical defenders of Christ's spouse, the Church, from her -enemies. As though indeed there were any enemies of the Church more -pernicious than impious Popes!... Further, as the Christian Church was -founded in blood, and confirmed by blood, and advanced by blood, now in -like manner, as though Christ were _dead_ and could no longer defend his -own, they take to the sword. And although war be a thing so savage that it -becomes wild beasts rather than men, so frantic that the poets feigned it -to be the work of the Furies, so pestilent that it blights at once all -morality, so unjust that it can be best waged by the worst of ruffians, so -impious that it has nothing in common with Christ, yet to the neglect of -everything else they devote themselves to war alone.'[359] - -[Sidenote: Pope Julius II. and his fondness for war.] - -And this bold satire upon the warlike passions of the Pope was made still -more direct and personal by what followed. To quote Ranke once -more:--'_Old as Julius now was_, worn by the many vicissitudes of good and -evil fortune, and most of all by the consequences of intemperance and -licentious excess, in the extremity of age he still retained an -indomitable spirit. It was from the tumults of a general war that he hoped -to gain his objects. He desired to be the lord and master of the game of -the world. In furtherance of his grand aim he engaged in the boldest -operations, risking all to obtain all.'[360] Compare with this picture of -the old age of the warlike Pope the following words put by Erasmus into -the mouth of Folly, and printed and read all over Europe in the lifetime -of Julius himself! - -'Thus you may see even decrepid old men display all the vigour of youth, -sparing no cost, shrinking from no toil, stopped by nothing, if only they -can turn law, religion, peace, and all human affairs upside down.'[361] - -In conclusion, Folly, after pushing her satire in other directions, was -made to apologise for the bold flight she had taken. If anything she had -said seemed to be spoken with too much loquacity or petulance, she begged -that it might be remembered that it was spoken by _Folly_. But let it be -remembered, also, she added, that - - A fool oft speaks a seasonable truth. - -She then made her bow, and descended the steps of her rostrum, bidding her -most illustrious votaries farewell--_valete, plaudite, vivite, bibite_! - -[Sidenote: Editions of the 'Praise of Folly.'] - -Such was the 'Praise of Folly,' the manuscript of which was snatched from -Erasmus by More or one of his friends, and ultimately sent over to Paris -to be printed there, probably in the summer of 1511, and to pass within a -few months through no less than seven editions.[362] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus settled at Cambridge.] - -Meanwhile, after recruiting his shattered health under More's roof, -spending a few months with Lord Mountjoy[363] and Warham,[364] and paying -a flying visit to Paris, it would seem that Erasmus, aided and encouraged -by his friends, betook himself to Cambridge to pursue his studies, hoping -to be able to eke out his income by giving lessons in the Greek language -to such pupils as might be found amongst the University students willing -to learn,--the chance fees of students being supplemented by the promise -of a small stipend from the University.[365] - -It seems to have been taken for granted that the 'new learning' was now to -make rapid progress, having Henry VIII. for its royal patron, and Erasmus -for its professor of Greek at Cambridge. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - - -I. COLET FOUNDS ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL (1510). - -Fully as Colet joined his friends in rejoicing at the accession to the -throne of a king known to be favourable to himself and his party, he had -drunk by far too deeply of the spirit of self-sacrifice to admit of his -rejoicing with a mere courtier's joy. - -[Sidenote: Colet inherits his father's fortune.] - -Fortune had indeed been lavish to him. His elevation unasked to the -dignity of Doctor and Dean; the popular success of his preaching; the -accession of a friendly king, from whom probably further promotion was to -be had for the asking; and, lastly, the sudden acquisition on his father's -death of a large independent fortune in addition to the revenues of the -deanery;--here was a concurrence of circumstances far more likely to -foster habits of selfish ease and indulgence than to draw Colet into paths -of self-denial and self-sacrificing labour. Had he enlisted in the ranks -of a great cause in the hasty zeal of enthusiasm, it had had time now to -cool, and here was the triumphal arch through which the abjured hero might -gracefully retire from work amidst the world's applause. - -But Colet, in his lectures at Oxford, had laid great stress upon the -necessity of that living sacrifice of men's hearts and lives without which -all other sacrifices were empty things, and it seems that after he was -called to the deanery he gave forth 'A right fruitfull Admonition -concerning the Order of a good Christian Man's Life,'[366] which passed -through many editions during the sixteenth century, and in which he made -use of the following language:-- - -[Sidenote: Colet on the duty of self-sacrifice.] - -'Thou must know that thou hast nothing that good is of thyself, but of -God. For the gift of nature and all other temporal gifts of this world ... -well considered have come to thee by the infinite goodness and grace of -God, and not of thyself.... But in especial is it necessary for thee to -know that God of his great grace has made thee his image, having regard to -thy memory, understanding, and free will, and that God is thy maker, and -thou his wretched creature, and that thou art redeemed of God by the -passion of Jesus Christ, and that God is thy helper, thy refuge, and thy -deliverance from all evil.... And, therefore, think, and thank God, and -utterly despise thyself, ... in that God hath done so much for thee, and -thou hast so often offended his highness, and also done Him so little -service. And therefore, by his infinite mercy and grace, call unto thy -remembrance the degree of dignity which Almighty God hath called thee -unto, and according thereunto yield thy debt, and do thy duty.' - -Colet was not the man to preach one thing and practise another. No sooner -had he been appointed to the deanery of St. Paul's, than he had at once -resigned the rich living of Stepney,[367] the residence of his father, and -now of his widowed mother. And no sooner had his father's fortune come -into his hands, than he earnestly considered how most effectually to -devote it to the cause in which he had laboured so unceasingly at Oxford -and St. Paul's. - -[Sidenote: Colet founds St. Paul's School.] - -[Sidenote: Colet's object in founding it.] - -After mature deliberation he resolved, whilst living and in health, to -devote his patrimony[368] to the foundation of a school in St. Paul's -Churchyard, wherein 153 children,[369] without any restriction as to -nation or country, who could already read and write, and were of 'good -parts and capacities,' should receive a sound Christian education. The -'Latin adulterate, which ignorant blind fools brought into this world,' -poisoning thereby 'the old Latin speech, and the very Roman tongue used in -the time of Tully and Sallust, and Virgil and Terence, and learned by St. -Jerome, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine,'--all that 'abusion which the -later blind world brought in, and which may rather be called Blotterature -than Literature,'--should be 'utterly abanished and excluded' out of this -school. The children should be taught good literature, both Latin and -Greek, 'such authors that have with wisdom joined pure chaste -eloquence'--'specially Christian authors who wrote their wisdom in clean -and chaste Latin, whether in prose or verse; for,' said Colet, '_my intent -is by this school specially to increase knowledge, and worshipping of God -and Our Lord Jesus Christ, and good Christian life and manners in the -children_.'[370] - -And, as if to keep this end always prominently in view, he placed an image -of the 'Child Jesus,' to whom the school was dedicated, standing over the -master's chair in the attitude of teaching, with the motto, 'Hear ye -him;'[371] and upon the front of the building, next to the cathedral, the -following inscription:--'Schola catechizationis puerorum in Christi Opt. -Max. fide et bonis Literis. Anno Christi MDX.'[372] - -The building consisted of one large room, divided into an upper and lower -school by a curtain, which could be drawn at pleasure; and the charge of -the two schools devolved upon a high-master and a sub-master respectively. - -[Sidenote: Salaries of the masters.] - -[Sidenote: Cost of Colet's school.] - -The forms were arranged so as each to seat sixteen boys, and were provided -each with a raised desk, at which the head boy sat as president. The -building also embraced an entrance-porch and a little chapel for divine -service. Dwelling-houses were erected, adjoining the school, for the -residence of the two masters; and for their support Colet obtained, in the -spring of 1510, a royal license to transfer to the Wardens and Guild of -Mercers in London, real property to the value of 53_l._ per annum[373] -(equivalent to at least 530_l._ of present money). Of this the headmaster -was to receive as his salary 35_l._ (say 350_l._) and the under-master -18_l._ (say 180_l._) per annum. Three or four years after, Colet made -provision for a chaplain to conduct divine service in the chapel, and to -instruct the children in the Catechism, the Articles of the faith, and the -Ten Commandments--in _English_; and ultimately, before his death, he -appears to have increased the amount of the whole endowment to 122_l._ -(say 1,200_l._) per annum. So that it may be considered, roughly, that the -whole endowment, including the buildings, cannot have represented a less -sum than 30,000_l._ or 40,000_l._ of present money.[374] - -And if Colet thus sacrificed so much of his private fortune to secure a -liberal (and it must be conceded his was a liberal) provision for the -remuneration of the masters who should educate his 153 boys, he must -surely have had deeply at heart the welfare of the boys themselves. And, -in truth, it was so. Colet was like a father to his schoolboys. It has -indeed been assumed that a story related by Erasmus, to exhibit the low -state of education and the cruel severity exercised in the common run of -schools, was intended by him to describe the severe discipline maintained -by Colet and his masters; but I submit that this is a pure assumption, -without the least shadow of proof, and contrary to every kind of -probability. The story itself is dark enough truly, and, in order that -Colet's name may be cleared once for all from its odium, may as well be -given to the reader as it is found in Erasmus's work 'On the Liberal -Education of Boys.' - -[Sidenote: Abuses in private schools.] - -It occurs, let it be remembered, in a work written by Erasmus to expose -and hold up to public scorn the private schools, including those of -monasteries and colleges, in which honest parents were blindly induced to -place their children--at the mercy, it might be, of drunken dames, or of -men too often without knowledge, chastity, or judgment. It was a work in -which he described these schools as he had described them in his 'Praise -of Folly,' and in which he detailed scandals and cruelty too foul to be -translated, with the express object of enforcing his opinion, that if -there were to be any schools at all, they ought to be _public_ schools--in -fact, precisely such schools as that which Colet was establishing. The -story is introduced as an example of the scandals which were sometimes -perpetrated by incompetent masters, in schools of the class which he had -thus harshly, but not _too_ harshly, condemned. - -After saying that no masters were more cruel to their boys than those who, -from ignorance, can teach them least (a remark which certainly could not -be intended to refer to Colet's headmaster), he thus proceeded:-- - -[Sidenote: Cruelty of some schoolmasters.] - -[Sidenote: Story of cruelty, wrongly attributed to Colet.] - -'What can such masters do in their schools but get through the day by -flogging and scolding? I once knew a divine, and intimately too--a man of -reputation--who seemed to think that no cruelty to scholars could be -enough, since he would not have any but flogging masters. He thought this -was the only way to crush the boys' unruly spirits, and to subdue the -wantonness of their age. Never did he take a meal with his flock without -making the comedy end in a tragedy. So at the end of the meal one or -another boy was dragged out to be flogged.... I myself was once by when, -after dinner, as usual, he called out a boy, I should think, about ten -years old. He had only just come fresh from his mother to school. His -mother, it should be said, was a pious woman, and had especially commended -the boy to him. But he at once began to charge the boy with unruliness, -since he could think of nothing else, and must find something to flog him -for, and made signs to the proper official to flog him. Whereupon the poor -boy was forthwith floored then and there, and flogged as though he had -committed sacrilege. The divine again and again interposed, "That will -do--that will do;" but the inexorable executioner continued his cruelty -till the boy almost fainted. By-and-by the divine turned round to me and -said, "He did nothing to deserve it, but the boys' spirits must be -subdued."'[375] - -This is the story which we are told it would be difficult to apply to -anyone but Colet,[376] as though Colet were the only 'divine of -reputation' ever intimately known to Erasmus! or as though Erasmus would -thus hold up his friend Colet to the scorn of the world! - -[Sidenote: Colet's gentleness and love of children.] - -The fact is that no one could peruse the 'precepts of living' laid down by -Colet for his school without seeing not only how practical and sound were -his views on the education of the heart, mind, and body of his boys, but -also how at the root of them lay a strong undercurrent of warm and gentle -feelings, a real love of youth.[377] - -In truth, Colet was fond of children, even to tenderness. Erasmus relates -that he would often remind his guests and his friends how that Christ had -made children the examples for men, and that he was wont to compare them -to the angels above.[378] And if any further proof were wanted that Colet -showed even a touching tenderness for children, it must surely be found in -the following 'lytell proheme' to the Latin Grammar which he wrote for his -school, and of which we shall hear more by-and-by:-- - -[Sidenote: Colet's preface to his grammar.] - -[Sidenote: Colet's tenderness towards little children.] - -'Albeit many have written, and have made certain introductions into Latin -speech, called _Donates_ and _Accidens_, in Latin tongue and in English; -in such plenty that it should seem to suffice, yet nevertheless, for the -love and zeal that I have to the new school of Paul's, and to the children -of the same, I have also ... of the eight parts of grammar made this -little book.... In which, if any new things be of me, it is alonely that I -have put these "parts" in a more clear order, and I have made them a -little more easy to young wits, than (methinketh) they were before: -judging that nothing may be too soft, nor too familiar for little -children, specially learning a tongue unto them all strange. In which -little book I have left many things out of purpose, considering the -tenderness and small capacity of little minds....[378] I pray God all may -be to his honour, and to the erudition and profit of children, my -countrymen _Londoners_ specially, whom, digesting this little work, I had -always before mine eyes, considering more what was for _them_ than to -show any great cunning; willing to speak the things often before spoken, -in such manner as gladly young beginners and tender wits might take and -conceive. Wherefore I pray you, all little babes, all little children, -learn gladly this little treatise, and commend it diligently unto your -memories, trusting of this beginning that ye shall proceed and grow to -perfect literature, and come at the last to be _great clerks_. _And lift -up your little white hands for me_, which prayeth for you to God, to whom -be all honour and imperial majesty and glory. Amen.' - -The man who, having spent his patrimony in the foundation of a school, -could write such a preface as this to one of his schoolbooks, was not -likely to insist 'upon having none but flogging masters.' - -[Sidenote: Colet will not trouble them with many rules.] - -Moreover, this preface was followed by a short note, addressed to his -'well-beloved masters and teachers of grammar,' in which, by way of -apology for its brevity, and the absence of the endless rules and -exceptions found in most grammars, he tells them: 'In the beginning men -spake not Latin because such rules were made, but, contrariwise, because -men spake such Latin the rules were made. That is to say, Latin speech was -before the rules, and not the rules before the Latin speech.' And -therefore the best way to learn 'to speak and write clean Latin is busily -to learn and read good Latin authors, and note how they wrote and spoke.' -'Wherefore,' he concludes, 'after "the parts of speech" sufficiently known -in your schools, read and expound plainly unto your scholars good authors, -and show to them every word, and in every sentence what they shall note -and observe; warning them busily to follow and to do like, both in writing -and in speaking, and be to them your own self also, speaking with them -the pure Latin, very present, and _leave the rules_. For reading of good -books, diligent information of taught masters, studious advertence and -taking heed of learners, hearing eloquent men speak, and finally busy -imitation with tongue and pen, more availeth shortly to get the true -eloquent speech, than all the traditions, rules, and precepts of masters.' - -[Sidenote: Lilly's Epigram.] - -Nor would it seem that Colet's first headmaster, at all events, failed to -appreciate the practical common-sense and gentle regard for the -'tenderness of little minds,' which breathes through these prefaces; for -at the end of them he himself added this epigram:-- - - Pocula si linguæ cupias gustare Latinæ, - Quale tibi monstret, ecce _Coletus_ iter! - Non per Caucaseos montes, aut summa Pyrene; - Te ista per Hybleos sed via ducit agros.[379] - - -II. HIS CHOICE OF SCHOOLBOOKS AND SCHOOLMASTERS (1511). - -[Sidenote: Linacre's rejected Grammar.] - -[Sidenote: 'Lilly's Grammar.'] - -The mention of Colet's 'Latin Grammar' suggests one of the difficulties in -the way of carrying out of his projected school, his mode of surmounting -which was characteristic of the spirit in which he worked. It was not to -be expected that he should find the schoolbooks of the old grammarians in -any way adapted to his purpose. So at once he set his learned friends to -work to provide him with new ones. The first thing wanted was a Latin -Grammar for beginners. Linacre undertook to provide this want, and wrote -with great pains and labour a work in six books, which afterwards came -into general use. But when Colet saw it, at the risk of displeasing his -friend, he put it altogether aside. It was too long and too learned for -his 'little beginners.' So he condensed within the compass of a few pages -two little treatises, an 'Accidence' and a 'Syntax,' in the preface to the -first of which occur the gentle words quoted above.[380] These little -books, after receiving additions from the hands of Erasmus, Lilly, and -others, finally became generally adopted and known as _Lilly's -Grammar_.[381] - -This rejection of his Grammar seems to have been a sore point with -Linacre, but Erasmus told Colet not to be too much concerned about it: he -would, he said, get over it in time,[382] which probably he did much -sooner than Colet's school would have got over the loss which would have -been inflicted by the adoption of a schoolbook beyond the capacity of the -boys. - -[Sidenote: 'De Copiâ Verborum.'] - -Erasmus, in the same letter in which he spoke of Linacre's rejected -grammar, told Colet that he was working at his 'De Copiâ Verborum,' which -he was writing expressly for Colet's school. He told him, too, that he had -sometimes to take up the cudgels for him against the 'Thomists and -Scotists of Cambridge;' that he was looking out for an -under-schoolmaster, but had not yet succeeded in finding one. Meanwhile he -enclosed a letter, in which he had put on paper his notions of what a -schoolmaster ought to be, and the best method of teaching boys, which he -fancied Colet might not altogether approve, as he was wont somewhat more -to despise rhetoric than Erasmus did. He stated his opinion that-- - -[Sidenote: Erasmus on the true method of education.] - -'In order that the teacher might be thoroughly up to his work, he should -not merely be a master of one particular branch of study. He should -himself have travelled through the whole circle of knowledge. In -philosophy he should have studied Plato and Aristotle, Theophrastus and -Plotinus; in Theology the Sacred Scriptures, and after them Origen, -Chrysostom, and Basil among the Greek fathers, and Ambrose and Jerome -among the Latin fathers; among the poets, Homer and Ovid; in geography, -which is very important in the study of history, Pomponius Mela, Ptolemy, -Pliny, Strabo. He should know what ancient names of rivers, mountains, -countries, cities, answer to the modern ones; and the same of trees, -animals, instruments, clothes, and gems, with regard to which it is -incredible how ignorant even educated men are. He should take note of -little facts about agriculture, architecture, military and culinary arts, -mentioned by different authors. He should be able to trace the origin of -words, their gradual corruption in the languages of Constantinople, Italy, -Spain, and France. Nothing should be beneath his observation which can -illustrate history or the meaning of the poets. But you will say what a -load you are putting on the back of the poor teacher! It is so; but I -burden the one to relieve the many. I want the teacher to have traversed -the whole range of knowledge, that it may spare each of his scholars doing -it. A diligent and thoroughly competent master might give boys a fair -proficiency in both Latin and Greek, in a shorter time and with less -labour than the common run of pedagogues take to teach their babble.'[383] - -On receipt of this letter and its enclosure, Colet wrote to Erasmus:-- - - _Colet to Erasmus._ - - 'London, 1511.[384] - - [Sidenote: Colet agrees with Erasmus.] - - '"What! I shall not approve!" So you say! What is there of Erasmus's - that I do not approve? I have read your letter "De Studiis" hastily, - for as yet I have been too busy to read it carefully. Glancing through - it, not only do I approve everything, but also greatly admire your - genius, skill, learning, fulness, and eloquence. I have often longed - that the boys of my school should be taught in the way in which you - say they should be. And often also have I longed that I could get such - teachers as you have so well described. When I came to that point at - the end of the letter where you say that you could educate boys up to - a fair proficiency in both tongues in fewer years than it takes those - pedagogues to teach their babble, O Erasmus, how I longed that I could - make you the master of my school! I have indeed some hope that you - will give us a helping hand in teaching our teachers when you leave - those "Cantabrigians." - - 'With respect to our friend Linacre, I will follow your advice, so - kindly and prudently given. - - 'Do not give up looking for an undermaster, if there should be anyone - at Cambridge who would not think it beneath his dignity to be under - the headmaster. - - [Sidenote: The Scotists of Cambridge.] - - 'As to what you say about your occasional skirmishes with the ranks of - the Scotists on my behalf, I am glad to have such a champion to defend - me. But it is an unequal and inglorious contest for you; for what - glory is it to you to put to rout a cloud of flies? What thanks do you - deserve from me for cutting down reeds? It is a contest more necessary - than glorious or difficult!' - -While Colet acquiesced in the view expressed by Erasmus as to the high -qualities required in a schoolmaster, he gave practical proof of his sense -of the dignity of the calling by the liberal remuneration he offered to -secure one. - -[Sidenote: Salaries of Colet's masters.] - -[Sidenote: Lilly headmaster of Colet's school.] - -[Sidenote: An undermaster wanted.] - -[Sidenote: Story of a Cambridge doctor.] - -At a time when the Lord Chancellor of England received as his salary 100 -marks, with a similar sum for the commons of himself and his clerk, making -in all 133_l._ per annum,[385] Colet offered to the high-master of his -school 35_l._ per annum, and a house to live in besides. This was -practical proof that Colet meant to secure the services of more than a -mere common grammarian. He had in view for his headmaster, Lilly, the -friend and fellow-student of More, who had mastered the Latin language in -Italy, and even travelled farther East to perfect his knowledge of Greek. -He was well versed not only in the Greek authors, but in the manners and -customs of the people, having lived some years in the island of -Rhodes.[386] He had returned home, it is said, by way of Jerusalem, and -had recently opened a private school in London.[387] He was, moreover, the -godson of Grocyn, and himself an Oxford student. He had at one time, as -already mentioned, shared with More some ascetic tendencies, but, like his -friend, had wisely stopped short of Carthusian vows. He was, in truth, -thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Colet and his friends, and, in the -opinion of Erasmus, 'a thorough master in the art of educating -youth.'[388] Thus Colet had found a high-master ready to be fully -installed in his office, as soon as the building was completed. But an -under-master was not so easy to find. Colet had written to Erasmus, in -September, 1511, wishing him to look one out for him,[389] and in the -letter last quoted had again repeated his request. Erasmus wrote again in -October, and informed him that he had mentioned his want to some of the -college dons. One of them had replied by sneeringly asking, 'Who would put -up with the life of a schoolmaster who could get a living in any other -way?' Whereupon Erasmus modestly urged that he thought the education of -youth was the most honourable of all callings, and that there could be no -labour more pleasing to God than the Christian training of boys. At which -the Cambridge doctor turned up his nose in contempt, and scornfully -replied, 'If anyone wants to give himself up entirely to the service of -Christ, let him enter a monastery!' Erasmus ventured to question whether -St. Paul did not place true religion rather in works of charity--in doing -as much good as possible to our neighbours? The other rejected altogether -so crude a notion. 'Behold,' said he, 'we must leave all; in that is -perfection.' '_He_ scarcely can be said to leave all,' promptly returned -Erasmus, 'who, when he has a chance of doing good to others, refuses the -task because it is too humble in the eyes of the world.' 'And then,' wrote -Erasmus, 'lest I should get into a quarrel, I bade the man good-bye.'[390] - -This, he said, was an example of 'Scotistical wisdom,' and he told Colet -that he did not care often to meddle with these self-satisfied Scotists, -well knowing that no good would come of it. - - * * * * * - -It would seem that, after all, a worthy under-master did turn up at -Cambridge, willing to work under Lilly, and thereafter to become his -son-in-law;[391] so that with schoolmasters already secured, and -schoolbooks in course of preparation, Colet's enterprise seemed likely -fairly to get under way so soon as the building should be completed in St. -Paul's Churchyard. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - - -I. CONVOCATION FOR THE EXTIRPATION OF HERESY (1512). - -[Sidenote: Lollards go to hear Colet's sermons.] - -[Sidenote: Two heretics burned at Smithfield.] - -Colet's labours in connection with his school did not interfere with his -ordinary duties. He was still, Sunday after Sunday, preaching those -courses of sermons on 'the Gospels, the Apostles' Creed, and the Lord's -Prayer,' which attracted by their novelty and unwonted earnestness so many -listeners. The Dean was no Lollard himself, yet those whose leanings were -toward Lollard views naturally found, in Colet's simple Scripture teaching -from his pulpit at St. Paul's, what they felt to be the food for which -they were in search, and which they did not get elsewhere. They were wont, -it seems, to advise one another to go and hear Dr. Colet; and it was not -strange if, in the future examination of heretics, a connection should be -traced between Colet's sermons and the increase of heresy.[392] That -heresy was on the increase could not be doubted. Foxe has recorded that -several Lollards suffered in 1511 under Archbishop Warham, and, strange to -say, Colet's name appears on the list of judges.[393] Foxe also mentions -no fewer than twenty-three heretics who were compelled by Fitzjames, -Bishop of London, to abjure during 1510 and 1511. And so zealous was the -Bishop in his old age against them that he burned at least two of them in -Smithfield during the autumn of 1511.[394] So common, indeed, were these -martyr-fires, that Ammonius, Latin secretary to Henry VIII., writing from -London, a few weeks after, to Erasmus at Cambridge, could jestingly say, -that 'he does not wonder that wood is so scarce and dear, the heretics -cause so many holocausts; and yet (he said) their numbers grow--nay, even -the brother of Thomas, my servant, dolt as he is, has himself founded a -sect, and has his disciples!'[395] - -It was under these circumstances that a royal mandate was issued, in -November 1511, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to summon a convocation of -his province to meet in St. Paul's Cathedral, February 6, 1512.[396] - -[Sidenote: Convocation summoned.] - -The King--under the instigation, it was thought, of Wolsey[397]--was just -then entering into a treaty with the Pope and other princes with a view to -warlike proceedings against France; and the King's object in calling this -convocation was doubtless to procure from the clergy their share of the -taxation necessary to meet the expenses of equipping an army, which it was -convenient to represent as required 'for the defence of the _Church_ as -well as the kingdom of England;' but there was another object for which a -convocation was required besides this of taxation--one more palatable to -Bishop Fitzjames and his party--that of the '_extirpation of -heresy_.'[398] - -On Friday, February 6, 1512, members of both Houses of Convocation -assembled, it would seem, in St. Paul's Cathedral, to listen to the sermon -by which it was customary that their proceedings should be opened. - -[Sidenote: Colet appointed to preach the opening sermon.] - -Dean Colet was charged by the Archbishop with the duty of preaching this -opening address. - -It was a task by no means to be envied, but Colet was not the man to shirk -a duty because it was unpleasant. He had accepted the deanery of St. -Paul's not simply to wear its dignities and enjoy its revenues, but to do -its duties; and one of those duties, perhaps _the_ one to which he had -felt himself most clearly called, had been the duty of _preaching_. -Probably, there was not a pulpit in England which offered so wide a sphere -of influence to the preacher as that of St. Paul's. - -[Sidenote: St. Paul's Cathedral.] - -[Sidenote: St. Paul's Walk.] - -The noble cathedral itself was _then_, in a sense which can hardly be -realised _now_, the centre of the metropolis of England. In architectural -merits, in vastness, and in the beauty of its proportions, it was rivalled -by few in the world; but it was not from these alone that it derived its -importance. Under the shadow of its gracefully-tapering spire, 534 feet in -height, its nave and choir and presbytery extended 700 feet in one long -line of Gothic arches, broken only by the low screen between the nave and -choir. And pacing up and down this nave might be seen men of every class -in life, from the merchant and the courtier down to the mendicant and the -beggar. _St. Paul's Walk_ was like a 'change, thronged by men of business -and men of the world, congregated there to hear the news, or to drive -their bargains; while in the long aisles kneeled the devotees of saints or -Virgin, paying their devotions at shrines and altars, loaded with costly -offerings and burning tapers; and in the chantries, priests in monotonous -tones sang masses for departed souls. - -[Sidenote: Colet had now preached at St. Paul's seven years.] - -In _this_ cathedral had Colet preached now for seven successive years. He -had preached to the humblest classes in their own English tongue,[399] -and, in order to bring down his teaching to their level, had given them an -English translation of the Paternoster[400] for their use. He had seen -them kneeling before the shrines, and had faithfully warned them against -the worship of images.[401] He had preached to the merchants and citizens -of London, and they had recognised in him a preacher who practised what he -preached, whose life did not give the lie to what he taught; and he had -done all this in spite of any talk his plain-speaking might create amongst -the orthodox, and notwithstanding the open opposition of his bishop. If -poor Lollards found in him an earnestness and simple faith they did not -find elsewhere, he knew that it was not _his_ fault. It was not _he_ who -was making heretics so fast, but the priests and bishops themselves, who -were driving honest souls into heretical ways by the scandal of their -worldly living, and the pride and dryness of their orthodox profession. -And now, when he was called upon to preach to these very priests and -bishops, was he to shrink from the task? - -Colet had already, in his lectures at Oxford, given expression to the pain -which ecclesiastical scandals had given him; and in his abstracts of the -Dionysian treatises he had recorded, with grief and tears, his longings -for ecclesiastical reform. These, however, had never been printed. They -lay in manuscript in his own hands, and could easily be suppressed. It -remained to be seen whether seven years' enjoyment of his own preferment -had closed his lips to the utterance of unpopular truths. - -[Sidenote: Condition of the clergy.] - -If it were possible so far to look behind the screen of the past as to see -the bishops of the province of Canterbury with the sight and knowledge of -Colet, as he saw them assembled at St. Paul's on that Friday morning, -then, and then only, would it be possible to appreciate fairly what it -must have cost him to preach the sermon he did on this occasion. - -[Sidenote: The bishops and their benefices.] - -The Archbishop and some of the bishops were friends of his and of the new -learning; but even some of these were so far carried away by the habits of -the times, as to fall inevitably under the censure of any honest preacher -who should dare to apply the Christian standard to their episcopal -conduct. There might be honourable exceptions to the rule, but, _as a -rule_, the bishops looked upon their sees as _property_ conferred upon -them often for political services, or as the natural result of family -position or influence. The pastoral duties which properly belonged to -their position were too often lost sight of. A bishopric was a thing to be -sued for or purchased by money or influence. It mattered little whether -the aspirant were a boy or a greyheaded old man, whether he lived abroad -or in England, whether he were illiterate or educated. There was one -bishop, for instance, whom Erasmus speaks of as a 'youth,' and who was so -illiterate that he had offered Erasmus a benefice and a large sum of money -if he would undertake his tuition for a year--a bribe which Erasmus, -albeit at the time anxiously seeking remunerative work of a kind which -would not interfere with his studies, refused with contempt.[402] Then -there was James Stanley, an old man, whose only title to preferment was -his connection with the Royal Family and a noble house, who, in spite of -his absolute unfitness, had been made Bishop of Ely in 1506, and was now -living, it is said, a life of open profligacy, to the great scandal of the -English Church, and of the noble house to which he belonged.[403] - -There was a bishop, too, whom More satirised repeatedly in his epigrams, -under the name of 'Posthumus;' at whose promotion he expresses his -delight, inasmuch as, whilst bishops were 'generally selected at _random_, -this bishop had evidently been chosen with _exceptional care_. If an error -had been made in this case, it could not certainly have arisen from -_haste_ in selection; for had the choice been made out of a thousand, a -_worse or more stupid_ bishop could not possibly have been found!'[404] -From another epigram, it may be inferred that this 'Posthumus' was one of -the ignorant Scotists whose opposition the Oxford Reformers had so often -to combat; for More represents him as fond of quoting the text, '_The -letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life_,'--the text which is mentioned -by Tyndale as quoted by the Scotists against the literal interpretation of -Scripture;--and then he drily remarks, that this bishop was too illiterate -for any '_letters_ to have killed him, and that, if they had, he had no -_spirit_ to bring him to life again!'[405] - -[Sidenote: The bishops and their benefices.] - -These may, indeed, have been exceptional or, at all events, extreme cases; -but, however the bishops of the province of Canterbury had come by their -bishoprics, their general practice seems to have been to use their -benefices only as stepping-stones to higher ones. No sooner were they -promoted to one see than they aspired to another, of higher rank and -greater revenue. This, at least, was no exceptional thing. The Bishop of -Bath and Wells had been Bishop of Hereford; the Bishop of Chichester had -been translated from the see of St. David's. The Bishop of Lincoln had -been Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. Audley had filled the sees of -Rochester and Hereford in succession, and was now Bishop of Salisbury. -Fitzjames had been first promoted to the see of Rochester, after that to -the see of Chichester, and from thence, in his old age, to the most -lucrative of all--the see of London. Fox had commenced his episcopal -career as Bishop of Exeter; he had from thence been translated, in -succession, to the sees of Bath and Wells, and Durham, and was now Bishop -of Winchester. And be it remembered that these numerous promotions were -not in reward for the successful discharge of pastoral duties: those who -had earned the most numerous and rapid promotions were the men who were -the most deeply engaged in _political_ affairs, sent on embassies, and so -forth, whose benefices were thus the reward of purely secular services, -and who, consequently, had hardly had a chance of discharging with -diligence their spiritual duties. The Bishop of Bath and Wells was a -foreigner, and lived abroad; and so also the Bishop of Worcester owed his -bishopric to Papal provision, and lived and died at Rome. His predecessor -and his successor also both were foreigners.[406] - -[Sidenote: Wolsey.] - -[Sidenote: Wolsey's ambition.] - -There was also, amongst the clergy of the province of Canterbury, a man -who was to surpass all others in these particulars; who was to be handed -down to posterity as the very type of an ambitious churchman; who was -already high in royal favour, always engaged in political affairs, and -considered to be the instigator of the approaching war; who had the whole -charge of equipping the army committed to his care; who had lately been -promoted to the deanery of Lincoln, and was waiting for the bishopric as -soon as it should be vacant; who had already had conferred upon him, in -addition to the deanery, two rectories, a prebend, and a canonry; who, -before another year was out, without giving up any of these preferments, -was to be made Dean of York; and who was destined to aspire from bishopric -to archbishopric, to hold abbeys and bishoprics _in commendam_, sue for -and obtain from the Pope a cardinal's hat and legatine authority, and to -rule England in Church and State--England's king amongst the rest--failing -only in his attempt to get himself elected to the Papal chair. This Dean -of Lincoln, so aspiring, ambitious, fond of magnificence and state, was -sure to be found at his place in a convocation called that the clergy -might tax themselves in support of his warlike policy, and in aid of his -ambitious dreams. Wolsey, we may be sure, would be there to watch -anxiously the concessions of his 'dismes,' as Bishop Fitzjames would be -there also, to await the measures to be taken for the 'extirpation of -heresy.' - -It was before an assembly composed of such bishops and churchmen as these, -that Colet rose to deliver the following address:-- - - [Sidenote: Colet's sermon.] - - [Sidenote: Need of reformation in the church.] - - 'You are come together to-day, fathers and right wise men, to hold a - council. In which what ye will do, and what matters ye will handle, I - do not yet know; but I wish that, at length, mindful of your name and - profession, ye would consider of the reformation of ecclesiastical - affairs: for never was it more necessary, and never did the state of - the Church more need your endeavours. For the Church--the spouse of - Christ--which He wished to be without spot or wrinkle, is become foul - and deformed. As saith Esaias, "The faithful city is become a harlot;" - and as Jeremias speaks, "She hath committed fornication with many - lovers," whereby she hath conceived many seeds of iniquity, and daily - bringeth forth the foulest offspring. Wherefore I have come here - to-day, fathers, to admonish you with all your minds to deliberate, in - this your Council, concerning the reformation of the Church. - - [Sidenote: Colet's modesty.] - - 'But, in sooth, I came not of my own will and pleasure, for I was - conscious of my unworthiness, and I saw too how hard it would be to - satisfy the most critical judgment of such great men. I judged it - would be altogether unworthy, unfit, and almost arrogant in me, a - servant, to admonish you, my masters!--in me, a son, to teach you, my - fathers! It would have come better from some one of the fathers,--that - is, from one of you prelates, who might have done it with weightier - authority and greater wisdom. But I could not but obey the command of - the most reverend Father and Lord Archbishop, the President of this - Council, who imposed this duty, a truly heavy one, upon me; for we - read that it was said by Samuel the prophet, "Obedience is better than - sacrifice." Wherefore, fathers and most worthy sirs, I pray and - beseech you this day that you will bear with my weakness by your - forbearance and patience; next, in the beginning, help me with your - pious prayers. And, before all things, let us pour out our prayers to - God the Father Almighty; and first, let us pray for his Holiness the - Pope, for all spiritual pastors, with all Christian people; next, let - us pray for our most reverend Father the Lord Archbishop, President of - this Council, and all the lords bishops, the whole clergy, and the - whole people of England; let us pray, lastly, for this assembly and - convocation, praying God that He may inspire your minds so - unanimously to conclude upon what is for the good and benefit of the - Church, that when this Council is concluded we may not seem to have - been called together in vain and without cause. Let us all say "the - _Pater noster_, &c."' - -The Paternoster concluded, Colet proceeded:-- - - [Sidenote: Text from Rom. xii.] - - 'As I am about to exhort you, reverend fathers, to endeavour to reform - the condition of the Church; because nothing has so disfigured the - face of the Church as the secular and worldly way of living on the - part of the clergy, I know not how I can commence my discourse more - fitly than with the Apostle Paul, in whose cathedral ye are now - assembled: (Romans xii. 2)--"Be ye not conformed to this world, but be - ye reformed in the newness of your minds, that ye may prove what is - the good, and well-pleasing, and perfect will of God." This the - Apostle wrote to all Christian men, but emphatically to priests and - bishops: for priests and bishops are the lights of the world, as the - Saviour said to them, "Ye are the light of the world;" and again He - said, "If the light that is in you be darkness, how great will be that - darkness!" That is, if priests and bishops, the very lights, run in - the dark way of the world, how dark must the lay-people be! Wherefore, - emphatically to priests and bishops did St. Paul say, "Be ye not - conformed to this world, but be ye reformed in the newness of your - minds." - - 'By these words the Apostle points out two things:--First, he - prohibits our being _conformed_ to the world and becoming _carnal_; - and then he commands that we be _reformed_ in the Spirit of God, in - order that we may be _spiritual_. I therefore, following this order, - shall speak first of _Conformation_, and after that of _Reformation_. - - [Sidenote: Of 'conformation.'] - - '"Be not," he says, "conformed to this world." By the _world_ the - Apostle means the worldly way and manner of living, which consists - chiefly in these four evils--viz. in _devilish pride_, in _carnal - concupiscence_, in _worldly covetousness_, and in _worldly - occupations_. These things are in the world, as St. John testifies in - his canonical epistle; for he says, "All things that are in the world - are either the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eye, or the pride - of life." These things in like manner exist and reign in the Church, - and amongst ecclesiastical persons, so that we seem able truly to say, - "All things that are in the _Church_ are either the lust of the flesh, - the lust of the eye, or the pride of life!" - - [Sidenote: Pride of life.] - - 'In the _first_ place, to speak of _pride of life_--what eagerness and - hunger after honour and dignity are found in these days amongst - ecclesiastical persons! What a breathless race from benefice to - benefice, from a less to a greater one, from a lower to a higher! Who - is there who does not see this? Who that sees it does not grieve over - it? Moreover, those who hold these dignities, most of them carry - themselves with such lofty mien and high looks, that their place does - not seem to be in the humble priesthood of Christ, but in proud - worldly dominion!--not acknowledging or perceiving what the master of - humility, Christ, said to his disciples whom he called to the - priesthood. "The princes of the nations" (said He) "have lordship over - them, and those who are amongst the great have power. But it shall - not be so with you: but he who is great among you, let him be your - minister; he who is chief, let him be the servant of all. For the Son - of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." By which - words the Saviour plainly teaches, that magistracy in the Church is - nothing else than humble service. - - [Sidenote: Lust of the flesh.] - - 'As to the second worldly evil, which is the _lust of the flesh_--has - not this vice, I ask, inundated the Church as with the flood of its - lust, so that nothing is more carefully sought after, in these most - troublous times, by the most part of priests, than that which - ministers to sensual pleasure? They give themselves up to feasting and - banqueting; spend themselves in vain babbling, take part in sports and - plays, devote themselves to hunting and hawking; are drowned in the - delights of this world; patronise those who cater for their pleasure. - It was against this kind of people that Jude the Apostle exclaimed: - "Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran - greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the - gainsaying of Core. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when - they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear; clouds they are - without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, - without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of - the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is - reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." - - [Sidenote: Covetousness.] - - '_Covetousness_ also, which is the _third_ worldly evil, which the - Apostle John calls _the lust of the eye_, and Paul _idolatry_--this - most horrible plague--has so taken possession of the hearts of nearly - all priests, and has so darkened the eyes of their minds, that - now-a-days we are blind to everything, but that alone which seems to - be able to bring us gain. For in these days, what else do we seek for - in the Church than rich benefices and promotions? In these same - promotions, what else do we count upon but their fruits and revenues? - We rush after them with such eagerness, that we care not how many and - what duties, or how great benefices we take, if only they have great - revenues. - - 'O Covetousness! Paul rightly called thee "the root of all evil!" For - from _thee_ comes all this piling-up of benefices one on the top of - the other; from _thee_ come the great pensions, assigned out of many - benefices resigned; from _thee_ quarrels about tithes, about - offerings, about mortuaries, about dilapidations, about ecclesiastical - right and title, for which we fight as though for our very lives! O - Covetousness! from _thee_ come burdensome visitations of bishops; from - _thee_ corruptions of Law Courts, and those daily fresh inventions by - which the poor people are harassed; from _thee_ the sauciness and - insolence of officials! O Covetousness! mother of all iniquity! from - _thee_ comes that eager desire on the part of ordinaries to enlarge - their jurisdiction; from _thee_ their foolish and mad contention to - get hold of the probate of wills; from _thee_ undue sequestrations of - fruits; from _thee_ that superstitious observance of all those laws - which are lucrative, and disregard and neglect of those which point at - the correction of morals! Why should I mention the rest?--To sum up - all in one word: every corruption, all the ruin of the Church, all the - scandals of the world, come from the covetousness of priests, - according to the saying of Paul, which I repeat again, and beat into - your ears, "Covetousness is the root of all evil!" - - [Sidenote: Worldly occupation.] - - [Sidenote: Apostolic priests.] - - [Sidenote: Modern priests.] - - 'The _fourth_ worldly evil which mars and spots the face of the Church - is the incessant _worldly occupation_ in which many priests and - bishops in these days entangle themselves--servants of men rather than - of God, soldiers of this world rather than of Christ. For the Apostle - Paul writes to Timothy, "No man that warreth for God entangleth - himself in the affairs of this life." But priests are "soldiers of - God." Their warfare truly is not carnal, but spiritual: for our - warfare is to pray, to read, and to meditate upon the Scriptures; to - minister the word of God, to administer the sacraments of salvation, - to make sacrifice for the people, and to offer masses for their souls. - For we are mediators between men and God, as Paul testifies, writing - to the Hebrews: "Every priest" (he says) "taken from amongst men is - ordained for men in things pertaining to God, to offer gifts and - sacrifices for sins." Wherefore the Apostles, the first priests and - bishops, so shrank from every taint of worldly things that they did - not even wish to minister to the necessities of the poor, although - this was a great work of piety: for they said, "It is not right that - we should leave the word of God and serve tables; we will give - ourselves continually to prayer, and the ministry of the word of God." - And Paul exclaims to the Corinthians, "If you have any secular - matters, make those of you judges who are of least estimation in the - Church." Indeed from this worldliness, and because the clergy and - priests, neglecting spiritual things, involve themselves in earthly - occupation, many evils follow. First, the priestly dignity is - dishonoured, which is greater than either royal or imperial dignity, - for it is equal to that of angels. And the splendour of this high - dignity is obscured by darkness when priests, whose conversation ought - to be in heaven, are occupied with the things of earth. Secondly, the - dignity of priests is despised when there is no difference between - such priests and laymen; but (according to Hosea the prophet) "as the - people are, so are the priests." Thirdly, the beautiful order of the - hierarchy in the Church is confused when the magnates of the Church - are busied in vile and earthly things, and in their stead vile and - abject persons meddle with high and spiritual things. Fourthly, the - laity themselves are scandalised and driven to ruin, when those whose - duty it is to draw men _from_ this world, teach men to love this world - by their own devotion to worldly things, and by their love of this - world are [themselves] carried down headlong into hell. Besides, when - priests themselves are thus entangled, it must end in _hypocrisy_; - for, mixed up and confused with the laity, they lead, under a priestly - exterior, the mere life of a layman. Also their spiritual weakness and - servile fear, when enervated by the waters of this world, makes them - dare neither to do nor say anything but what they know will be - grateful and pleasing to their princes. Lastly, such is their - ignorance and blindness, when blinded by the darkness of this world, - that they can discern nothing but earthly things. Wherefore not - without cause our Saviour Christ admonished the prelates of his - Church, "Take heed lest your hearts be burdened by surfeiting or - banqueting, and the cares of this world." "By the cares (He says) of - this world!" The hearts of priests weighed down by riches cannot lift - themselves on high, nor raise themselves to heavenly things. - - [Sidenote: Invasion of heretics.] - - 'Many other evils there be, which are the result of the worldliness of - priests, which it would take long to mention; but I have done. These - are those four evils, O fathers! O priests! by which, as I have said, - we are conformed to this world, by which the face of the Church is - marred, by which her influence is destroyed, plainly, far more than it - was marred and destroyed, either at the beginning by the persecution - of tyrants, or after that by the invasion of heresies which followed. - For by the persecution of tyrants the persecuted Church was made - stronger and more glorious; by the invasion of heretics, the Church - being shaken, was made wiser and more skilled in Holy Scriptures. But - after the introduction of this most sinful worldliness, when - worldliness had crept in amongst the clergy, the root of all spiritual - life--charity itself--was extinguished. And without this the Church - can neither be wise nor strong in God. - - [Sidenote: Wicked life of priests the worst kind of heresy.] - - 'In these times also we experience much opposition from the laity, but - they are not so opposed to us as we are to ourselves. Nor does _their_ - opposition do us so much hurt as the opposition of our own wicked - lives, which are opposed to God and to Christ; for He said, "He that - is not with me is against me." We are troubled in these days also by - heretics--men mad with strange folly;--but this heresy of theirs is - not so pestilential and pernicious to us and the people as the vicious - and depraved lives of the clergy, which, if we may believe St. - Bernard, is a species of heresy, and the greatest and most pernicious - of all; for that holy father, preaching in a certain convocation to - the priests of his time, in his sermon spake in these words:--"There - are many who are catholic in their speaking and preaching who are very - heretics in their actions, for what heretics do by their false - doctrines these men do by their evil examples--they seduce the people - and lead them into error of life--and they are by so much worse than - heretics as actions are stronger than words." These things said - Bernard, that holy father of so great and ardent spirit, against the - faction of wicked priests of his time; by which words he plainly shows - that there be two kinds of heretical pravity--one of perverse - doctrine, the other of perverse living--of which the latter is the - greater and more pernicious; and this reigns in the Church, to the - miserable destruction of the Church, her priests living after a - worldly and not after a priestly fashion. Wherefore do you fathers, - you priests, and all of you of the clergy, awake at length, and rise - up from this your sleep in this forgetful world: and being awake, at - length listen to Paul calling unto you, "Be ye not conformed to this - world." - - 'This concerning the _first_ part. - - * * * * * - - [Sidenote: Reformation.] - - 'Now let us come to the _second_--concerning _Reformation_. - - '"But be ye reformed in the newness of your minds." What Paul commands - us secondly is, that we should "be _re_formed into a new mind;" that - we should savour the things which are of God; that we should be - reformed to those things which are contrary to what I have been - speaking of--_i.e._ to humility, sobriety, charity, spiritual - occupations; just as Paul wrote to Titus, "Denying ungodliness and - worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this - present world." - - [Sidenote: Must begin with the bishops.] - - 'But this reformation and restoration in ecclesiastical affairs must - needs begin with _you_, our fathers, and then afterwards descend upon - us your priests and the whole clergy. For you are our chiefs--you are - our examples of life. To you we look as waymarks for our direction. In - you and in your lives we desire to read, as in living books, how we - ourselves should live. Wherefore, if you wish to see our motes, first - take the beams out of your own eyes; for it is an old proverb, - "Physician heal thyself." Do you, spiritual doctors, first assay that - medicine for the purgation of morals, and then you may offer it to us - to taste of it also. - - [Sidenote: Existing laws must be enforced.] - - 'The way, moreover, by which the Church is to be reformed and restored - to a better condition is not to enact any new laws (for there are laws - enough and to spare). As Solomon says, "There is no new thing under - the sun." The diseases which are now in the Church were the same in - former ages, and there is no evil for which the holy fathers did not - provide excellent remedies; there are no crimes in prohibition of - which there are not laws in the body of the Canon Law. The need, - therefore, is not for the enactment of new laws and constitutions, but - for the observance of those already enacted. Wherefore, in this your - congregation, let the existing laws be produced and recited which - prohibit what is evil, and which enjoin what is right. - - [Sidenote: Wicked and unlearned men admitted to holy orders.] - - 'First, let those laws be recited which admonish you, fathers, not to - lay your hands on any, nor to admit them to holy orders, rashly. For - here is the source from whence other evils flow, because if the - entrance to Holy Orders be thrown open, all who offer themselves are - forthwith admitted without hindrance. Hence proceed and emanate those - hosts of both unlearned and wicked priests which are in the Church. - For it is not, in my judgment, enough that a priest can construe a - collect, propound a proposition, or reply to a sophism; but much more - needful are a good and pure and holy life, approved morals, moderate - knowledge of the Scriptures, some knowledge of the Sacraments, above - all fear of God and love of heavenly life. - - 'Let the laws be recited which direct that ecclesiastical benefices - should be conferred on the worthy, and promotions in the Church made - with just regard to merit; not by carnal affection, nor the - acceptation of persons, whereby it comes to pass in these days, that - boys instead of old men, fools instead of wise men, wicked instead of - good men, reign and rule! - - [Sidenote: Simony.] - - 'Let the laws be recited against the guilt of simony; which plague, - which contagion, which dire pestilence, now creeps like a cancer - through the minds of priests, so that most are not ashamed in these - days to get for themselves great dignities by petitions and suits at - court, rewards and promises. - - [Sidenote: Residence of curates.] - - 'Let the laws be recited which command the personal residence of - curates at their churches: for many evils spring from the custom, in - these days, of performing all clerical duties by help of vicars and - substitutes; men too without judgment, unfit, and often wicked, who - will seek nothing from the people but sordid gain--whence spring - scandals, heresies, and bad Christianity amongst the people. - - [Sidenote: Worldly living of priests and monks.] - - 'Let the laws be rehearsed, and the holy rules handed down from our - ancestors concerning the life and character of the clergy, which - prohibit any churchman from being a merchant, usurer, or hunter, or - common player, or from bearing arms--the laws which prohibit the - clergy from frequenting taverns, from having unlawful intercourse with - women--the laws which command sobriety and modesty in vestment, and - temperance in dress. - - 'Let also the laws be recited concerning monks and religious men, - which command that, leaving the broad way of the world, they enter the - narrow way which leads to life; which command them not to meddle in - business, whether secular or ecclesiastical; which command that they - should not engage in suits in civil courts for earthly things. For in - the Council of _Chalcedon_ it was decreed that monks should give - themselves up entirely to prayer and fasting, the chastisement of - their flesh, and observance of their monastic rule. - - [Sidenote: Worldly bishops.] - - 'Above all, let those laws be recited which concern and pertain to - _you_, reverend fathers and lords bishops--laws concerning your just - and canonical election, in the chapters of your churches, with the - invocation of the Holy Spirit: for because this is not done in these - days, and prelates are often chosen more by the favour of men than the - grace of God, so, in consequence, we sometimes certainly have bishops - too little spiritual--men more worldly than heavenly, wiser in the - spirit of this world than in the spirit of Christ! - - 'Let the laws be rehearsed concerning the residence of bishops in - their dioceses, which command that they watch over the salvation of - souls, that they disseminate the word of God, that they personally - appear in their churches at least on great festivals, that they - sacrifice for their people, that they hear the causes of the poor, - that they sustain the fatherless, and widows, that they exercise - themselves always in works of piety. - - 'Let the laws be rehearsed concerning the due distribution of the - patrimony of Christ--laws which command that the goods of the Church - be spent not in sumptuous buildings, not in magnificence and pomp, not - in feasts and banquets, not in luxury and lust, not in enriching - kinsfolk nor in keeping hounds, but in things useful and needful to - the Church. For when he was asked by Augustine, the English bishop, in - what way English bishops and prelates should dispose of those goods - which were the offerings of the faithful, Pope Gregory replied (and - his reply is placed in the _Decretals_, ch. xii. q. 2), that the goods - of bishops should be divided into four parts, of which one part should - go to the bishop and his family, another to his clergy, a third for - repairing buildings, a fourth to the poor. - - [Sidenote: Reform of Ecclesiastical Courts.] - - 'Let the laws be recited, and let them be recited again and again, - which abolish the scandals and vices of courts, which take away those - daily newly-invented arts for getting money, which were designed to - extirpate and eradicate that horrible covetousness which is the root - and cause of all evils, which is the fountain of all iniquity. - - [Sidenote: Councils should be held oftener.] - - 'Lastly, let those laws and constitutions be renewed concerning the - holding of Councils, which command that Provincial Councils should be - held more frequently for the reformation of the Church. For nothing - ever happens more detrimental to the Church of Christ than the - omission of Councils, both general and provincial. - - 'Having rehearsed these laws and others, like them, which pertain to - this matter, and have for their object the correction of morals, it - remains that with all authority and power their _execution_ should be - commanded, so that having a law we should at length live according to - it. - - [Sidenote: The bishops must first be reformed, then the clergy,] - - 'In which matter, with all due reverence, I appeal most strongly to - _you_, fathers! For this execution of laws and observance of - constitutions ought to begin with _you_, so that by your living - example you may teach us priests to imitate you. Else it will surely - be said of you, "They lay heavy burdens on other men's shoulders, but - they themselves will not move them even with one of their fingers." - But you, if you keep the laws, and first reform your own lives to the - law and rules of the Canons, will thereby provide us with a light, in - which we shall see what we ought to do--the light, _i.e._ of your good - example. And we, seeing our fathers keep the laws, will gladly follow - in the footsteps of our fathers. - - [Sidenote: then the lay part of the Church.] - - 'The clerical and priestly part of the church being thus reformed, we - can then with better grace proceed to the reformation of the lay part, - which indeed it will be very easy to do, if we ourselves have been - reformed first. For the body follows the soul, and as are the rulers - in a State such will the people be. Wherefore, if priests themselves, - the rulers of souls, were good, the people in their turn would become - good also; for our own goodness would teach others how they may be - good more clearly than all other kinds of teaching and preaching. Our - goodness would urge them on in the right way far more efficaciously - than all your suspensions and excommunications. Wherefore, if you wish - the lay-people to live according to your will and pleasure, you must - first live according to the will of God, and thus (believe me) you - will easily attain what you wish in them. - - 'You want obedience from them. And it is right; for in the Epistle to - the Hebrews are these words of Paul to the laity: "Be obedient" (he - says) "to your rulers, and be subject to them." But if you desire this - obedience, first give reason and cause of obedience on your part, as - the same Paul teaches in the following text--"Watch as those that give - an account of their souls," and then they will obey you. - - 'You desire to be honoured by the people. It is right; for Paul writes - to Timotheus, "Priests who rule well are worthy of double honour, - chiefly those who labour in word and doctrine." Therefore, desiring - honour, first rule well, and labour in word and doctrine, and then the - people will hold you in all honour. - - 'You desire to reap their carnal things, and to collect tithes and - offerings without any reluctance on their part. It is right; for Paul, - writing to the Romans, says: "They are your debtors, and ought to - minister to you in carnal things." But if you wish to reap their - carnal things, you must first sow your spiritual things, and then ye - shall reap abundantly of their carnal things. For that man is hard and - unjust who desires "to reap where he has not sown, and to gather where - he has not scattered." - - 'You desire ecclesiastical liberty, and not to be drawn before civil - courts. And this too is right; for in the Psalms it is said, "Touch - not mine anointed." But if ye desire this liberty, loose yourselves - first from worldly bondage, and from the cringing service of men, and - claim for yourselves that true liberty of Christ, that spiritual - liberty through grace from sin, and serve God and reign in Him, and - then (believe me) the people will not touch the anointed of the Lord - their God! - - 'You desire security, quiet, and peace. And this is fitting. But, - desiring peace, return to the God of love and peace; return to Christ, - in whom is the true peace of the Spirit which passeth all - understanding; return to the true priestly life. And lastly, as Paul - commands, "Be ye reformed in the newness of your minds, that ye may - know those things which are of God; and the peace of God shall be with - you!" - - * * * * * - - [Sidenote: Conclusion.] - - 'These, reverend fathers and most distinguished men, are the things - that I thought should be spoken concerning the reformation of the - clergy. I trust that, in your clemency, you will take them in good - part. If, by chance, I should seem to have gone too far in this - sermon--if I have said anything with too much warmth--forgive it me, - and pardon a man speaking out of zeal, a man sorrowing for the ruin of - the Church; and, passing by any foolishness of mine, consider the - thing itself. Consider the miserable state and condition of the - Church, and bend your whole minds to its reformation. Suffer not, - fathers, suffer not this so illustrious an assembly to break up - without result. Suffer not this your congregation to slip by for - nothing. Ye have indeed often been assembled. But (if by your leave I - may speak the truth) I see not what fruit has as yet resulted, - especially to the Church, from assemblies of this kind! Go now, in the - Spirit whom you have invoked, that ye may be able, with his - assistance, to devise, to ordain, and to decree those things which may - be useful to the Church, and redound to your praise and the honour of - God: to whom be all honour and glory, for ever and ever, Amen!' - -Comparing this noble sermon with the passages quoted in an earlier chapter -from Colet's lectures at Oxford and his Abstracts of the Dionysian -writings, it must be admitted that what, fourteen years before, he had -uttered as it were in secret, he had now, as occasion required, proclaimed -upon the housetops. What effect it had upon the assembled clergy no record -remains to tell. - -[Sidenote: Wolsey obtains four dismes.] - -The object which Wolsey had in view in the convocation was, it may be -presumed, attained to his satisfaction. The clergy granted the King 'four -dismes,' to be paid in yearly instalments.[407] And this was the full -amount of taxation usually demanded by English sovereigns from the clergy -in time of war, except in cases of extreme urgency.[408] - -Whether Bishop Fitzjames succeeded equally well in securing the inhuman -object which was nearest to his heart, is not equally clear. - -[Sidenote: Discussion on the burning of heretics.] - -But one authentic picture of a scene which there can be little doubt -occurred in _this_ Convocation has been preserved, to give a passing -glimpse into the nature of the discussion which followed upon the subject -of the 'extirpation of heresy.' In the course of the debate, the advocates -of increased severity against poor Lollards were asked, it seems, to point -out, if they could, a single passage in the Canonical Scriptures which -commands the capital punishment of heretics. Whereupon an old divine[409] -rose from his seat, and with some severity and temper quoted the command -of St. Paul to Titus: 'A man that is an heretic, after the first and -second admonition, reject.' The old man quoted the words as they stand in -the Vulgate version: 'Hæreticum hominem post unam et alteram correptionem -_devita_!'--'_De-vita!_' he repeated with emphasis; and again, louder -still, he thundered 'DE-VITA!' till everyone wondered what had happened to -the man. At length he proceeded to explain that the meaning of the Latin -verb 'devitare' being 'de vita tollere' (!), the passage in question was -clearly a direct command to punish heretics by death![410] - -A smile passed round among those members of Convocation who were learned -enough to detect the gross ignorance of the old divine; but to the rest -his logic appeared perfectly conclusive, and he was allowed to proceed -triumphantly to support his position by quoting, again from the Vulgate, -the text translated in the English version, 'Suffer not a witch to live.' -For the word 'witch' the Vulgate version has 'maleficus.' A heretic, he -declared, was clearly 'maleficus,' and therefore ought not to be suffered -to live. By which conclusive logic the learned members of the Convocation -of 1512 were, it is said, for the most part completely carried away.[411] - -This story, resting wholly or in part upon Colet's own relation to -Erasmus, is the only glimpse which can be gathered of the proceedings of -this Convocation 'for the extirpation of heresy.' - - -II. COLET IS CHARGED WITH HERESY (1512). - -[Sidenote: Colet's sermon printed.] - -Before the spring of 1512 was passed, Colet's Sermon to Convocation was -printed and distributed in Latin, and probably in English[412] also; and -as there was an immediate lull in the storm of persecution, he may -possibly have come off rather as victor than as vanquished, in spite of -the seeming triumph of the persecuting party in Convocation. - -The bold position he had taken had rallied round him not a few -honest-hearted men, and had made him, perhaps unconsciously on his part, -the man to whom earnest truth-seekers looked up as to a leader, and upon -whom the blind leaders of the blindly orthodox party vented all their -jealousy and hatred. - -[Sidenote: Completion of Colet's school.] - -[Sidenote: Jealousy against Colet's school.] - -He was henceforth a marked man. That school of his in St. Paul's -Churchyard, to the erection of which he had devoted his fortune, which he -had the previous autumn made his will to endow, had now risen into a -conspicuous building, and the motives of the Dean in building it were of -course everywhere canvassed. The school was now fairly at work. Lilly, the -godson of Grocyn, the late Professor of Greek at Oxford, was already -appointed headmaster; and as he was known to have himself travelled in -Greece to perfect his classical knowledge, it could no longer be doubted -by any that here, under the shadow of the great cathedral, was to be -taught to the boys that 'heretical Greek' which was regarded with so much -suspicion. Here was, in fact, a school of the 'new learning,' sowing in -the minds of English youth the seeds of that free thought and heresy -which Colet had so long been teaching to the people from his pulpit at St. -Paul's. More had already facetiously told Colet that he could not wonder -if his school should raise a storm of malice; for people cannot help -seeing that, as in the Trojan horse were concealed armed Greeks for the -destruction of barbarian Troy, so from this school would come forth those -who would expose and upset their ignorance.[413] - -No wonder, indeed, if the wrath of Bishop Fitzjames should be kindled -against Colet; no wonder if, having failed in his attempt effectually to -stir up the spirit of persecution in the recent Convocation, he should now -vent his spleen upon the newly-founded school. - -But how fully, amid all, Colet preserved his temper and persevered in his -work, may be gathered from the following letter to Erasmus, who, in -intervals of leisure from graver labours, was devoting his literary -talents to the service of Colet's school, and whose little book, 'De Copiâ -Verborum,' was part of it already in the printer's hands:-- - - _Colet to Erasmus._[414] - - 'Indeed, dearest Erasmus, since you left London I have heard nothing - of you.... - - 'I have been spending a few days in the country with my mother, - consoling her in her grief on the death of my servant, who died at - her house, whom she loved as a son, and for whose death she wept as - though he had been more than a son. The night on which I returned to - town I received your letter. - - [Sidenote: A bishop blasphemes Colet's school.] - - 'Now listen to a joke! A certain bishop, who is held, too, to be one - of the wiser ones, has been blaspheming our school before a large - concourse of people, declaring that I have erected what is a useless - thing, yea a bad thing--yea more (to give his own words), a temple of - idolatry. Which, indeed, I fancy he called it, because the poets are - to be taught there! At this, Erasmus, I am not angry, but laugh - heartily.... - - 'I send you a little book containing the sermon' [to the - Convocation?]. 'The printers said they had sent some to Cambridge. - - 'Farewell! Do not forget the verses for our boys, which I want you to - finish with all good nature and courtesy. Take care to let us have the - second part of your "Copia."' - -[Sidenote: 'De Copiâ,' preface of Erasmus.] - -The second part of the 'Copia' was accordingly completed, and the whole -sent to the press in May, with a prefatory letter to Colet,[415] in which -Erasmus paid a loving tribute to his friend's character and work. He dwelt -upon Colet's noble self-sacrificing devotion to the good of others, and -the judgment he had shown in singling out two main objects at which to -labour, as the most powerful means of furthering the great cause so dear -to his heart. - -[Sidenote: Colet's preaching.] - -To implant Christ in the hearts of the common people, by constant -preaching, year after year, from his pulpit at St. Paul's--this, wrote -Erasmus, had been Colet's first great work; and surely it had borne much -fruit! - -[Sidenote: Colet's school.] - -To found a school, wherein the sons of the people should drink in Christ -along with a sound education--that thereby, as it were in the cradle of -coming generations, the foundation might be laid of the future welfare of -his country--this had been the second great work to which Colet had -devoted time, talents, and a princely fortune. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus in praise of Colet's work.] - -'What is this, I ask, but to act as a father to all your children and -fellow-citizens? You rob yourself to make them rich; you strip yourself to -clothe them. You wear yourself out with toil, that they may be quickened -into life in Christ. In a word, you spend yourself away that you may gain -them for Christ! - -'He must be envious, indeed, who does not back with all his might the man -who engages in a work like this. He must be wicked, indeed, who can -gainsay or interrupt him. That man is an enemy to England who does not -care to give a helping hand where he can.' - -Which words in praise of Colet's self-sacrificing work were not merely -uttered within hearing of those who might hang upon the lips of the aged -Fitzjames or the bishop who had 'blasphemed' the school; they passed, with -edition after edition of the 'Copia' of Erasmus, into the hands of every -scholar in Europe, until they were known and read of all men![416] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Colet charged with heresy by his bishop.] - -But Bishop Fitzjames, whose unabating zeal against heretics had become -the ruling passion of his old age, no longer able to control his hatred of -the Dean, associated with himself two other bishops of like opinion and -spirit in the ignoble work of making trouble for Colet. They resorted to -their usual weapon--_persecution_. They exhibited to the Archbishop of -Canterbury articles against Colet extracted from his sermons. Their first -charge was that he had preached that images ought not to be worshipped. -The second charge was that he had denied that Christ, when He commanded -Peter the third time to 'feed his lambs,' made any allusion to the -application of episcopal revenues in hospitality or anything else, seeing -that Peter was a poor man, and had no episcopal revenues at all. The third -charge was, that in speaking once from his pulpit of those who were -accustomed to _read_ their sermons, he meant to give a side-hit at the -Bishop of London, who, on account of his old age, was in the habit of -reading his sermons.[417] - -But the Archbishop, thoroughly appreciating as he did the high qualities -of the Dean, became his protector and advocate, instead of his judge. -Colet himself, says Erasmus, did not deign to make any reply to these -foolish charges, and others 'more foolish still.'[418] And the Archbishop, -therefore, without hearing any reply, indignantly rejected them. - -[Sidenote: Proceedings quashed by Warham.] - -What the charges '_more foolish still_' may have been Erasmus does not -record. But Tyndale mentions, as a well known fact, that 'the Bishop of -London would have made Dean Colet of Paules a heretic for _translating the -Paternoster in English_, had not the [Arch]bishop of Canterbury helped -the Dean.'[419] Colet's English translation or paraphrase of the -Paternoster still remains to show that he was open to the charge.[420] But -for once, at least, the persecutor was robbed of his prey! - - * * * * * - -For a while, indeed, Colet's voice had been silenced; but now Erasmus was -able to congratulate his friend on his return to his post of duty at St. -Paul's. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus to Colet.] - -'I was delighted to hear from you' [he wrote from Cambridge], 'and have to -congratulate you that you have returned to your most sacred and useful -work of preaching. I fancy even this little interruption will be overruled -for good, for your people will listen to your voice all the more eagerly -for having been deprived of it for a while. May Jesus, _Optimus Maximus_, -keep you in safety!'[421] - - -III. MORE IN TROUBLE AGAIN (1512). - -In closing this chapter, it may perhaps be remarked that little has been -heard of More during these the first years of his return to public life. - -[Sidenote: More engrossed in business.] - -[Sidenote: More writes his history of Richard III.] - -The fact is, that he had been too busy to write many letters even to -Erasmus. He had been rapidly drawn into the vortex of public business. His -judicial office of undersheriff of London had required his close attention -every Thursday. His private practice at the bar had also in the meantime -rapidly increased, and drawn largely on his time. When Erasmus wrote to -know what he was doing, and why he did not write, the answer was that More -was constantly closeted with the Lord Chancellor, engaged in 'grave -business,'[422] and would write if he could. What leisure he could snatch -from these public duties he would seem to have been devoting to his -'History of Richard III.'[423] the materials for which he probably -obtained through his former connection with Cardinal Morton. - -[Sidenote: Death of his wife.] - -And were we to lift the veil from his domestic life, we should find the -dark shadow of sorrow cast upon his bright home in Bucklersbury. But a few -short months ago, such was the air of happiness about that household, that -Ammonius, writing as he often did to Erasmus, to tell him all the news, -whilst betraying, by the endearing epithets he used, his fascination for -the loveliness of More's own gentle nature, had spoken also of his 'most -good-natured wife,' and of the 'children and whole family' as 'charmingly -well.'[424] - -[Sidenote: His four children.] - -Now four motherless children nestle round their widowed father's -knee.[425] Margaret, the eldest daughter--the child of six years -old--henceforth it will be _her_ lot to fill her lost mother's place in -her father's heart, and to be a mother to the little ones. And she too is -not unknown to fame. It was she - - ... 'who clasped in her last trance - Her murdered father's head.'... - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - - -I. COLET PREACHES AGAINST THE CONTINENTAL WARS--THE FIRST CAMPAIGN -(1512-13). - -If Colet returned to his pulpit after a narrow escape of being burned for -heresy, it was to continue to do his duty, and not to preach in future -only such sermons as might escape the censure of his bishop. His honesty -and boldness were soon again put to the test. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Continental wars.] - -It was in the summer of 1512 that Henry VIII. for the first time mingled -the blood of English soldiers in those Continental wars which now for some -years became the absorbing object of attention. - -European rulers had not yet accepted the modern notion of territorial -sovereignty. Instead of looking upon themselves as the rulers of nations, -living within the settled boundaries of their respective countries, they -still thirsted for war and conquest, and dreamed of universal dominion. To -how great an extent this was so, a glance at the ambitious schemes of the -chief rulers of Europe at this period will show. - -How Pope Julius II. was striving to add temporal to spiritual sovereignty, -and desired to be the 'lord and master of the game of the world,' has been -already noticed in mentioning how it called forth the satire of Erasmus, -in his 'Praise of Folly.' This warlike Pope was still fighting in his old -age. Side by side with Pope Julius was Cæsar Maximilian, Archduke of -Austria, King of the Romans, Emperor of Germany, &c.--fit representative -of the ambitious House of Hapsburg! Not contented with all these titles -and dominions, Maximilian was intriguing to secure by marriages the -restoration of Hungary and Bohemia, and the annexation of the Netherlands, -Franche-Comté, and Artois, as well as of Castile and Arragon, to the -titles and possessions of his royal house. And what he could not secure by -marriages he was trying to secure by arms. Had his success equalled his -lust of dominion, east and west would have been united in the one 'Holy -Empire' of which he dreamed, independent even of Papal interference, and -hereditary for ever in the House of Hapsburg. Then there was Louis XII., -the 'Most Christian' King of France, laying claim to a great part of -Italy, pushing his influence and power so far as to strike terror into the -minds of other princes; assuming to himself the rank of the first prince -in Christendom; his chief minister aspiring to succeed Julius II. in the -Papal chair; his son Francis ready to become a candidate for the Empire on -the death of Maximilian. And, lastly, there was Henry VIII. of England, -eager to win his spurs, and to achieve military renown at the first -opportunity; reviving old obsolete claims on the crown of France; ready to -offer himself as a candidate for the Empire when it became vacant, and to -plot to secure the election of Wolsey to the Papal chair! Throw all these -rival claims and objects of ambition into a wild medley, consider to what -plots and counterplots, leagues and breaches of them, all this vast -entanglement of interests and ambitions must give rise, and some faint -idea may be gained of the state of European politics. - -[Sidenote: First English expedition.] - -Already in December 1511, a Holy Alliance had been formed between Pope -Julius, Maximilian, Ferdinand, and Henry VIII., to arrest the conquests -and humble the ambition of Louis XII. How the clergy had been induced to -tax themselves in support of this holy enterprise has already been seen. -Parliament also had granted a subsidy of two fifteenths and tenths, and -had made some needful provision for the approaching war. Everything was -ready, and in the summer of 1512 the first English expedition sailed. - -[Sidenote: Its complete failure.] - -Ferdinand persuaded Henry VIII. to aid him in attacking Guienne, and, all -unused to the stratagems of war, he fell into the snare. While his -father-in-law was playing his selfish game, and reducing the kingdom of -Navarre, Henry's fleet and soldiers were left to play their part alone. -The whole expedition, owing to delays and gross mismanagement, wofully -miscarried. There were symptoms of mutiny and desertion; and at length the -English army returned home utterly demoralised, and in the teeth of their -commands. The English flag was disgraced in the eyes of Europe. French -wits wrote biting satires 'De Anglorum e Galliis Fugâ,'[426] and in bitter -disappointment Henry VIII., to avoid further disgrace, was obliged to hush -up the affair, allowing the disbanded soldiers to return to their homes -without further inquiry.[427] It was in vain that More replied to the -French wits with epigram for epigram, correcting their exaggerated satire, -and turning the tables upon their own nation.[428] He laid the foundation -of a controversy by which he was annoyed in after-years,[429] and did -little at the time to remove the general feeling of national disgrace -which resulted from this first trial of Henry VIII. at the game of war. - -[Sidenote: Colet preaches against the war.] - -Meanwhile Colet, ever prone to speak out plainly what he thought, had -publicly from his pulpit expressed his strong condemnation of the war. And -the old Bishop of London, ever lying in wait, like the persecuting -Pharisees of old, to find an occasion of evil against him, eagerly made -use of this pretext to renew the attempt to get him into trouble. He had -failed to bring down upon the Dean the terrors of ecclesiastical -authority, but it would answer his purpose as well if he could provoke -against him royal displeasure. He therefore informed the King, now eagerly -bent upon his Continental wars, that Colet had condemned them; that he had -publicly preached, in a sermon, that an unjust peace was 'to be preferred -before the justest war.' While the Bishop was thus whispering evil against -him in the royal ear, others of his party were zealously preaching up the -war, and launching out invectives against Colet and '_the poets_,' as they -designated those who were suspected of preferring classical Latin and -Greek to the '_blotterature_,' as Colet called it, of the monks. By these -means they appear to have hoped to bring Colet into disgrace, and -themselves into favour, with the King. - -But it would seem that they watched and waited in vain for any visible -sign of success. The King appeared strangely indifferent alike to the -treasonable preaching of the Dean and to their own effervescent loyalty. - -[Sidenote: The King supports Colet against his enemies.] - -Unknown to them, the King sent for Colet, and privately encouraged him to -go on boldly reforming by his teaching the corrupt morals of the age, and -by no means to hide his light in times so dark. He knew full well, he -said, what these bishops were plotting against him, and also what good -service he had done to the British nation both by example and teaching. -And he ended by saying, that he would put such a check upon the attempts -of these men, as would make it clear to others that if any one chose to -meddle with Colet it would not be with impunity! - -Upon this Colet thanked the King for his kind intentions, but, as to what -he proposed further, beseeched him to forbear. 'He had no wish,' he said, -'that any one should be the worse on his account; he had rather resign his -preferment than it should come to that.'[430] - - -II. COLET'S SERMON TO HENRY VIII. (1513). - -[Sidenote: Preparations for another campaign.] - -The spring of 1513 was spent by Henry VIII. in energetic preparations for -another campaign, in which he hoped to retrieve the lost credit of his -arms. The young King, in spite of his regard for better counsellors, was -intent upon warlike achievements. His first failure had made him the more -eager to rush into the combat again. Wolsey, the only man amongst the war -party whose energy and tact were equal to the emergency, found in this -turn of affairs the stepping-stone to his own ambitious fortune. The -preparations for the next campaign were entrusted to his hands. - -Rumours were heard that the French would be likely to invade England if -Henry VIII. long delayed his invasion of France. To meet this contingency, -the sheriffs of Somerset and Dorset had been already ordered to issue -proclamations, that every man between sixty and sixteen should be ready in -arms[431] to defend his country. Ever and anon came tidings that the -French navy was moving restlessly about on the opposite shore,[432] in -readiness for some unknown enterprise. Diplomatists were meanwhile weaving -their wily webs of diplomacy, deceiving and being deceived. Even between -the parties to the League there were constant breaches of confidence and -double-dealing. The entangled meshes of international policy were thrown -into still greater confusion, in February, by the death of Julius II., the -head of the Holy Alliance. The new Pope might be a Frenchman, instead of -the leader of the league against France, for anything men knew. The moment -was auspicious for the attempt to bring about a peace. But Henry VIII. was -bent upon war. He urged on the equipment of the fleet, and was impatient -of delay. On March 17 he conferred upon Sir Edward Howard the -high-sounding title of 'Admiral of England, Wales, Ireland, Normandy, -Gascony, and Aquitaine.'[433] On Saturday, the 21st, he went down to -Plymouth to inspect the fleet in person, and left orders to the Admiral to -put to sea. He had set his heart upon his fleet, and in parting from -Howard commanded him to send him word 'how every ship did sail.'[434] -With his royal head thus full of his ships and sailors, and eagerly -waiting for tidings of the result of their first trial-trip in the -Channel, Henry VIII. entered upon the solemnities of Holy Passion Week. - -[Sidenote: Good Friday.] - -On Good Friday, the 27th, the King attended Divine service in the Chapel -Royal. Dean Colet was the preacher for the day. It must have been -especially difficult and even painful for Colet, after the kindness shown -to him so recently by the King, again to express in the royal presence his -strong condemnation of the warlike policy upon which Henry VIII. had -entered in the previous year, and in the pursuit of which he was now so -eagerly preparing for a second campaign. The King too, coming directly -from his fleet full of expectation, was not likely to be in a mood to be -thwarted by a preacher. But Colet was firm in his purpose, and as, when -called to preach before Convocation, he had chosen his text expressly for -the bishops, so now in the royal presence he preached his sermon to the -King. - -[Sidenote: Colet's sermon to Henry VIII.] - -'He preached wonderfully' (says Erasmus) 'on the _victory of Christ_, -exhorting all Christians to fight and conquer under the banner of their -King. He showed that when wicked men, out of hatred and ambition, fought -with and destroyed one another, they fought under the banner, not of -Christ, but of the devil. He showed, further, how hard a thing it is to -die a Christian death [on the field of battle]; how few undertake a war -except from hatred or ambition; how hardly possible it is for those who -really have that brotherly love without which "no one can see the Lord" -to thrust their sword into their brother's blood; and he urged, in -conclusion, that instead of imitating the example of Cæsars and -Alexanders, the Christian ought rather to follow the example of Christ his -Prince.'[435] - -[Sidenote: Renewed attempts to get Colet into trouble.] - -[Sidenote: The King again supports Colet.] - -So earnestly had Colet preached, and with such telling and pointed -allusion to the events of the day, that the King was not a little afraid -that the sermon might damp the zeal of his newly enlisted soldiers. -Thereupon, like birds of evil omen, the enemies of Colet hovered round him -as though he were an owl, hoping that at length the royal anger might be -stirred against him. The King sent for Colet. He came at the royal -command. He dined at the Franciscan monastery adjoining the Palace at -Greenwich. When the King knew he was there, he went out into the monastery -garden to meet him, dismissing all his attendants. And when the two were -quite alone, he bade Colet to cover his head and be at ease with him. 'I -did not call you here, Dean,' he said to him, 'to interrupt your holy -labours, for of these I altogether approve, but to unburden my conscience -of some scruples, that by your advice I may be able more fully to do my -duty.' They talked together nearly an hour and a half; Colet's enemies, -meanwhile, impatiently waiting in the court, scarcely able to contain -their fury, chuckling over the jeopardy in which they thought Colet at -last stood with the King. As it was, the King approved and agreed with -Colet in everything he said. But he was glad to find that Colet had not -intended to declare absolutely that there could be no just war, no doubt -persuading himself that his own was one of the very few just ones. The -conversation ended in his expressing a wish that Colet would some time or -other explain himself more clearly, lest the raw soldiers should go away -with a mistaken notion, and think that he had really said that _no_ war is -lawful to Christians.[436] 'And thus' (continues Erasmus) 'Colet, by his -singular discretion and moderation, not only satisfied the mind of the -King, but even rose in his favour.' When he returned to the palace at -parting, the King graciously drank to his health, embracing him most -warmly, and, promising all the favours which it was in the power of a most -loving prince to grant, dismissed him. Colet was no sooner gone than the -courtiers flocked again round the King, to know the result of his -conference in the convent garden. Whereupon the King replied, in the -hearing of all: 'Let every one have his own doctor, and let every one -favour his own; this man is the doctor for me.' Upon this the hungry -wolves departed without their bone, and thereafter no one ever dared to -meddle with Colet. This is Erasmus's version[437] of an incident which, -especially when placed in its proper historical setting, may be looked -upon as a jewel in the crown both of the young King and of his upright -subject. It has been reported that Colet complied with the King's wish, -and preached another sermon in favour of the war against France, of the -necessity and justice of which, as strictly _defensive_, the King had -convinced him. But with reference to this second sermon, if ever it was -preached, Erasmus is silent.[438] - - -III. THE SECOND CAMPAIGN OF HENRY VIII. (1513). - -While the King was trying to pacify his conscience, and allay the scruples -raised in his mind by Colet's preaching, his ambassador (West) was -listening to a Good Friday sermon at the Chapel Royal of Scotland, and -using the occasion to urge upon the Queen to use her influence with the -Scotch king in favour of peace with England. There were rumours that the -Scotch king was playing into the hands of the King of France--that he was -going to send a 'great ship' to aid him in his wars. A legacy happened to -be due from England to the Queen of Scotland, and West was instructed to -threaten to withhold payment unless James would promise to keep the peace -with England. James gave shuffling and unsatisfactory replies. There were -troubles ahead in that quarter![439] - -[Sidenote: Leo X. in favour of peace.] - -The news sent by West from Scotland must have raised some forebodings in -Henry's mind. The chance of finding one enemy behind him, if he attempted -to invade France, in itself was not encouraging. As to any scruples raised -by Colet's preaching, his head was probably far too full of the -approaching campaign, and his heart too earnestly set upon the success of -his fleet, to admit of his impartially considering the right and the wrong -of the war in which he was already involved, or the evils it would bring -upon his country. Meanwhile, probably only a few days after Colet's -sermon was preached, the anxiously expected news reached England of the -election to the Papal chair of Cardinal de' Medici, an acquaintance of -Erasmus, and the fellow-student of his friend Linacre, under the title of -Leo X. The letter which conveyed the news to Henry VIII. spoke of the -'gentleness, innocence, and virtue' of the new Pope, and his anxiety for a -'_universal peace_.' He had declared that he would abide by the League, -but the writer expressed his opinion that 'he would not be fond of war -like Julius--that he would favour literature and the arts, and employ -himself in building [St. Peter's], but not enter upon any war except from -compulsion, unless it might be against the infidels.'[440] - -[Sidenote: Henry VIII. will not listen to it.] - -Henry--just then receiving reports from his fleet, dating to April 5,[441] -full of eager expectation and confidence on the part of the Admiral, 'that -an engagement with the French might be looked for in five or six days, and -that by the aid of God and of St. George they hoped to have a fair day -with them'--was not at all in a humour to hear of a general peace. So on -April 12, all good advice of Colet's forgotten, he wrote to his minister -at Rome,[442] instructing him to express his joy that Leo X. had adhered -to the Holy League, and to state that he (Henry) could not think of -entertaining any propositions for peace, considering the magnitude and -vast expense of his preparations, at all events without the consent of all -parties. A fleet of 12,000 soldiers, the minister was to say, was already -at sea, and Henry was preparing to invade France himself with 40,000 -more, and powerful artillery. It would be most expedient to cripple the -power of the King of France _now_, and prevent his ambition for the -future.[443] - -This letter was written on April 12. On the 17th Sir Arthur Plantagenet -came with letters from the fleet, under leave of absence. He could ill be -spared, wrote the Admiral; but his ship had struck upon a rock, and in -great peril he had made a vow that, if it pleased God to deliver him, he -would not eat flesh or fish till he had made a pilgrimage to the shrine of -Our Lady of Walsingham;[444] and accordingly thither he was bound. - -[Sidenote: Admiral Howard lost.] - -This was only the beginning of troubles. On April 25, Admiral Howard, with -a personal bravery and daring which immortalised his name, boarded the -ship of the French admiral with sixteen companions, but, in the struggle -which ensued, was thrust overboard with 'morris pykes' and lost. The -English fleet, disheartened by the loss of its brave admiral, returned to -Plymouth without proper orders, and without having inflicted any -considerable blow upon the French fleet.[445] - -The King, just then preparing to cross over to Calais with his main army, -to invade France in person, hastily appointed Thomas Lord Howard admiral -in the place of his brother; and in letters to the captains, gave vent to -his royal displeasure at their return to Plymouth without his -orders--letters which disheartened still more an army which the new -Admiral found 'very badly ordered, more than half on land, and a great -number stolen away.'[446] - -[Sidenote: Henry VIII. invades France in person.] - -But still Henry was determined to press on with his enterprise. He wrote -to his ambassadors to urge the King of Spain at once to invade Guienne or -Gascony, as the English navy, though amounting to 10,000 men, was not -sufficient to meet the combined forces of the enemy without Ferdinand's -aid. Yet for all this, they were to say, 'he would not forbear the -invasion of France.'[447] He was not even deterred by receipt of -intelligence, before he set sail, that his treacherous father-in-law had -already forsaken him, and made a year's truce with France.[448] On June 30 -the watchers on the walls of Calais beheld the King, with 'such a fleet as -Neptune never saw before,' approaching amid 'great firing of guns from the -ships and towers,' to commence in good earnest his invasion of France. - -Little as did the 'Oxford Reformers' sympathise with the war, they were no -indifferent spectators. Even Erasmus for the time could not but share the -feelings of an Englishman, though he had many friends in France, and hated -the war. From the list of the ships of the navy, in the handwriting of -Wolsey, it appears that one or more of them had been christened -'_Erasmus_.'[449] Some of his intimate friends followed the army in the -King's retinue. Ammonius, the King's Latin secretary, was one of them; and -Erasmus was kept informed by his letters of what was going on, and amused -by his quaint sketches of camp-life.[450] He was even ready himself with -an epigram upon the flight of the French after the Battle (or rather the -no-battle) of Spurs. He could not resist the temptation to turn the tables -upon the French poets, who had indulged their vein of satire at the -expense of the English during the last year's campaign, and had thereby so -nettled the spirit of More and his friends. To the '_De Anglorum e Galliis -fugâ_' of the French poet, Erasmus was now ready with a still more biting -satire, '_In fugam Gallorum insequentibus Anglis_.'[451] More also wrote -an epigram, in which he contrasted the bloody resistance of the Nervii to -Cæsar with the feeble opposition offered by their modern French successors -to Henry VIII.[452] - -[Sidenote: Success of the campaign.] - -It would be out of place here to follow the details of the campaign. -Suffice it to say that, like the first game of a child, it was carelessly -and blunderingly played,--not, however, without buoyant spirit, and that -air of exaggerated grandeur which betokens the inexperienced hand. The -towns of Terouenne and Tournay were indeed taken, and that without much -bloodshed; but they were taken under the selfish advice of Maximilian, who -throughout never lost sight of his own interest, and was pleased enough to -use the lavish purse and the ardent ambition of his young ally to his own -advantage. The power of France was not crippled by the taking of these -unimportant towns. The whole enterprise was confined within the narrow -limits of so remote a corner of France that her soil could hardly be -regarded as really invaded. So small a portion of the French army was -engaged in opposing it, that it was scarcely a war with Louis XII. Henry -VIII. himself spent more time in tournaments and brilliant pageants than -in actual fighting. He was emphatically playing at the game of war. - -[Sidenote: Scotch invasion of England.] - -[Sidenote: Battle of Flodden.] - -But while Henry was thus engaged in France, King James of Scotland, in -spite of treaties and promises, treacherously took opportunity to cross -the borders, and recklessly to invade England with a large but ill-trained -army. Queen Katherine, whom Henry had appointed Regent during his absence, -sharing his love of chivalrous enterprise, zealously mustered what forces -were left in England; and thus it came about, that just as Henry was -entering Tournay, the news arrived of the Battle of Flodden. From 500 to -1,000 English and about 10,000 Scotch, it was reported, lay dead upon that -bloody field. The King of Scots fell near his banner, and at his side -Scotch bishops, lords, and noblemen, amongst whom was the friend and pupil -of Erasmus--the young Archbishop of St. Andrew's. Queen Katherine wrote, -with a thankful heart, to her royal husband, giving an account of the -great victory, and informing him that she was about to go on pilgrimage to -Our Lady of Walsingham, in performance of past promises, and to pray for -his return. - -Before the end of October the King, finding nothing better to do, amid -great show of triumph returned to England. Thus ended this second -campaign, with just sufficient success to induce the King and Wolsey to -prepare for a third.[453] - - -IV. ERASMUS VISITS THE SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM (1513). - -While Sir Arthur Plantagenet and Queen Katherine were going on pilgrimage -to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, to give thanks, the one for the -defeat of the Scots, and the other for deliverance from shipwreck, Erasmus -took it into his head to go on pilgrimage also. He had told his friend -Ammonius, in May, that he meant to visit the far-famed shrine to pray for -the success of the Holy League, and to hang up a _Greek Ode_ as a votive -offering.[454] He appears to have made the pilgrimage from Cambridge in -the autumn of 1513, accompanied by his young friend Robert Aldridge,[455] -afterwards Bishop of Carlisle. It was probably this visit which Erasmus so -graphically described many years afterwards in his Colloquy of the -'_Religious Pilgrimage_.' - -[Sidenote: Erasmus visits the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.] - -The College of Canons, under their Sub-prior, maintained chiefly by the -offerings left by pilgrims upon the Virgin's altar; the Priory Church, a -relic of which still stands to attest its architectural beauty; the small -unfinished chapel of the Virgin herself, the sea-winds whistling through -its unglazed windows; the inner windowless wooden chapel, with its two -doors for pilgrims' ingress and egress; the Virgin's shrine, rich in -jewels, gold and silver ornaments, lit up by burning tapers; the dim -religious light and scented air; the Canon at the altar, with jealous eye -watching each pilgrim and his gift, and keeping guard against sacrilegious -theft; the little wicket in the gateway through the outer wall, so small -that a man must stoop low to pass through it, and yet through which, by -the Virgin's aid, an armed knight on horseback once escaped from his -pursuer; the plate of copper, on which the knight's figure was engraved in -ancient costume with a beard like a goat, and his clothes fitting close to -his body, with scarcely so much as a wrinkle in them; the little chapel -towards the east, containing the middle joint of St. Peter's finger, so -large, the pilgrims thought, that Peter must needs have been a very lusty -man; the house hard by, which it was said was ages ago brought suddenly, -one winter time, when all things were covered with snow, from a place a -great way off (though to the eyes of Erasmus its thatch, timber, walls, -and everything about it, seemed of modern date); the concreted milk of the -Holy Virgin, which looked like beaten chalk tempered with the white of an -egg; the bold request of Erasmus, to be informed what evidence there was -of its really being the milk of the Virgin; the contracted brows of the -verger, as he referred them to the 'authentic record' of its pedigree, -hung up high against the wall,--all this is described with so much of the -graphic detail of an eyewitness, that one feels, in reading the -'Colloquy,' that it must record the writer's vivid recollections of his -own experience. - -[Sidenote: The Greek Ode of Erasmus.] - -The concluding incident of the 'Colloquy,' whether referring to a future -visit, or only an imaginary one, evidently alludes to the Greek Ode -mentioned in the letter to Ammonius. It tells how that, before they left -the place, the Sub-prior, with some hesitation, modestly ventured to ask -whether his present visitor was the same man who, about two years before, -had hung up a votive tablet inscribed in _Hebrew_ letters: for Erasmus -remarks, they call everything Hebrew which they cannot understand. The -Sub-prior is then made to relate what great pains had been taken to read -the Greek verses; what wiping of glasses; how one wise man thought they -were written in Arabic letters, and another in altogether fictitious ones; -how at length one had been able to make out the title, which was Latin -written in Roman capitals--the verses themselves being in Greek, and -written in Greek capitals. In reward for the explanation and translation -of the Ode, the 'Colloquy' goes on to relate that the Sub-prior pulled out -of his bag, and presented to his visitors a piece of wood cut from a beam -on which the Virgin mother had been seen to rest. - -Whether this concluding incident related in the 'Colloquy' was a real -occurrence or not, it, at all events, confirms the testimony of the -'Colloquy' itself to the fact that Erasmus made this pilgrimage in a -satirical and unbelieving mood, and that his votive ode was rather a joke -played upon the ignorant canons, than any proof that he himself was a -worshipper of the Virgin, or a believer in the efficacy of pilgrimages to -her shrine. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - - -I. ERASMUS LEAVES CAMBRIDGE, AND MEDITATES LEAVING ENGLAND (1513-14). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus at Cambridge.] - -[Sidenote: His real work.] - -[Sidenote: The New Testament and St. Jerome.] - -During the autumn of 1513 Erasmus made up his mind to leave Cambridge. He -had come to England on the accession of Henry VIII. with full purpose to -make it his permanent home.[456] That his friends would try to bring this -about had been his last entreaty on leaving England for his visit to -Italy. They had done their best for him. They had found all who cared for -the advance of learning anxious to secure the residence of so great a -scholar in their own country. The promises were indeed vague, but there -were plenty of them, and altogether the chances of a fair maintenance for -Erasmus had appeared to be good. He had settled at Cambridge intending to -earn his living by teaching Greek to the students; expecting, from them -and from the University, fees and a stipend sufficient to enable him to -pay his way. But the drudgery of teaching Greek was by no means the work -upon which Erasmus had set his heart. It was rather, like St. Paul's -tent-making, the price he had to pay for that leisure which he was bent -upon devoting to his real work. This work was his fellow-work with Colet. -Apart from the aid he was able to give to his friend, by taking up the -cudgels for him at the University, and finding him teachers and -schoolbooks for his school--for all this was done by-the-bye--he was -labouring to make his own proper contribution towards the object to which -both were devoting their all. He was labouring hard to produce an edition -of the New Testament in the original Greek, with a new and free -translation of his own, and simultaneously with this a corrected edition -of the works of St. Jerome--the latter in itself an undertaking of -enormous labour. - -In letters written from Cambridge during the years 1511-1513, we catch -stray glimpses of the progress of these great works. He writes to Colet, -in August 1511, that 'he is about attacking St. Paul,'[457] and in July -1512, that he has finished collating the New Testament, and is attacking -St. Jerome.[458] - -To Ammonius, in the camp, during the French campaign of 1513, he writes -that he is working with almost superhuman zeal at the correction of the -text of St. Jerome; and shortly after the close of the campaign against -France, he tells his friend that 'he himself has been waging no less -fierce a warfare with the blunders of Jerome.'[459] And now, with his -editions of the New Testament and Jerome nearly ready for the press, why -should he waste any further time at Cambridge? He had complained from the -first that he could get nothing out of the students.[460] All these years -he had been, in spite of all his efforts, and notwithstanding an annual -stipend secured upon a living in Kent, through the kindness of Warham, to -a great extent dependent on his friends, obliged most unwillingly to beg, -till he had become thoroughly ashamed of begging.[461] And now this autumn -of 1513 had brought matters to a crisis. At Michaelmas the University had -agreed to pay him thirty nobles,[462] and, on September 1, they had begged -the assistance of Lord Mountjoy in the payment of this 'enormous stipend' -for their Greek professor, adding, by way of pressing the urgency of their -claim, that they must otherwise soon lose him.[463] - -On November 28, Erasmus wrote to Ammonius that he had for some months -lived like a cockle shut up in his shell, humming over his books. -Cambridge, he said, was deserted because of the plague; and even when all -the men were there, there was no large company. The expense was -intolerable, the profits not a brass farthing. The last five months had, -he said, cost him sixty nobles, but he had never received more than one -from his audience. He was going to throw out his sheet-anchor this winter. -If successful he would make his nest, if not he would flit.[464] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus leaves Cambridge.] - -The result was that in the winter of 1513-14 Erasmus finally left -Cambridge. The disbanding of disaffected and demoralised soldiers had so -increased the number of robbers on the public roads,[465] that travelling -in the winter months was considered dangerous; but Erasmus was anxious to -proceed with the publication of his two great works. He was in London by -February, 1514. - -He found Parliament sitting, and the war party having all their own way. -He found the compliant Commons supporting by lavish grants of subsidies -Henry VIII.'s ambition 'to recover the realm of France, his very true -patrimony and inheritance, and to reduce the same to his obedience,'[466] -and carried away by the fulsome speeches of courtiers who drew a -triumphant contrast between the setting fortunes and growing infirmities -of the French king and the prospects of Henry, who, 'like the rising sun, -was growing brighter and stronger every day.'[467] While tax-collectors -were pressing for the arrears of half a dozen previous subsidies, and -Parliament was granting new ones, the liberality of English patrons was -likely to decline. Their heads were too full of the war, and their purses -too empty, to admit of their caring much at the moment about Erasmus and -his literary projects. - -[Sidenote: Invited to the court of Prince Charles.] - -No wonder, therefore, that when his friends at the Court of the -Netherlands urged his acceptance of an honorary place in the Privy Council -of Prince Charles, which would not interfere with his literary labours, -together with a pension which would furnish him with the means to carry -them on--no wonder that under these circumstances Erasmus accepted the -invitation and concluded to leave England. - -In reply to the Abbot of St. Bertin, he wrote an elegant letter,[468] -gracefully acknowledging his great kindness in wishing to restore him to -his fatherland. Not that he disliked England, or was wanting in patrons -there. The Archbishop of Canterbury, if he had been a brother or a father, -could not have been kinder to him, and by his gift he still held the -pension out of the living in Kent. But the war had suddenly diverted the -genius of England from its ordinary channels. The price of everything was -becoming dearer and dearer. The liberality of patrons was becoming less -and less. How could they do other than give sparingly with so many -war-taxes to pay? He then proceeded:-- - -[Sidenote: Letter to the Abbot of St. Bertin.] - -'Oh that God would deign to still the tempest of war! What madness is it! -The wars of Christian princes begin for the most part either out of -ambition or hatred or lust, or like diseases of the mind. Consider also by -whom they are carried on: by homicides, by outcasts, by gamblers, by -ravishers, by the most sordid mercenary troops, who care more for a little -pay than for their lives. These offscourings of mankind are to be received -into your territory and your cities that you may carry on war. Think, too, -of the crimes which are committed under pretext of war, for amid the din -of arms good laws are silent; what rapine, what sacrilege, what other -crimes of which decency forbids the mention! The demoralisation which it -causes will linger in your country for years after the war is over.... - -'It is much more glorious to found cities than to destroy them. In our -times it is the _people_ who build and improve cities, while the madness -of princes destroys them. But, you may say, princes must vindicate their -rights. Without speaking rashly of the deeds of princes, one thing is -clear, that there are some princes at least who first do what they like, -and then try to find some pretext for their deeds. And in this hurlyburly -of human affairs, in the confusion of so many leagues and treaties, who -cannot make out a title to what he wants? Meanwhile these wars are not -waged for the good of the _people_, but to settle the question, who shall -call himself their prince. - -'We ought to remember that _men_, and especially Christian men, are -_free_-men. And if for a long time they have flourished under a prince, -and now acknowledge him, what need is there that the world should be -turned upside down to make a change? If even among the heathen, -long-continued consent [of the people] makes a _prince_, much more should -it be so among Christians, with whom royalty is an _administration_, not a -_dominion_.[469]...' - -He concluded by urging the abbot to call to mind all that Christ and his -apostles said about peace, and the tolerance of evil. If he did so, surely -he would bring all his influence to bear upon Prince Charles and the -Emperor in favour of a 'Christian peace among Christian princes.'[470] - -In writing to the Prince de Vere on the same subject Erasmus had expressed -his grief that their common country had become mixed up with the wars, and -his wish that he could safely put in writing what he thought upon the -subject.[471] Whether safely or not, he had certainly now dared to speak -his mind pretty fully in the letter to the Abbot of St. Bertin. - - -II. ERASMUS AND THE PAPAL AMBASSADOR (1514). - -Erasmus had other opportunities of speaking out his mind about the war. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus dines with Ammonius and the Papal Ambassador in -disguise.] - -There was a rumour afloat that a Papal ambassador had arrived in -England--a Cardinal in disguise. It happened that Erasmus was invited to -dine with his friend Ammonius. He went as a man goes to the house of an -intimate friend, without ceremony, and expecting to dine with him alone. -He found, however, another guest at his friend's table--a man in a long -robe, his hair bound up in a net, and with a single servant attending him. -Erasmus, after saluting his friend, eyed the stranger with some curiosity. -Struck by the military sternness of the man's look, he asked of Ammonius -in Greek, 'Who is he?' He replied, also in Greek, 'A great merchant.' 'I -thought so,' said Erasmus; and caring to take no further notice of him, -they sat down to table, the stranger taking precedence. Erasmus chatted -with Ammonius as though they had been alone, and, amongst other things, -happened to ask him whether the rumour was true that an ambassador had -come from Leo X. to negotiate a peace between England and France. 'The -Pope,' he continued, 'did not take me into his councils; but if he had I -should not have advised him to propose a peace.' 'Why?' asked Ammonius. -'Because it would not be wise to talk about peace,' replied Erasmus. -'Why?' 'Because a peace cannot be negotiated all at once; and in the -meantime, while the monarchs are treating about the conditions, the -soldiers, at the very thought of peace, will be incited to far worse -projects than in war itself; whereas by a _truce_ the hands of the -soldiery maybe tied at once. I should propose a truce of three years, in -order that the terms might be arranged of a _really permanent treaty of -peace_.' Ammonius assented, and said that he thought this was what the -ambassador was trying to do. 'Is he a Cardinal?' asked Erasmus. 'What made -you think he was?' said the other. 'The Italians say so.' 'And how do they -know?' asked Ammonias, again fencing with Erasmus's question. 'Is it true -that he is a Cardinal?' repeated Erasmus by-and-bye, as though he meant to -have a straightforward answer. 'His spirit is the spirit of a Cardinal,' -evasively replied Ammonius, brought to bay by the direct question. 'It is -something,' observed Erasmus, smiling, 'to have a Cardinal's spirit!' - -The stranger all this time had remained silent, drinking in this -conversation between the two friends. - -At last he made an observation or two in Italian, mixing in a Latin word -now and then, as an intelligent merchant might be expected to do. Seeing -that Erasmus took no notice of what he said, he turned round, and in Latin -observed, 'I wonder you should care to live in this barbarous nation, -unless you choose rather to be all _alone_ here than _first_ at Rome.' - -Erasmus astonished and somewhat nettled to hear a merchant talk in this -way, with disdainful dryness replied that he was living in a country in -which there was a very great number of men distinguished for their -learning. He had rather hold the last place among these than be nowhere at -Rome. - -Ammonius, seeing the awkward turn that things were taking, and that -Erasmus in his present humour might probably, as he sometimes did, speak -his mind rather more plainly than might be desirable, interposed, and, to -prevent further perplexity, suggested that they should adjourn to the -garden.[472] - -Erasmus found out afterwards that the merchant stranger with whom he had -had this singular brush was the Pope's ambassador himself--_Cardinal -Canossa_! - - -III. PARTING INTERCOURSE BETWEEN ERASMUS AND COLET (1514). - -Meanwhile, in spite of Papal Nuncios, the preparations for the continuance -of the war proceeded as before. There were no signs of peace. The King had -had a dangerous illness, but had risen from his couch 'fierce as ever -against France.'[473] - -With heavy hearts Colet and Erasmus held on their way. The war lay like a -dark cloud on their horizon. It was throwing back their work. How it had -changed the plans of Erasmus has been shown. It had also made Colet's -position one of greater difficulty. It is true that hitherto royal favour -had protected him from the hatred of his persecutors, but the Bishop of -London and his party were more exasperated against him than ever, and who -could tell how soon the King's fickle humour might change? His love of -war was growing wilder and wilder. He was becoming intoxicated by it. And -who could tell what the young King might do if his passions ever should -rise into mastery over better feelings? Even the King's present favour, -though it had preserved Colet as yet unharmed in person, did not prevent -his being cramped and hindered in his work. Whatever he might do was sure -to be misconstrued, and to become the subject of the 'idle talk of the -malevolent.'[474] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Colet troubled by family disputes.] - -It would seem also that other clouds than that of the war cast their -shadow at this time over Colet's life. By the erection and foundation of -his school, he had reduced his income almost more than he could well -afford,[475] and accustomed, as he was, to abundant means, it was natural -that he should be harassed and annoyed by anything likely still further to -narrow his resources. He seems to have been troubled with vexed questions -of property and family dispute--most irksome of all others to a man who -was giving life and wealth away in a great work. - -Erasmus, six months previously, in July 1513, had written to Colet thus:-- - -[Sidenote: Erasmus advises Colet to give in.] - -'The end of your letter grieved me, for you write that you are more -harassed than usual by the troubles of business. I desire indeed for you -to be removed as far as possible from worldly business; not because I am -afraid lest this world, entangled though it be, should get hold of you and -claim you for its own, but because I had rather such genius, such -eloquence, such learning should be devoted wholly to Christ. What if you -should be unable to extricate yourself from it! Take care lest little by -little you become more and more deeply immersed in it. Perhaps it might be -better to _give in_, rather than to purchase victory at so great a cost. -For peace of mind is worth a great deal. And these things are the thorns -which accompany riches. In the meantime, oppose a good honest conscience -to the idle talk of the malevolent. Wrap yourself up in Christ and in him -alone, and this entangled world will disturb you less. But why should I, -like the sow, preach to Minerva; or, like the sick man, prescribe for the -doctor? Farewell, my best beloved teacher!'--_From Cambridge, July 11 -[1513]._[476] - -Six months had passed since Erasmus had thus advised his friend to _give -in_ rather than to conquer at the cost of his peace of mind, but Colet had -not yet succeeded in getting rid of his perplexities. It would almost seem -that the same old quarrel was still lingering on unhealed; for there was -now a dispute between Colet and an aged uncle of his, and the bone of -contention was a large amount of property.[477] - -[Sidenote: Colet does give in at last.] - -One day Colet took Erasmus with him by boat to dine with Archbishop Warham -at Lambeth Palace. As they rowed up the Thames, Colet sat pensively -reading in his book. At dinner, being set opposite his uncle at table, -Erasmus noticed that he was ill at ease, caring neither to talk nor to -eat. And the uncle would doubtless have remained as silent as the nephew, -had not the Archbishop drawn out the garrulousness of his old age by -cheerful conversation. After dinner the three were closeted together. -Erasmus knew not what all this meant. But, as they were rowing back to -town in the boat, Colet said, 'Erasmus, you're a happy man, and have done -me a great service;' and then he went on to tell his friend how angry he -had been with his uncle, and how he had even thought of going to law with -him, but in this state of mind, having taken a copy of the 'Enchiridion' -with him, he had read the 'rule' there given 'against anger and revenge,' -and it had done him so much good that he had held his tongue at dinner, -and with the Archbishop's kind assistance after dinner, made up matters -with his uncle.[478] - - * * * * * - -Apart from these cares and troubles, Colet's heart was naturally saddened -with the thought of so soon parting with his dearest friend, and, as he -now could feel, his ablest fellow-worker. The two were often together. -Colet sometimes would send for Erasmus to be his companion when he dined -out, or when he had to make a journey.[479] At these times Erasmus -testifies that no one could be more cheerful than Colet was. It was his -habit always to take a book with him. His conversation often turned upon -religious subjects; and though in public he was prudently reserved and -cautious in what he said, at these times to his bosom friend he most -freely spoke out his real sentiments. - -[Sidenote: Pilgrimage to Canterbury.] - -On one occasion Colet and Erasmus paid a visit together to the shrine of -St. Thomas-à-Becket. Going on pilgrimage was now the fashionable thing. -How admirals and soldiers who had narrowly escaped in the war went to the -shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham to fulfil the vows they had made whilst -their lives were in peril; how even Queen Katherine had been to invoke the -Virgin's aid upon her husband's French campaign, and to return thanks for -the victory over the Scots, has already been seen. It has also been -mentioned that Erasmus had paid a visit to Walsingham from Cambridge in a -satirical and sceptical mood, and had returned convinced of the absurdity -of the whole thing, doubting the genuineness of the relics, and ridiculing -the credulity of pilgrims. It seems that before leaving England he had a -desire to pay a similar visit to the rival shrine of St. Thomas-à-Becket. - -The same 'Colloquy' in which Erasmus describes his visit to Walsingham -enables us to picture the two friends on this occasion threading the -narrow rustic lanes of Kent on horseback, making the best of their way to -Canterbury.[480] - -[Sidenote: The shrine of St. Thomas-à-Becket.] - -As they approach the city the outline of the cathedral church rises -imposingly above all surrounding objects. Its two towers seem to stand, as -it were, bidding welcome to approaching pilgrims. The sound of its bells -rolls through the country far and wide in melodious peals. At length they -reach the city, and, armed with a letter of introduction from Archbishop -Warham, enter the spacious nave of the cathedral. This is open to the -public, and beyond its own vastness and solemn grandeur, presents little -of mark, save that they notice the gospel of Nicodemus among other books -affixed to the columns, and here and there sepulchral monuments of the -nameless dead. A vaulted passage under the steps ascending to the iron -grating of the choir, brings them into the north side of the church. Here -they are shown a plain ancient wooden altar of the Virgin, whereupon is -exhibited the point of the dagger with which St. Thomas's brain was -pierced at the time of his murder, and whose sacred rust pilgrims are -expected most devoutly to kiss. In the vault below they are next shown the -martyr's skull, covered with silver, save that the place where the dagger -pierced it is left bare for inspection: also the hair shirt and girdle -with which the saint was wont to mortify his flesh. Thence they are taken -into the choir to behold its treasures--bones without end; skulls, -jaw-bones, teeth, hands, fingers, arms--to all which the pilgrim's kiss is -duly expected. - -[Sidenote: Colet's disgust at the relics of St. Thomas-à-Becket.] - -But Colet having had about enough of this, begins to show evident tokens -of dislike to kiss any more. Whereupon the verger piously shuts up the -rest of his treasures from the gaze of the careless and profane. The high -altar and its load of costly ornaments next claim attention; after which -they pass into the vestry, where is preserved the staff of St. Thomas, -surrounded by a wonderful display of silk vestments and golden -candlesticks. Thence they are conducted up a flight of steps into a chapel -behind the high altar, and shown the face of the saint set in gold and -jewels. Here, again, Colet breaks in upon the dumb show with awkward -bluntness. He asks the guide whether St. Thomas-à-Becket when he lived was -not very kind to the poor? The verger assents. 'Nor can he have changed -his mind on this point, I should think,' continues Colet, 'unless it be -for the better?' The verger nods a sign of approbation. Whereupon Colet -submits the query whether the saint, having been so liberal to the poor -when a poor man himself, would not now rather permit them to help -themselves to some of his vast riches, in relief of their many -necessities, than let them so often be tempted into sin by their need? And -the guide still listening in silence, Colet in his earnest way proceeds -boldly to assert his own firm conviction that this most holy man would be -even delighted that, now that he is dead, these riches of his should go to -lighten the poor man's load of poverty, rather than be hoarded up here. -At which sacrilegious remark of Colet's the verger, contracting his brow -and pouting his lips, looks upon his visitors with a wondering stare out -of his gorgon eyes, and doubtless would have made short work with them -were it not that they have come with letters of introduction from the -archbishop. Erasmus throws in a few pacifying words and pieces of coin, -and the two friends pass on to inspect, under the escort now of the prior -himself, the rest of the riches and relics of the place. All again -proceeds smoothly till a chest is opened containing the rags on which the -saint, when in the flesh, was accustomed to wipe his nose and the sweat -from his brow. The prior, knowing the position and dignity of Colet, and -wishing to do him becoming honour, graciously offers him as a present of -untold value one of these rags! Colet, breaking through all rules of -politeness, takes up the rag between the tips of his fingers with a -somewhat fastidious air and a disdainful chuckle, and then lays it down -again in evident disgust. The prior, not choosing to take notice of -Colet's profanity, abruptly shuts up the chest and politely invites them -to partake of some refreshment. After which the two friends again mount -their horses, and make the best of their way back to London. - -Their way lies through a narrow lane, worn deep by traffic and weather, -and with a high bank on either side. Colet rides to the left of the road. -Presently an old mendicant monk comes out of a house[481] on Colet's side -of the way, and proceeds to sprinkle him with holy water. Though not in -the best of tempers, Colet submits to this annoyance without quite losing -it. But when the old mendicant next presents to him the upper leather of -an old shoe for his kiss, Colet abruptly demands what he wants with him. -The old man replies that the relic is a piece of St. Thomas's shoe! This -is more than Colet knows how to put up with. 'What!' he says passionately, -turning to Erasmus, 'do these fools want us to kiss the shoes of every -good man? They pick out the filthiest things they can find, and ask us to -kiss them.' Erasmus, to counteract the effect of such a remark upon the -mind of the astonished mendicant, gives him a trifle, and the pilgrims -pass on their journey, discussing the difficult question how abuses such -as they have witnessed this day are to be remedied. Colet cannot restrain -his indignant feeling, but Erasmus urges that a rough or sudden remedy -might be worse than the disease. These superstitions must, he thinks, be -tolerated until an opportunity arises of correcting them without creating -disorder. - -There can be little doubt that the graphic picture of which the above is -only a rapid sketch was drawn from actual recollections, and described the -real feelings of Erasmus and his bolder friend. - -Little did the two friends dream, as they rode back to town debating these -questions, how soon they would find a final solution. Men's faith was then -so strong and implicit in 'Our Lady of Walsingham' that kings and queens -were making pilgrimage to her shrine, and the common people, as they gazed -at night upon the 'milky way,' believed that it was the starry pathway -marked out by heaven to direct pilgrims to the place where the milk of the -Holy Virgin was preserved, and called it the '_Walsingham way_.' Little -did they dream that in another five and twenty years the canons would be -convicted of forging relics and feigning miracles, and the far-famed image -of the Virgin dragged to Chelsea by royal order to be there publicly -burned. Then pilgrims were flocking to Canterbury in crowds to adore the -relics and to admire the riches of St. Thomas's shrine. Little did they -dream that in five and twenty years St. Thomas's bones would share the -fiery fate of the image of the Virgin, and the gold and jewellery of St. -Thomas's shrine be carried off in chests upon the shoulders of eight stout -men, and cast without remorse into the royal exchequer![482] - - - - -CHAPTER X. - - -I. ERASMUS GOES TO BASLE TO PRINT HIS NEW TESTAMENT (1514). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus crosses the Channel.] - -It was on a July morning in the year 1514 that Erasmus again crossed the -Channel. The wind was fair, the sea calm, the sky bright and sunny; but -during the easy passage Erasmus had a heavy heart. He had once more left -his English friends behind him, bent upon a solitary pilgrimage to Basle, -in order that his edition of the letters of St. Jerome and his Greek New -Testament might be printed at the press of Froben the printer. But, always -unlucky on leaving British shores, he missed his baggage from the boat -when, after the bustle of embarkation, he looked to see that all was -right. To have lost his manuscripts--his Jerome, his New Testament, the -labours of so many years--to be on his way to Basle without the books for -the printing of which he was taking the long journey--this was enough to -weigh down his heart with a grief which he might well compare to that of a -parent who has lost his children. It turned out, after all, to be a trick -of the knavish sailors, who threw the traveller's luggage into another -boat in order to extort a few coins for its recovery. Erasmus, in the end, -got his luggage back again; but he might well say that, though the -passage was a good one, it was an anxious one to him.[483] - -[Sidenote: Letter from Servatius.] - -On his arrival at the castle of _Hammes_, near Calais, where he had agreed -to spend a few days with his old pupil and friend Lord Mountjoy, he found -waiting for him a letter from Servatius, prior of the monastery of Stein, -in Holland--_the_ monastery into which he had been ensnared when a youth -against his judgment by treachery and foul play. - -It was a letter doubtless written with kindly feeling, for the prior had -once been his companion; but still he evidently took it as a letter from -the prior of the convent from which he was a kind of runaway, not only -inviting, but in measure _claiming_ him back again, reproachfully -reminding him of his vows, censuring his wandering life, his throwing off -the habit of his order, and ending with a bribe--the offer of a post of -great advantage if he would return. - -Erasmus return! No, truly; that he would not! But the very naming of it -brought back to mind not only the wrongs he had suffered in his youth; the -cruelty and baseness of his guardians; his miserable experience of -monastic life; how hardly he had escaped out of it; his trials during a -chequered wandering life since; but also his entry upon fellow-work with -Colet; the noble-hearted friends with whom he had been privileged to come -in contact; the noble work in which they were now engaged together. What! -give up these to put his neck again under a yoke which had so galled him -in dark times gone by! And for what? To become perchance the -father-confessor of a nunnery! It was as though Pharaoh had sent an -embassy to Moses offering to make him a taskmaster if he would but return -into Egypt. - -No wonder that Erasmus, finding this letter from Servatius waiting for him -on his arrival at the castle of his friend, took up his pen to reply -somewhat warmly before proceeding on his journey. His letter lies as a -kind of waymark by the roadside of his wandering life, and with some -abridgment and omissions may be thus translated:-- - - _Erasmus to Servatius._ - - '... Being on a journey, I must reply in but few words, and confine - myself to matters of the most importance. - - [Sidenote: Erasmus alludes to his youth.] - - [Sidenote: Erasmus hates the monastic life.] - - 'Men hold opinions so diverse that it is impossible to please - everybody. That _my_ desire is in very deed to follow that which is - really the best, God is my witness! It was never my intention to - change my mode of life or my habit; not because I approved of either, - but lest I should give rise to scandal. _You_ know well that it was by - the pertinacity of my guardians and the persuasion of wicked men that - I was forced rather than induced to enter the monastic life. - Afterwards, when I found out how entirely unsuited it was for me, I - was restrained by the taunts of Cornelius Wertem and the bashfulness - of youth.... But it may be objected that I had a year of what is - called "probation," and was of mature age. Ridiculous! As though - anyone could require that a boy of seventeen, brought up in literary - studies, should have attained to a self-knowledge rare even in an old - man--should be able to learn in one year what many men grow grey - without learning! Be this as it may, I never liked the monastic life; - and I liked it less than ever after I had tried it; but I was ensnared - in the way I have mentioned. For all this, I am free to confess that a - man who is really a good man may live well in any kind of life. - - [Sidenote: His ill health.] - - [Sidenote: His works.] - - 'I have in the meantime tried to find that mode of living in which I - should be least prone to evil. And I think assuredly that I have found - it; I have lived with sober men, I have lived a life of literary - study, and these have drawn me away from many vices. It has been my - lot to live on terms of intimacy with men of true Christian wisdom, - and I have been bettered by their conversation.... Whenever the - thought has occurred to me of returning into your fraternity it has - always called back to my remembrance the jealousy of many, the - contempt of all; converse how cold, how trifling! how lacking in - Christian wisdom! feastings more fit for the laity! the mode of life, - as a whole, one which, if you subtract its ceremonies from it, has - nothing left that seems to me worth having. Lastly, I have called to - mind my bodily infirmities, now increased upon me by age and toil, by - reason of which I should have both failed in coming up to your mark - and also sacrificed my own life. For some years now I have been - afflicted with the stone, and its frequent recurrence obliges me to - observe great regularity in my habits. I have had some experience both - of the climate of Holland and of your particular diet and habits, and - I feel sure that, had I returned, nothing else could have come of it - but trouble to you and death to me. - - 'But it may be that you deem it a blessed thing to die at a good age - in the midst of your brotherhood. This is a notion which deceives and - deludes not you alone, but almost everybody. We think that Christ and - religion consist in certain places, and garments and modes of life, - and ceremonial observances. It is all up, we think, with a man who - changes his white habit for a black one, who substitutes a hat for a - hood, and who frequently changes his residence. I will be bold to say - that, on the other hand, great injury has arisen to Christian piety - from what we call the "religious orders," although it may be that they - were introduced with a pious motive.... Pick out the most lauded and - laudable of all of them, and you may look in vain, so far as I can - see, for any likeness to Christ, unless it be in cold and Judaical - ceremonies. It is on account of these that they think so much of - themselves; it is on account of these that they judge and condemn - others. How much more accordant to the teaching of Christ would it be - to look upon all Christendom as one home; as it were, one monastery; - to regard all men as canons and brothers; to count the sacrament of - baptism the chief religious vow; not to care where you live, if only - you live well!... And now to say a word about my works. The - "Enchiridion" I fancy you have read.... The book of "Adagia," printed - by Aldus, I don't know whether you have seen.... I have also written a - book, "De Rerum et Verborum Copiâ," which I inscribed to my friend - Colet.... For these two years past, amongst other things, I have been - correcting the text of the "Letters of Jerome."... By the collation of - Greek and ancient codices, I have also corrected the text of the - whole New Testament, and made annotations not without theological - value on more than one thousand places. I have commenced Commentaries - on St. Paul's Epistles, which I shall finish when the others are - published; for I have made up my mind to work at sacred literature to - the day of my death. Great men say that in these things I am - successful where others are not. In your mode of life I should - entirely fail. Although I have had intercourse with so many men of - learning, both here and in Italy and in France, I have never yet found - one who advised me to betake myself back again to you.... I beg that - you will not forget to commend me in your prayers to the keeping of - Christ. If ever I should come really to know that it would be doing my - duty to _Him_ to return to your brotherhood, on that very day I will - start on the journey. Farewell, my once pleasant companion, but now - reverend father. - - 'From Hammes Castle, near Calais, 9th July, 1514.'[484] - -[Sidenote: Visits the Abbot of St. Bertin.] - -[Sidenote: On his way to Basle.] - -This bold letter written, Erasmus took leave of his host, and hastened to -repay by a short embrace the kindness of another friend, the Abbot of St. -Bertin.[485] After a two days' halt to accomplish this object, he again -mounted his horse, and, followed by his servant and baggage, set his face -resolutely towards Basle: cheered in spirit by the marks of friendship -received during the past few days, and anxious to reach his journey's end -that he might set about his work. - -[Sidenote: Accident near Ghent.] - -But all haste is not good speed. As he approached the city of Ghent, while -he chanced to be turning _one_ way to speak to his servant, his horse took -fright at something lying on the road, and turned round the _other_ way, -severely straining thereby Erasmus's back. - -It was with the greatest difficulty and torture that he reached Ghent. -There he lay for some days motionless on his back at the inn, unable to -stand upright, and fearing the worst. By degrees, however, he again became -able to move, and to write an amusing account of his adventure to Lord -Mountjoy;[486] telling him that he had vowed to St. Paul that, if restored -to health, he would complete the Commentaries he was writing on the -Epistle to the Romans; and adding that he was already so much better that -he hoped ere long to proceed another stage to Antwerp. Antwerp was -accordingly reached in due course, and from thence he was able to pursue -his journey. - -At Louvain he prepared for publication a collection of stray pieces, -including amongst them the '_Institutes of a Christian Man_,' written by -Colet for his school in English prose, and turned into Latin verse by -Erasmus. In the letter prefixed to the collection[487] he spoke of Colet -as a man '_than whom, in my opinion, the kingdom of England has not -another more pious, or who more truly knows Christ_.'[488] Two editions of -this volume were published at Cologne in the course of a few months by -different typographers.[489] - -[Sidenote: At Maintz.] - -[Sidenote: Reuchlin and his friends.] - -At Maintz he appears to have halted a while, and he afterwards informed -Colet[490] that 'much was made of him there.' That it was so may be -readily conjectured, for it was at Maintz that the Court of Inquisition -had sat in the autumn of the previous year, which, had it not been for the -timely interference of the Archbishop of Maintz, would have condemned the -aged Reuchlin as a heretic. In this city Erasmus would probably fall in -with many of Reuchlin's friends, and as the matter was now pending the -decision of the authorities at Rome, they may well have tried to secure -his influence with the Pope, to whom he was personally known. Be this as -it may, from the date of his visit to Maintz, Erasmus seems not only never -to have lost an opportunity of supporting the cause of Reuchlin at Rome or -elsewhere, but also to have himself secured the friendship and regard of -Reuchlin's protector, the archbishop.[491] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus at Strasburg.] - -Leaving Maintz, he proceeded to Strasburg, where he was surrounded and -entertained by a galaxy of learned men. Another stage brought him to -Schelestadt.[492] The chief men of this ancient town, having heard of his -approach, sent him a present of wines, requested his company to dinner on -the following day, and offered him the escort of one of their number for -the remainder of his journey. Erasmus declined to be further detained, but -gladly accepted the escort of _John Sapidus_. - -After having been thus lionised at each stage of the journey, and to -prevent a similar annoyance, on his arrival at Basle, Erasmus requested -his new companion to conceal his name, and if possible to introduce him to -a few choice friends before his arrival was known. Sapidus complied with -this request. He had no difficulty in making his choice. - -[Sidenote: Arrives at Basle incognito.] - -[Sidenote: Circle of learned men at Basle.] - -[Sidenote: Amerbach.] - -[Sidenote: His three sons.] - -[Sidenote: Froben.] - -[Sidenote: Beatus Rhenanus.] - -[Sidenote: Lystrius.] - -Round the printing establishment of Froben, the printer had gathered a -little group of learned and devoted men, whose names had made Basle famous -as one of the centres of reviving learning. There was a university at -Basle, but it was not this which had attracted the little knot of students -to the city. The patriarch of the group was _Johann Amerbach_. He was now -an old man. More than thirty years had passed since he had first set up -his printing-press at Basle, and during these years he had devoted his -ample wealth and active intellect to the reproduction in type of the works -of the early Church Fathers. The works of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine -had already issued from his press at vast cost of labour, time, and -wealth. To publish St. Jerome's works before he died, or at least to see -the work in hand, was now the aged patriarch's ambition. Many years ago he -had imported Froben, that he might secure an able successor in the -printing department. His own three sons, also, he had educated in Latin, -Greek, and Hebrew, so as to qualify them thoroughly for the work he -wished them to continue after he was gone. And the three brothers Amerbach -did not belie their father's hopes. They had inherited a double portion of -his spirit.[493] Froben, too, had caught the old printer's mantle, and -worked like him, for love, and not for gain.[494] Others had gathered -round so bright a nucleus. There was Beatus Rhenanus, a young scholar of -great ability and wealth, whose gentle loving nature endeared him to his -intimate companions. He, too, had caught the spirit of reviving learning, -and thought it not beneath his dignity to undertake the duties of -corrector of the press in Froben's printing-office.[495] Gerard Lystrius, -a youth brought up to the medical profession, with no mean knowledge both -of Greek and Hebrew, had also thrown in his lot with them.[496] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus introduced incognito to Froben and his friends.] - -Such was the little circle of choice friends into which Sapidus, without -betraying who he was, introduced the stranger who had just arrived in -Basle, who, addressing himself at once to Froben, presented letters from -Erasmus, with whom he said that he was most closely intimate, and from -whom he had the fullest commission to treat with reference to the printing -of his works, so that Froben might regard whatever arrangement he might -make with him as though it had been made with Erasmus himself. Finding -still that he was undiscovered, and wishing to slide easily from under his -_incognito_, he soon added drily that Erasmus and he were 'so alike that -to see one was to have seen the other!' Froben then, to his great -amusement, discovered who the stranger was. He was received with open -arms. His bills at the inn were forthwith paid, and himself, servant, -horses, and baggage transferred to the home of Froben's father-in-law, -there to enjoy the luxuries of private hospitality. - -When it was known in the city that Erasmus had arrived he was besieged by -doctors and deans, rectors of the University, poets-laureate, invitations -to dine, and every kind of attention which the men of Basle could give to -so illustrious a stranger. - -But Erasmus had come back to Basle not to be lionised, but to push on with -his work. He was gratified; and, indeed, he told his friends, almost put -to the blush by the honours with which he had been received; but, finding -their constant attentions to interfere greatly with his daily labours at -Froben's office, he was obliged to request that he might be left to -himself.[497] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus at work in Froben's printing office.] - -At Froben's office he found everything prepared to his hand. The train was -already laid for the publication of St. Jerome. Beatus Rhenanus and the -three brothers Amerbach were ready to throw themselves heart and soul into -the work. The latter undertook to share the labour of collating and -transcribing portions which Erasmus had not yet completed, and so the -ponderous craft got fairly under way. By the end of August, he was -thoroughly immersed in types and proof-sheets, and, to use his own -expression, no less busy in superintending his little enterprise than the -Emperor in his war with Venice.[498] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Writes to his English friends.] - -Thus he could report well of his journey and his present home to his -English friends. He felt that he had done right in coming to Basle, but, -none the less on that account, that his true home was in the hearts of -these same English friends. In his letters to them he expressed his -longing to return.[499] His late ill-fortune in England he had always set -down to the war, which had turned the thoughts of the nation and the -liberality of patrons into other channels, and he hoped that now, perhaps, -the war being over, a better state of things might reign in England, and -better fortunes be in store for the poor scholar. - -What Colet thought of this and things in general, how clouds and storms -seemed gathering round him, may be learned from his reply to his friend's -letter, brief as was his wont, but touchingly graphic in its little -details about himself and his own life during these passing months. He was -already preparing to resign his preferments, and building a house within -the secluded precincts of the Charterhouse at Sheene near Richmond, -wherein, with a few bosom friends, he hoped to spend the rest of his days -in peace, unmolested by his evil genius, the Bishop of London. - - _Colet to Erasmus._[500] - - [Sidenote: Colet still harassed by Bishop Fitzjames.] - - 'Dearest Erasmus--I have received your letter written from Basle, 3 - Cal. Sept. I am glad to know where you are, and in what clime you are - living. I am glad, too, that you are well. See that you perform the - vow which you say you made to St. Paul. That so much was made of you - at Maintz, as you tell me, I can easily believe. I am glad you intend - to return to us some day. But I am not very hopeful about it. As to - any better fortune for you, I don't know what to say. I don't know, - because those who have the means have not the will, and those who have - the will have not the means. All your friends here are well. The - Archbishop of Canterbury keeps as kindly disposed as ever. The Bishop - of Lincoln [Wolsey] now reigns "Archbishop of York!" The Bishop of - London never ceases to harass me. Every day I look forward to my - retirement and retreat with the Carthusians. My nest is nearly - finished. When you come back to us, so far as I can conjecture, you - will find me there, "_mortuus mundo_." Take care of your health, and - let me know where you go to. Farewell.--_From London, Oct. 20 - (1514)._' - - -II. ERASMUS RETURNS TO ENGLAND--HIS SATIRE UPON KINGS (1515). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus arrives in England.] - -Erasmus had at first intended to remain at Basle till the Ides of March -(1515), and then, in compliance with the invitation of his Italian -friends, to spend a few weeks in Italy.[501] But after working six or -eight months at Froben's office, he was no longer inclined to carry out -the project; and so, a new edition of the 'Adagia' being wellnigh -completed, and the ponderous folios of Jerome proceeding to satisfaction, -under the good auspices of the brothers Amerbach, when spring came round -Erasmus took sudden flight from Basle, and turned up, not in Italy, but in -England. Safely arrived in London, he was obliged to do his best, by the -discreet use of his pen, to excuse to his friends at Rome this slight upon -their favours. - -[Sidenote: Supports the cause of Reuchlin.] - -He wrote, therefore, elegant and flattering letters to the Cardinal -Grimanus, the Cardinal St. George, and Pope Leo,[502] describing the -labours in which he was engaged, the noble assistance which the little -fraternity at Basle were giving, and which could not have been got in -Italy nor anywhere else; alluding in flattering terms to the advantages -offered at Rome, and the kindness he had there received on his former -visit; but describing in still more glowing terms the love and generosity -of his friends in England, and declaring 'with that frankness which it -becomes a German to use,' that 'England was his adopted country, and the -chosen home of his old age.'[503] He also took the opportunity of strongly -urging the two cardinals to use their utmost influence in aid of the cause -of Reuchlin. He told them how grieved he was, in common with all the -learned men of Germany, that these frivolous and vexatious proceedings -should have been taken against a man venerable both on account of age and -service, who ought now in his declining years to be peacefully wearing his -well-earned laurels. And lastly, in his letter to the Pope, Erasmus took -occasion to express his hatred of the wars in which Europe had been -recently involved, and his thankfulness that the efforts of his Holiness -to bring about a peace had at last been crowned with success. - -[Sidenote: Peace between England and France.] - -[Sidenote: Death of Louis XII. and accession of Francis I.] - -Peace had indeed been proclaimed between France and England, while Erasmus -had been working at Basle, but under circumstances not likely to _lessen_ -those feelings of indignation with which the three friends regarded the -selfish and reckless policy of European rulers. For peace had been made -with France merely to shuffle the cards. Henry's sister, the Princess Mary -(whose marriage with Henry's ally, Prince Charles, ought long ago to have -been solemnised according to contract), had been married to their common -enemy, Louis XII. of France, with whom they had just been together at war. -In November, Henry and his late enemy, Louis, were plotting to combine -against Henry's late ally, King Ferdinand; and England's blood and -treasure, after having been wasted in helping to wrest Navarre from France -for Ferdinand, were now to be wasted anew to recover the same province -back to France from Ferdinand.[504] On the first of January this unholy -alliance of the two courts was severed by the death of Louis XII. The -Princess Mary was a widow. The young and ambitious Francis I. succeeded to -the French throne, and he, anxious like Henry VIII. to achieve military -glory, declared his intention, on succeeding to the crown, that 'the -monarchy of Christendom should rest under the banner of France as it was -wont to do.'[505] Before the end of July he had already started on that -Italian campaign in which he was soon to defeat the Swiss in the great -battle of Marignano--a battle at the news of which Ferdinand and Henry -were once more to be made secret friends by their common hatred of so -dangerous a rival![506] - -These international scandals, for such they must be called, wrung from -Erasmus other and far more bitter censure than that contained in his -letter to the Pope. He was laboriously occupied with great works passing -through the printing-press at Basle, but still he stole the time to give -public vent to his pent-up feelings. It little mattered that the actors of -these scandals were patrons of his own--kings and ministers on whose aid -he was to some extent dependent, even for the means wherewith to print his -Greek New Testament. His indignation burst forth in pamphlets printed in -large type, and bearing his name, or was thrust into the new edition of -the 'Adagia,' or bound up with other new editions which happened now to be -passing through Froben's press.[507] And be it remembered that these works -and pamphlets found their way as well into royal courts as into the -studies of the learned. - -[Sidenote: Satire upon Kings.] - -What could exceed the sternness and bitterness of the reproof contained in -the following passages?-- - -'Aristotle was wont to distinguish between a _king_ and a _tyrant_ by the -most obvious marks: the tyrant regarding only his own interest; the king -the interests of his people. But the title of "king," which the first and -greatest Roman rulers thought to be immodest and impolitic, as likely to -stir up jealousy, is not enough for some, unless it be gilded with the -most splendid lies. Kings who are scarcely men are called "divine;" they -are "invincible," though they never have left a battlefield without being -conquered; "serene," though they have turned the world upside down in a -tumult of war; "illustrious," though they grovel in profoundest ignorance -of everything noble; "Catholic," though they follow anything rather than -Christ. - -'And these divine, illustrious, triumphant kings ... have no other desire -than that laws, edicts, wars, peaces, leagues, councils, judgments, sacred -or profane, should bring the wealth of others into their exchequer--_i.e._ -they gather everything into their leaking reservoir, and, like the eagles, -fatten their eaglets on the flesh of innocent birds. - -'Let any physiognomist worth anything at all consider the look and the -features of an eagle--those rapacious and wicked eyes, that threatening -curve of the beak, those cruel jaws, that stern front ... will he not -recognise at once the image of a king?--a magnificent and majestic king? -Add to this a dark ill-omened colour, an unpleasing, dreadful, appalling -voice, and that threatening scream at which every kind of animal trembles. -Every one will acknowledge this type who has learned how terrible are the -threats of princes, even uttered in jest.... At this scream of the eagle -the people tremble, the senate yields, the nobility cringes, the judges -concur, the divines are dumb, the lawyers assent, the laws and -constitutions give way, neither right nor religion, neither justice nor -humanity, avail. And thus while there are so many birds of sweet and -melodious song, the unpleasant and unmusical scream of the eagle alone has -more power than all the rest.... Of all birds the eagle alone has seemed -to wise men the type of royalty--not beautiful, not musical, not fit for -food; but carnivorous, greedy, hateful to all, the curse of all, and, with -its great powers of doing harm, surpassing them in its desire of doing -it.'[508] - -Again:-- - -'The office of a prince is called a "dominion," when in truth a prince has -nothing else to do but to administer the affairs of the commonwealth. - -'The intermarriages between royal families, and the new leagues arising -from them, are called "the bonds of Christian peace," though almost all -wars and all tumults of human affairs seem to rise out of them. When -princes conspire together to oppress and exhaust a commonwealth, they call -it a "just war." When they themselves _unite_ in this object, they call it -"_peace_." - -'They call it the extension of the empire when this or that little town is -added to the titles of the prince at the cost of the plunder, the blood, -the widowhood, the bereavement of so many citizens.'[509] - -[Sidenote: Rapid sale of the 'Praise of Folly.'] - -These passages may serve to indicate what feelings were stirred up in the -heart of Erasmus by the condition of international affairs, and in what -temper he returned to England. The works in which they appeared he had -left under the charge of Beatus Rhenanus, to be printed at Basle in his -absence. And some notion of the extent to which whatever proceeded from -the pen of Erasmus was now devoured by the public, may be gained from the -fact that Rhenanus, in April of this very year, wrote to Erasmus, to tell -him that out of an edition of 1,800 of the 'Praise of Folly' just printed -by Froben, with notes by Lystrius, only sixty remained in hand.[510] - - -III. RETURNS TO BASLE TO FINISH HIS WORKS.--FEARS OF THE ORTHODOX PARTY -(1515). - -It will be necessary to recur to the position of international affairs ere -long; meanwhile, the quotations we have given will be enough to show that, -buried as Erasmus was in literary labour, he was alive also to what was -passing around him--no mere bookworm, to whom his books and his learning -were the sole end of life. As we proceed to examine more closely the -object and spirit of the works in which he was now engaged, it will become -more and more evident that their interest to him was of quite another kind -to that of the mere bookworm. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus returns to Basle.] - -Before the summer of 1515 was over he was again on his way to Basle, where -his editions of Jerome and of the New Testament were now really -approaching completion. Their appearance was anxiously expected by learned -men all over Europe. The bold intention of Erasmus to publish the Greek -text of the New Testament with a new Latin translation of his own, a -rival of the sacred Vulgate, had got wind. Divines of the traditional -school had already taken alarm. It was whispered about amongst them that -something ought to be done. The new edition of the 'Praise of Folly,' with -notes by Lystrius, had been bought and read with avidity. Men now shook -their heads, who had smiled at its first appearance. They discovered -heresies in it unnoticed before. Besides, the name of Erasmus was now -known all over Europe. It mattered little what he wrote a few years ago, -when he was little known; but it mattered much what he might write now -that he was a man of mark. - -[Sidenote: Rumours of opposition.] - -While Erasmus was passing through Belgium on his way to Basle, these -whispered signs of discontent found public utterance in a letter from -Martin Dorpius,[511] of the Louvain University, addressed to Erasmus, but -printed, and, it would seem, in the hands of the public, before it was -forwarded to him. He met with it by accident at Antwerp.[512] It was -written at the instigation of others. Men who had not the wit to make a -public protest of this nature for themselves, had urged Martin Dorpius to -employ his talents in their cause, and to become their mouthpiece.[513] - -Thus this letter from Dorpius was of far more importance than would at -first sight appear. It had a representative importance which it did not -possess in itself. It was the public protest of a large and powerful -party. As such it required more than a mere private reply from Erasmus, -and deserves more than a passing mention here, for it affords an insight -into the plan and defences of a theological citadel, against which its -defenders considered that Erasmus was meditating a bold attack. - -[Sidenote: Letter from Dorpius.] - -'I hear' (wrote Dorpius, after criticising severely the 'Praise of -Folly')--'I hear that you have been expurgating the epistles of Saint -Jerome from the errors with which they abound ... and this is a work in -all respects worthy of your labour, and by which you will confer a great -benefit on divines.... But I hear, also, that you have been correcting the -text of the New Testament, and that "you have made annotations not without -theological value on more than one thousand places."' - -Here Dorpius evidently quotes the words of the letter of Erasmus to -_Servatius_, so that _he_ too is silently behind the scenes, handing -Erasmus's letter about amongst his theological friends, perhaps himself -inciting Dorpius to write as he does. - -[Sidenote: Dorpius asserts that there are no errors in the Vulgate.] - -'... If I can show you that the Latin translation has in it no errors or -mistakes' (continued Dorpius), 'then you must confess that the labour of -those who try to correct it is altogether null and void.... I am arguing -now with respect to the truthfulness and integrity of the translation, and -I assert this of our Vulgate version. For it cannot be that the unanimous -universal Church now for so many centuries has been mistaken, which always -has used, and still both sanctions and uses, this version. Nor in the same -way is it possible that so many holy fathers, so many men of most -consummate authority, could be mistaken, who, relying on the same -version, have defined the most difficult points even in _General -Councils_; have defended and elucidated the faith, and enacted canons to -which even kings have bowed their sceptres. That councils rightly convened -never can err in matters of faith is generally admitted by both divines -and lawyers.... What matters it whether you believe or not that the Greek -books are more accurate than the Latin ones; whether or not _greater_ care -was taken to preserve the sacred books in all their integrity by the -Greeks than by the Latins;--by the Greeks, forsooth, amongst whom the -Christian religion was very often almost overthrown, and who affirmed that -none of the gospels were free from errors, excepting the one gospel of -John. What matters all this when, to say nothing of anything else, amongst -the Latins the Church has continued throughout the inviolate spouse of -Christ?... What if it be contended that the sense, as rendered by the -Latin version, differs in truth from the Greek text? Then, indeed, adieu -to the Greek. I adhere to the Latin because I cannot bring my mind to -believe that the Greek are more correct than the Latin codices. - -'But it may be said, Augustine ordered the Latin rivulets to be supplied -from the Greek fountain-head. He did so; and wisely in his age, in which -neither had any one Latin version been received by the Church as now, nor -had the Greek fountain-head become so corrupt as it now seems to be. - -[Sidenote: A single error would destroy the authority of the Bible.] - -'You may say in reply, "I do not want you to change anything in your -codices, nor that you should believe that the Latin version is a false -one. I only point out what discrepancies I discover between the Greek and -Latin copies, and what harm is there in that?" In very deed, my dear -Erasmus, there is great harm in it. Because, about this matter of the -integrity of the Holy Scriptures many will dispute, many will doubt, if -they learn that even one jot or tittle in them is false, ... and then will -come to pass what Augustine described to Jerome: "If any error should be -admitted to have crept into the Holy Scriptures, what authority would be -left to them?" All these considerations, my dear Erasmus, have induced me -to pray and beseech you, by our mutual friendship, by your wonted courtesy -and candour, either to limit your corrections to those passages only of -the New Testament in which you are able, without altering the sense, to -substitute more expressive words; or if you should point out that the -sense requires any alteration at all, that you will reply to the foregoing -arguments in your preface.' - -[Sidenote: Erasmus replies to Dorpius.] - -Erasmus replied to this letter of Dorpius with singular tact, and -reprinted the letter itself with his reply. - -He acknowledged the friendship of Dorpius, and the kind and friendly tone -of his letter. He received, he said, many flattering letters, but he had -rather receive such a letter as this, of honest advice and criticism, by -far. He was knocked up by sea-sickness, wearied by long travel on -horseback, busy unpacking his luggage; but still he thought it was better, -he said, to send some reply, rather than allow his friend to remain under -such erroneous impressions, whether the result of his own consideration, -or instilled into him by others, who had over-persuaded him into writing -this letter, and thus made a cat's-paw of him, in order to light their -battles without exposure of their own persons. - -He told him freely how and when the 'Praise of Folly' was written, and -what were his reasons for writing it, frankly and courteously replying to -his criticisms. - -He described the labour and difficulty of the correction of the text of -St. Jerome--a work of which Dorpius had expressed his approval. But he -said, with reference to what Dorpius had written upon the New Testament, -he could not help wondering what had happened to him--what could have -thrown all this dust into his eyes! - -[Sidenote: There _are_ errors in the Vulgate.] - -'You are unwilling that I should alter anything, except when the Greek -text expresses the sense of the Vulgate more clearly, and you deny that in -the Vulgate edition there are any mistakes. And you think it wrong that -what has been approved by the sanction of so many ages and so many synods -should be unsettled by any means. I beseech you to consider, most learned -Dorpius, whether what you have written be _true_! How is it that Jerome, -Augustine, and Ambrose all cite a text which differs from the Vulgate? How -is it that Jerome finds fault with and corrects many readings which we -find in the Vulgate? What can you make of all this concurrent -evidence--when the Greek versions differ from the Vulgate, when Jerome -cites the text according to the Greek version, when the oldest Latin -versions do the same, when this reading suits the sense much better than -that of the Vulgate,--will you, treating all this with contempt, follow a -version perhaps corrupted by some copyist?... In doing so you follow in -the steps of those vulgar divines who are accustomed to attribute -ecclesiastical authority to whatever in any way creeps into general -use.... I had rather be a common mechanic than the best of their number.' - -With regard to some other points, it was, he said, more prudent to be -silent; but he told Dorpius that he had submitted the rough draft of his -Annotations to divines and bishops of the greatest integrity and learning, -and these had confessed that they threw much light on Scripture study. He -concluded with the expression of a hope that even Dorpius himself, -although now protesting against the attempt, would welcome the publication -of the book when it came into his hands. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus at Basle.] - -This letter[514] written and despatched to the printer, Erasmus proceeded -with his journey. The Rhine, swollen by the rains and the rapid melting of -Alpine snows, had overflowed its banks; so that the journey, always -disagreeable and fatiguing, was this time more than usually so. It was -more like swimming, Erasmus said, than riding. But by the end of -August[515] he was again hard at work in Froben's printing-office putting -the finishing strokes to his two great works.[516] By the 7th of March, -1516, he was able to announce that the New Testament was out of the -printer's hands, and the final colophon put to St. Jerome.[517] - -It is time therefore that we should attempt to realise what these two -great works were, and what the peculiar significance of their concurrent -publication. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - - -THE 'NOVUM INSTRUMENTUM' COMPLETED.--WHAT IT REALLY WAS (1516). - -[Sidenote: Main object of the 'Novum Instrumentum.'] - -[Sidenote: Not the Greek text.] - -The New Testament of Erasmus ought not to be regarded by any means as a -mere reproduction of the Greek text, or criticised even _chiefly_ as such. -The labour which falls to the lot of a pioneer in such a work, the -multiplied chances of error in the collation by a single hand, and that of -a novice in the art of deciphering difficult manuscripts, the want of -experience on the part of the printers in the use of Greek type, the -inadequate pecuniary means at the disposal of Erasmus, and the haste with -which it was prepared, considering the nature of the work,--all tended to -make his version of the Greek text exceedingly imperfect, viewed in the -light of modern criticism. He may even have been careless, and here and -there uncandid and capricious in his choice of readings,--all this, of -which I am incapable of forming a conclusive judgment, I am willing to -grant by-the-bye. The merit of the New Testament of Erasmus does not -mainly rest upon the accuracy of his Greek text,[518] although this had -cost him a great deal of labour, and was a necessary part of his plan. - -I suppose the object of an author may be most fairly gathered from his own -express declarations, and that the prefaces of Erasmus to his first -edition--the 'Novum Instrumentum,' as he called it--are the best evidence -that can possibly be quoted of the purpose of Erasmus in its publication. -To these, therefore, I must beg the reader's attention. - -[Sidenote: Main object to be learned from its prefaces.] - -Now a careful examination of these prefaces cannot fail to establish the -identity of the purpose of Erasmus in publishing the 'Novum Instrumentum' -with that which had induced Colet, nearly twenty years before, to commence -his lectures at Oxford. - -During those twenty years the divergence between the two great rival -schools of thought had become wider and wider. - -[Sidenote: The Italian school.] - -The intellectual tendencies of the philosophic school in Italy had become -more and more decidedly sceptical. The meteor lights of Savonarola, Pico, -and Ficino had blazed across the sky and vanished. The star of semi-pagan -philosophy was in the ascendant, and shed its cold light upon the -intellect of Italy. - -Leo X. was indeed a great improvement upon Alexander VI. and Julius -II.--of this there could be no doubt. Instead of the gross sensuality of -the former and the warlike passions of the latter, what Ranke has well -designated '_a sort of intellectual sensualism_,' now reigned in the Papal -court. Erasmus had indeed entertained bright hopes of Leo X. He had -declared himself in favour of a peaceful policy; he was, too, an enemy to -the blind bigotry of the Schoolmen. Nor does he seem to have been openly -irreligious. His choice of Sadolet as one of his secretaries was not like -the act of a man who himself would scoff at the Christian faith; though, -on the other hand, this enlightened Christian was unequally yoked in the -office with the philosophical and worldly Bembo. Under former Popes the -fear of Erasmus had been '_lest Rome should degenerate into Babylon_.' He -hoped now that, under Leo X., 'the tempest of war being hushed, both -letters and religion might be seen flourishing at Rome.'[519] - -[Sidenote: Its sceptical tendencies.] - -At the same time he was not blind to the sceptical tendencies of the -Italian schools. Thus whilst in a letter written not long after this -period, expressing his faith in the 'revival of letters,' and his belief -that the 'authority of the Scriptures will not in the long run be lessened -by their being read and understood correctly instead of -incorrectly'--whilst thus, in fact, taking a hopeful view of the -future--we yet find him confessing to a fear, 'lest, under the pretext of -the revival of ancient literature, Paganism should again endeavour to rear -its head.'[520] The atmosphere of the Papal Court was indeed far more -semi-pagan than Christian. With the revival of classical literature it was -natural that there should be a revival of classical taste. And just as the -mediæval church of St. Peter was demolished to make room for a classical -temple, so it was the fashion in high society at Rome to profess belief in -the philosophy of Pliny and Aristotle and to scoff at the Christian -faith.[521] - -The extent to which anti-Christian and sceptical tendencies were carried -in the direction of speculative philosophy was shown by the publication in -this very year, 1516, by _Pomponatius_, whom Ranke speaks of as 'the most -distinguished philosopher of the day,'[522] of a work in which he denied -the immortality of the soul.[523] This philosopher was, in the words of -Hallam, 'the most renowned professor of the school of Padua, which for -more than a century was the focus of atheism in Italy.'[524] - -[Sidenote: The Italian school Machiavellian in its politics.] - -That the same anti-Christian and sceptical tendencies were equally -prevalent in the sphere of practical morality and politics as in that of -speculative philosophy, was also painfully obvious. That popes themselves -had discarded Christianity as the standard of their own morality both in -social and political action, had for generations been trumpeted forth to -the world by their own sensual lives, and their faithless and immoral -political conduct. When in the 'Praise of Folly' Erasmus had satirised the -policy of popes, he had put a sting to his description of their -unchristian conduct by adding that they acted '_as though Christ were -dead_.'[525] The greatest political philosopher of the age had already -written his great work '_The Prince_,' in which he had _codified_, so to -speak, the maxims of the dominant anti-Christian school of politics, and -framed a system of political philosophy based upon keen and godless -self-interest, and defying, if not in terms denying, both the obligation -and policy of the golden rule--a system which may be best described, in a -word, by reference to the name of its author, as _Machiavellian_.[526] - -[Sidenote: The dogmatic school, equally anti-Christian in its practice,] - -On the other hand, opposed to the new 'learning,' and its anti-Christian -tendencies, was the dogmatic system of the Schoolmen, defended with blind -bigotry by monks and divines of the old school. These had done nothing -during the past twenty years to reconcile their system with the -intellectual tendencies of their age. They were still straining every -nerve to keep Christianity and reviving science hopelessly apart. Their -own rigidly defined scholastic creed, with all its unverified hypotheses, -rested as securely as ever, in their view, on the absolute inspiration of -the Vulgate version of the Bible: witness the letter of Dorpius. No new -light had disturbed the entire satisfaction with which they regarded their -system, or the assurance with which they denounced Greek and Hebrew as -'heretical tongues,' derided all attempts at free inquiry, and scornfully -pointed to the sceptical tendencies of the Italian school as the result to -which the 'new learning' must inevitably lead. - -[Sidenote: and in its politics.] - -And yet the practical results of this proudly orthodox philosophy were as -notoriously anti-Christian, both as regards social and political morality, -as was the Machiavellian philosophy, at which these professed Christians -pointed with the finger of scorn. Again and again had Erasmus occasion -bitterly to satirise the gross sensuality in which as a class they -grovelled. Again and again had he to condemn their _political_ influence, -and the part they played in prompting the warlike and treacherous policy -of princes whose courts they infested.[527] - -And passages have already been quoted from the 'Praise of Folly' in which -Erasmus pointed out how completely they had lost sight of the one rule of -Christian morals--the golden rule of Christ--how they had substituted a -new notion of virtue for the Christian one, and how the very meaning of -the word '_sin_' had undergone a corresponding change in their theological -vocabulary. - -[Sidenote: Neither party had practical faith in Christianity.] - -Such were the two opposing parties, which, in this age of intellectual -re-awakening and progress, were struggling in hopeless antagonism; both of -them for the sake of ecclesiastical emoluments still professing allegiance -to the Church, and keeping as firm a foothold as possible within her pale, -but both of them practically betraying at the same time their real want of -faith in Christianity by tacitly setting it aside as a thing which would -not work as the rule of social and political life. - -Erasmus, in writing the preface to his 'Novum Instrumentum,' had his eye -on both these dominant parties. He, like Colet, believed both of them to -be leading men astray. He believed, with Colet, that there _was_ a -Christianity which rested on facts and not upon speculation, and which -therefore had nothing to do with the dogmatic theology of the Schoolmen on -the one hand, and nothing to fear from free inquiry on the other. To -'call men as with the sound of a trumpet' to this, was the object of the -earnest 'Paraclesis' which he prefixed to his Testament. - -He first appealed to the free-thinking philosophic school:-- - - * * * * * - - [Sidenote: The 'Paraclesis.'] - - [Sidenote: All men should read the Gospels, &c., in their vulgar - tongue.] - - 'In times like these, when men are pursuing with such zest all - branches of knowledge, how is it that the philosophy of Christ should - alone be derided by some, neglected by many, treated by the few who do - devote themselves to it with coldness, not to say insincerity? Whilst - in all other branches of learning the human mind is straining its - genius to master all subtleties, and toiling to overcome all - difficulties, why is it that this one philosophy alone is not pursued - with equal earnestness, at least by those who profess to be - Christians? Platonists, Pythagoreans, and the disciples of all other - philosophers, are well instructed and ready to fight for their sect. - Why do not Christians with yet more abundant zeal espouse the cause of - _their_ Master and Prince? Shall Christ be put in comparison with Zeno - and Aristotle--his doctrines with their insignificant precepts? - Whatever other philosophers may have been, he alone is a teacher from - heaven; he alone was able to teach certain and eternal wisdom; he - alone taught things pertaining to our salvation, because he alone is - its author; he alone absolutely practised what he preached, and is - able to make good what he promised.... The philosophy of Christ, - moreover, is to be learned from its few books with far less labour - than the Aristotelian philosophy is to be extracted from its multitude - of ponderous and conflicting commentaries. Nor is anxious preparatory - learning needful to the Christian. Its viaticum is simple, and at hand - to all. Only bring a pious and open heart, imbued above all things - with a pure and simple faith. Only be teachable, and you have already - made much way in this philosophy. It supplies a spirit for a teacher, - imparted to none more readily than to the simple-minded. Other - philosophies, by the very difficulty of their precepts, are removed - out of the range of most minds. No age, no sex, no condition of life - is excluded from this. The sun itself is not more common and open to - all than the teaching of Christ. For I utterly dissent from those who - are unwilling that the sacred Scriptures should be read by the - unlearned translated into their vulgar tongue, as though Christ had - taught such subtleties that they can scarcely be understood even by a - few theologians, or as though the strength of the Christian religion - consisted in men's ignorance of it. The mysteries of kings it may be - safer to conceal, but Christ wished his mysteries to be published as - openly as possible. I wish that even the weakest woman should read the - Gospel--should read the epistles of Paul. And I wish these were - translated into all languages, so that they might be read and - understood, not only by Scots and Irishmen, but also by Turks and - Saracens. To make them understood is surely the first step. It may be - that they might be ridiculed by many, but some would take them to - heart. I long that the husbandman should sing portions of them to - himself as he follows the plough, that the weaver should hum them to - the tune of his shuttle, that the traveller should beguile with their - stories the tedium of his journey.' - -Then turning more directly to the Schoolmen, Erasmus continued:-- - -[Sidenote: The Gospels give a living image of the mind of Christ.] - - Why is a greater portion of our lives given to the study of the - Schoolmen than of the Gospels? The rules of St. Francis and St. - Benedict may be considered sacred by their respective followers; but - just as St. Paul wrote that the law of Moses was not glorious in - comparison with the glory of the Gospel, so Erasmus said he wished - that these might not be considered as sacred in comparison with the - Gospels and letters of the Apostles. What are Albertus, Alexander, - Thomas, Ægidius, Ricardus, Occam, in comparison with Christ, of whom - it was said by the Father in heaven, 'This is my beloved Son'? (Oh, - how sure and, as they say, 'irrefragable' his authority!) What, in - comparison with Peter, who received the command to feed the sheep; or - Paul, in whom, as a chosen vessel, Christ seemed to be reborn; or - John, who wrote in his epistles what he learned as he leaned on his - bosom? 'If the footprints of Christ be anywhere shown to us, we kneel - down and adore. Why do we not rather venerate the living and breathing - picture of Him in these books? If the vesture of Christ be exhibited, - where will we not go to kiss it? Yet were his whole wardrobe exhibited - nothing could represent Christ more vividly and truly than these - evangelical writings. Statues of wood and stone we decorate with gold - and gems for the love of Christ. They only profess to give us the form - of his body; these books present us with a living image of his most - holy mind.[528] Were we to have seen Him with our own eyes, we should - not have had so intimate a knowledge as they give of Christ, speaking, - healing, dying, rising again, as it were, in our own actual presence.' - -Such was the earnest 'Paraclesis'[529] with which Erasmus introduced his -Greek and Latin version of the books of the New Testament. - -[Sidenote: Method of study.] - -To this he added a few pages to explain what he considered the right -'method' to be adopted by the Scripture student.[530] - -First, as to the spirit in which he should work:-- - -'Let him approach the New Testament, not with an unholy curiosity, but -with _reverence_; bearing in mind that his first and only aim and object -should be that he may catch and be changed into the spirit of what he -there learns. It is the food of the soul; and to be of use, must not rest -only in the memory or lodge in the stomach, but must permeate the very -depths of the heart and mind.' - -Then, as to what special acquirements are most useful in the prosecution -of these studies:-- - -'A fair knowledge of the three languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, of -course, are the first things. Nor let the student turn away in despair at -the difficulty of this. If you have a teacher and the will to learn, these -three languages can be learned almost with less labour than every day is -spent over the miserable babble of one mongrel language under ignorant -teachers. It would be well, too, were the student tolerably versed in -other branches of learning--dialectics, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, -astrology, and especially in knowledge of the natural objects--animals, -trees, precious stones--of the countries mentioned in the Scriptures; for -if we are familiar with the country, we can in thought follow the history -and picture it to our minds, so that we seem not only to read it, but to -see it; and if we do this, we shall not easily forget it. Besides, if we -know from study of history not only the position of those nations to whom -these things happened, or to whom the Apostles wrote, but also their -origin, manners, institutions, religion, and character, it is wonderful -how much light and, if I may so speak, _life_ is thrown into the reading -of what before seemed dry and lifeless. Other branches of -learning--classical, rhetorical, or philosophical--may all be turned to -account; and especially should the student learn to quote Scripture, not -second-hand, but from the fountain-head, and take care not to distort its -meaning as some do, interpreting the "Church" as the clergy, the laity as -the "world," and the like. To get at the real meaning, it is not enough to -take four or five isolated words; you must look where they came from, what -was said, by whom it was said, to whom it was said, at what time, on what -occasion, in what words, what preceded, what followed. And if you refer to -commentaries, choose out the best, such as Origen (who is far above all -others), Basil, &c., Jerome, Ambrose, &c.; and even these read with -discrimination and judgment, for they were men ignorant of some things, -and mistaken in others. - -'As to the Schoolmen, I had rather be a pious divine with Jerome than -invincible with Scotus. Was ever a heretic converted by their subtleties? -Let those who like follow the disputations of the schools; but let him who -desires to be instructed rather in piety than in the art of disputation, -first and above all apply himself to the fountain-head--to those writings -which flowed immediately from the fountain-head. The divine is -"invincible" enough who never yields to vice or gives way to evil -passions, even though he may be beaten in argument. That doctor is -abundantly "great" who purely preaches Christ.' - -[Sidenote: The 'Annotations.'] - -[Sidenote: Theory of verbal inspiration rejected.] - -I have quoted these passages very much at length, that there may be no -doubt whatever how fully Erasmus had in these prefaces adopted and made -himself the spokesman of Colet's views. An examination of the 'Novum -Instrumentum' itself, and of the 'Annotations' which formed the second -part of the volume, reveals an equally close resemblance between the -_critical method of exposition_ used by Colet and that here adopted by -Erasmus. There was the same rejection of the theory of verbal inspiration -which was noticed in Colet as the result of an honest attempt to look at -the facts of the case exactly as they were, instead of attempting to -explain them away by reference to preconceived theories. - -Thus the discrepancy between St. Stephen's speech and the narrative in -Genesis, with regard to a portion of the history of the Patriarch Abraham, -was freely pointed out, without any attempt at reconcilement.[531] St. -Jerome's suggestion was quoted, that Mark, in the second chapter of his -Gospel, had, by a lapse of memory, written 'Abiathar' in mistake for -'Ahimelech,'[532] and that Matthew, in the twenty-seventh chapter, instead -of quoting from Jeremiah, as stated in the text, was really quoting from -the Prophet Zachariah.[533] - -The fact that in a great number of cases the quotations from the Old -Testament are by no means exact, either as compared with the Hebrew or -Septuagint text, was freely alluded to, and the suggestion as freely -thrown out that the Apostles habitually quoted from memory, without giving -the exact words of the original.[534] - -All these were little indications that Erasmus had closely followed in the -steps of Colet in rejecting the theory of the verbal inspiration of the -Scriptures; and they bear abundant evidence to prove that he did so, as -Colet had done, not because he wished to undermine men's reverence for the -Bible, but that they might learn to love and to value its pages infinitely -more than they had done before--not because he wished to explain away its -facts, but that men might discover how truly real and actual and -heart-stirring were its histories--not to undermine the authority of its -moral teaching, but to add just so much to it as the authority of the -Apostle who had written, or of the Saviour who had spoken, its Divine -truths, exceeds the authority of the Fathers who had established the -canon, or of the Schoolmen who had buried the Bible altogether under the -rubbish of the thousand and one propositions which they professed to have -extracted from it. - -Let it never be forgotten that the Church party which had staked their -faith upon the plenary inspiration of the Bible was the Church party who -had succeeded in putting it into the background. They were the party whom -Tyndale accused of 'knowing no more Scripture than they found in their -Duns.' They were the party who throughout the sixteenth century resisted -every attempt to give the Bible to the people and to make it the people's -book. And they were perfectly logical in doing so. Their whole system was -based upon the absolute inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and even to a -great extent of the Vulgate version. If the Vulgate version was not -verbally inspired, it was impossible to apply to it the theory of -'manifold senses.' And if a text could not be interpreted according to -that theory, if it could not properly be strained into meanings which it -was never intended by the writer to convey, the scholastic theology became -a castle of cards. Its defenders adopted, and in perfect good faith -applied to the Vulgate, the words quoted from Augustine: 'If any error -should be admitted to have crept into the Holy Scriptures, what authority -would be left to them?' If Colet and Erasmus should undermine men's faith -in the absolute inspiration of the Scriptures, it would result, in their -view, as a logical necessity, in the destruction of the Christian -religion. For the Christian religion, in their view, consisted in blind -devotion to the Church, and in gulping whole the dogmatic creed which had -been settled by her 'invincible' and 'irrefragable' doctors. - -[Sidenote: The Christian religion loyalty to Christ.] - -But this was not the faith of Colet and Erasmus. With them the Christian -religion consisted not in gulping a creed upon any authority whatever, but -in loving and loyal devotion to the _person_ of Christ. They sought in the -books which they found bound up into a Bible not so much an infallible -standard of doctrinal truth as an authentic record of _his_ life and -teaching. Where should they go for a knowledge of Christ, if not to the -writings of those who were nearest in their relations to Him? They valued -these writings because they sought and found in them a 'living and -breathing picture of Him;' because 'nothing could represent Christ more -vividly and truly' than they did; because 'they present a living image of -his most holy mind,' so that 'even had we seen Him with our own eyes we -should not have had so intimate a knowledge as they give of Christ -speaking, healing, dying, rising again as it were in our own actual -presence.' It was because these books brought them, as it were, so close -to Christ and the facts of his actual life, that they wished to get as -close to _them_ as they could do. They would not be content with knowing -something of them secondhand from the best Church authorities. The best of -the Fathers were 'men ignorant of some things, and mistaken in others.' -They would go to the books themselves, and read them in their original -languages, and, if possible, in the earliest copies, so that no mistakes -of copyists or blunders of translators might blind their eyes to the facts -as they were. They would study the geography and the natural history of -Palestine that they might the more correctly and vividly realise in their -mind's eye the events as they happened. And they would do all this, not -that they might make themselves 'irrefragable' doctors--rivals of Scotus -and Aquinas--but that they might catch the Spirit of Him whom they were -striving to know for themselves, and that they might place the same -knowledge within reach of all--Turks and Saracens, learned and unlearned, -rich and poor--by the translation of these books into the vulgar tongue of -each. - -The 'Novum Instrumentum' of Erasmus was at once the result and the -embodiment of these views. - -[Sidenote: Works of St. Jerome.] - -Hence it is easy to see the significance of the concurrent publication of -the works of St. Jerome. St. Jerome belonged to that school of theology -and criticism which now, after the lapse of a thousand years, Colet and -Erasmus were reviving in Western Europe. St. Jerome was the father who in -his day strove to give to the people the Bible in their vulgar tongue. St. -Jerome was the father against whom St. Augustine so earnestly strove to -vindicate the verbal inspiration of the Bible. It was the words of St. -Augustine used against St. Jerome that, now after the lapse of ten -centuries, Martin Dorpius had quoted against Erasmus. We have seen in an -earlier chapter how Colet clung to St. Jerome's opinion, against that of -nearly all other authorities, in the discussion which led to his first -avowal to Erasmus of his views on the inspiration of the Scriptures. -Finally, the Annotations to the 'Novum Instrumentum' teem with citations -from St. Jerome. - -The concurrent publication of the works of this father was therefore a -practical vindication of the 'Novum Instrumentum' from the charge of -presumption and novelty. It proved that Colet and Erasmus were teaching no -new doctrines--that their work was correctly defined by Colet himself to -be 'to restore that old and true theology which had been so long obscured -by the subtleties of the Schoolmen.' - -Under this patristic shield, dedicated by permission to Pope Leo, and its -copyright secured for four years by the decree of the Emperor Maximilian, -the 'Novum Instrumentum' went forth into the world. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - - -I. MORE IMMERSED IN PUBLIC BUSINESS (1515). - -[Sidenote: More's practice at the Bar.] - -[Sidenote: His second marriage.] - -While the work of Erasmus had for some years past lain chiefly in the -direction of laborious literary study, it had been far otherwise with -More. His lines had fallen among the busy scenes and cares of practical -life. His capacity for public business, and the diligence and impartiality -with which he had now for some years discharged his judicial duties as -under-sheriff, had given him a position of great popularity and influence -in the city. He had been appointed by the Parliament of 1515 a -Commissioner of Sewers--a recognition at least of his practical ability. -In his private practice at the Bar he had risen to such eminence, that -Roper tells us 'there was at that time in none of the prince's courts of -the laws of this realm any matter of importance in controversy wherein he -was not with the one party of counsel.'[535] Roper further reports that -'by his office and his learning (as I have heard him say) he gained -without grief not so little as 400_l._ by the year' (equal to 4,000_l._ a -year in present money). He had in the meantime married a second wife, -Alice Middleton, and taken her daughter also into his household; and thus -tried, for the sake of his little orphans, to roll away the cloud of -domestic sorrow from his home. - -Becoming himself more and more of a public man, he had anxiously watched -the course of political events. - -[Sidenote: Social results of the wars.] - -[Sidenote: Complaint in Parliament.] - -The long continuance of war is almost sure to bring up to the surface -social evils which in happier times smoulder on unobserved. It was -especially so with these wars of Henry VIII. Each successive Parliament, -called for the purpose of supplying the King with the necessary ways and -means, found itself obliged reluctantly to deal with domestic questions of -increasing difficulty. In previous years it had been easy for the -flattering courtiers of a popular king, by talking of victories, to charm -the ear of the Commons so wisely, that subsidies and poll-taxes had been -voted without much, if any, opposition. But the Parliament which had met -in February 1515, had no victories to talk about. Whether right or wrong -in regarding 'the realm of France his very true patrimony and -inheritance,' Henry VIII. had not yet been able 'to reduce the same to his -obedience.' Meanwhile the long continuance of war expenditure had drained -the national exchequer. It is perfectly true that under Wolsey's able -management the expenditure had already been cut down to an enormous -extent, but during the three years of active warfare--1512, 1513, and -1514--the revenues of more than twelve ordinary years[536] had been spent, -the immense hoards of wealth inherited by the young king from Henry VII. -had been squandered away, and even the genius of Wolsey was unable to -devise means to collect the taxes which former Parliaments had already -voted. The temper of the Commons was in the meantime beginning to change. -They now, in 1515, for the first time entered their complaint upon the -rolls of Parliament, that whereas the King's noble progenitors had -maintained their estate and the defences of the realm out of the ordinary -revenues of the kingdom, he now, by reason of the improvident grants made -by him since he came to the throne, had not sufficient revenues left to -meet his increasing expenses. The result was that all unusual grants of -annuities, &c., were declared to be void.[537] The Commons then proceeded -to deal with the large deficiency which previous subsidies had done little -to remove. Of the 160,000_l._ granted by the previous Parliament only -50,000_l._ had been gathered, and all they now attempted to achieve was -the collection, under new arrangements, of the remaining 110,000_l._[538] - -[Sidenote: Taxes on labourers' wages.] - -It was evident that the temper of the people would not bear further trial; -and no wonder, for the tax which in the previous year had raised a total -of 50,000_l._ was practically an income-tax of sixpence in the pound, -_descending even to the wages of the farm-labourer_. In the coming year -this income-tax of sixpence was to be _twice_ repeated simply to recover -arrears of taxation. What should we think of a government which should -propose to exact from the day-labourer, by direct taxation, a tax equal to -between two and three weeks' wages! - -The selfishness of Tudor legislation--or, perhaps it might be more just -to say of _Wolsey's_ legislation, for he was the presiding spirit of this -Parliament--was shown no less clearly in its manner of dealing with the -social evils which came under its notice. - -Thus the Act of Apparel, with its pains and penalties, was obviously more -likely to give a handle to unscrupulous ministers to be used for purposes -of revenue, than to curb those tastes for grandeur in attire which nothing -was so likely to foster as the example of Wolsey himself.[539] - -[Sidenote: Legal interference with wages.] - -Thus, too, not content with carrying their income-tax down to the earnings -of the peasant, this and the previous Parliament attempted to interfere -with the wages of the labouring classes solely for the benefit of -employers of labour. The simple fact was that the drain upon the labour -market to keep the army supplied with soldiers, had caused a temporary -scarcity of labour, and a natural rise in wages. Complaints were made, -according to the chronicles, that 'labourers would in nowise work by the -day, but all by task, and in great,' and that therefore, 'especially in -harvest time, the husbandmen [i.e. the farmers and landowners] could -scarce get workmen to help in their harvest.'[540] The agricultural -interest was strongly represented in the House of Commons--the labourers -not at all. So, human nature being the same then as now, the last -Parliament had attempted virtually to re-enact the old statutes of -labourers, as against the labourers, whilst repealing all the clauses -which might possibly prove inconvenient to employers. This Parliament of -1515 completed the work; re-enacted a rigid scale of wages, and imposed -pains and penalties upon 'artificers who should leave their work except -for the King's service.'[541] Here again was oppression of the poor to -spare the pockets of the rich. - -[Sidenote: Increase of pasture farming.] - -Again, the scarcity of labour made itself felt in the increased propensity -of landowners to throw arable land into pasture, involving the sudden and -cruel ejection of thousands of the peasantry, and the enactment of -statutory provisions[542] to check this tendency was not to be wondered -at; but the rumour that many by compounding secretly with the Cardinal -were able to exempt themselves[543] from the penalties of inconvenient -statutes, leads one to suspect that Wolsey thought more of the wants of -the exchequer than of the hardship and misery of ejected peasants. - -[Sidenote: Increase of crime and of executions.] - -It was natural that the result of wholesale ejections, and the return of -deserting or disbanded soldiers (often utterly demoralised),[544] should -still show itself in the appalling increase of crime. Perhaps it was -equally natural that legislators who held the comforts and lives of the -labouring poor so cheap, should think that they had provided at once a -proper and efficient remedy, when by abolishing benefit of clergy in the -case of felons and murderers, and by abridging the privilege of sanctuary, -they had multiplied to a terrible extent the number of executions.[545] - -If the labouring classes were thus harshly dealt with, so also the -mercantile classes did not find their interests very carefully guarded. - -[Sidenote: Trade with the Netherlands interrupted.] - -The breach of faith with Prince Charles in the matter of the marriage of -the Princess Mary had caused a quarrel between England and the -Netherlands, and this Parliament of 1515 had followed it up by prohibiting -the exportation of Norfolk wool to Holland and Zealand,[546] thus -virtually interrupting commercial intercourse with the Hanse Towns of -Belgium at a time when Bruges was the great mart of the world. - -It was not long before the London merchants expressed a very natural -anxiety that the commercial intercourse between two countries so essential -to each other should be speedily resumed. They saw clearly that whatever -military advantage might be gained by the attempt to injure the subjects -of Prince Charles by creating a wool-famine in the Netherlands, would be -purchased at their expense. It was a game that two could play at, and it -was not long before retaliative measures were resorted to on the other -side, very injurious to English interests. - -[Sidenote: More sent on an embassy.] - -When therefore it was rumoured that Henry VIII. was about to send an -embassy to Flanders, to settle international disputes between the two -countries, it was not surprising that London merchants should complain to -the King of their own special grievances, and pray that their interests -might not be neglected. It seems that they pressed upon the King to attach -'Young More,' as he was still called, to the embassy, specially to -represent themselves. So, according to Roper, it was at the suit and -instance of the English merchants, 'and with the King's consent,' that in -May, 1515, More was sent out on an embassy with Bishop Tunstal, Sampson, -and others, into Flanders. - -The ambassadors were appointed generally to obtain a renewal and -continuance of the old treaties of intercourse between the two countries, -but More, aided by a John Clifford, 'governor of the English merchants,' -was specially charged with the _commercial_ matters in dispute: Wolsey -informing Sampson of this, and Sampson replying that he 'is pleased with -the honour of being named in the King's commission with Tunstal and "Young -More."'[547] - -The party were detained in the city of Bruges about four months.[548] They -found it by no means easy to allay the bitter feelings which had been -created by the prohibition of the export of wool, and other alleged -injuries.[549] In September they moved on to Brussels,[550] and in October -to Antwerp,[551] and it was not till towards the end of the year that -More, having at last successfully terminated his part in the negotiations, -was able to return home. - - -II. COLET'S SERMON ON THE INSTALLATION OF CARDINAL WOLSEY (1515). - -During the absence of More, on his embassy to Flanders, Wolsey, quit of a -Parliament which, however selfish and careless of the true interests of -the Commonweal, and especially of the poorer classes, had shown some -symptoms of grumbling at Royal demands, had pushed on more rapidly than -ever his schemes of personal ambition. - -His first step had been to procure from the Pope, through the good offices -of Henry VIII., a cardinal's hat. It might possibly be the first step even -to the papal chair; at least it would secure to him a position within the -realm second only to the throne. It chafed him that so unmanageable a man -as Warham should take precedence of himself. - -Let us try to realise the magnificent spectacle of the installation of the -great Cardinal, for the sake of the part _Colet_ took in it. - -[Sidenote: Installation of Cardinal Wolsey.] - -It was on Sunday, November 18, 1515, that the ceremony was performed in -Westminster Abbey. Mass was sung by Archbishop Warham (with whom Wolsey -had already quarrelled), Bishop Fisher acting as crosier-bearer. The -Bishop of Lincoln read the Gospel, and the Bishop of Exeter the Epistle. -The Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, the Bishops of Winchester, Durham, -Norwich, Ely, and Llandaff, the Abbots of Westminster, St. Alban's, Bury, -Glastonbury, Reading, Gloucester, Winchcombe, and Tewkesbury, and the -Prior of Coventry, were all in attendance 'in pontificalibus.' All the -magnates of the realm were collected to swell the pomp of the ceremony. -Before this august assemblage and crowds of spectators Dean Colet had to -deliver an address to Wolsey. - -[Sidenote: Colet preaches the sermon.] - -As was usual with him, he preached a sermon suited to the occasion, more -so perhaps than Wolsey intended. First speaking to the people, he -explained the meaning of the title of 'Cardinal,' the high honour and -dignity of the office, the reasons why it was conferred on Wolsey, -alluding, first, to his merits, naming some of his particular virtues and -services; secondly, to the desire of the Pope to show, by conferring this -dignity on one of the subjects of Henry VIII., his zeal and favour to his -grace. He dwelt upon the great power and dignity of the rank of cardinal, -how it corresponded to the order of 'Seraphim' in the celestial hierarchy, -'which continually burneth in the love of the glorious Trinity.'[552] And -having thus magnified the office of cardinal in the eyes of the people, he -turned to Wolsey--so proud, ambitious, and fond of magnificence--and -addressed to him these few faithful words: - -[Sidenote: Colet's address to Wolsey.] - -'Let not one in so proud a position, made most illustrious by the dignity -of such an honour, be puffed up by its greatness. But remember that our -Saviour, in his own person, said to his disciples, "I came not to be -ministered unto, but to minister," and "He who is least among you shall be -greatest in the kingdom of heaven;" and again, "He who exalts himself -shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted."' And then, -with reference to his secular duties, and having perhaps in mind the -rumours of Wolsey's partiality and the unfairness of recent legislation to -the poorer classes, he added--'My Lord Cardinal, be glad, and enforce -yourself always to do and execute righteousness to rich and _poor_, with -mercy and truth.' - -Then, addressing himself once more to the people, he desired them to pray -for the Cardinal, that 'he might observe these things, and in -accomplishing the same receive his reward in the kingdom of heaven.' - -This sermon ended, Wolsey, kneeling at the altar, had the formal service -read over him by Warham, and the cardinal's hat placed upon his head. The -'Te Deum' was then sung, and, surrounded by dukes and earls, Wolsey left -the Abbey and passed in gorgeous procession to his own decorated halls, -there to entertain the King and Queen, in all pomp and splendour, bent -upon pursuing his projects of self-exaltation, regardless of Colet's -honest words so faithfully spoken, and little dreaming that they would -ever find fulfilment in his own fall.[553] - -[Sidenote: Wolsey made Lord Chancellor.] - -Five weeks only after this event, on December 22, Warham resigned the -great seal into the King's hands, and the Cardinal Archbishop of York -assumed the additional title of Lord Chancellor of England.[554] On the -same day, Parliament, which had met again on November 12 to grant a -further subsidy, was dissolved, and Wolsey commenced to rule the kingdom, -according to his own will and pleasure, for eight years, without a -Parliament, and with but little regard to the opinions of other members of -the King's council. - - -III. MORE'S 'UTOPIA' (1515). - -It was whilst More's keen eye was anxiously watching the clouds gathering -upon the political horizon, and during the leisure snatched from the -business of his embassy, that he conceived the idea of embodying his -notions on social and political questions in a description of the -imaginary commonwealth of the Island of 'Utopia'--'Nusquama'--or -'Nowhere.'[555] - -It does not often happen that two friends, engaged in fellow-work, publish -in the same year two books, both of which take an independent and a -permanent place in the literature of Europe. But this may be said of the -'Novum Instrumentum' of Erasmus and the 'Utopia' of More. - -Still more remarkable is it that two such works, written by two such men, -should, in measure, be traceable to the influence and express the views of -a more obscure but greater man than they. Yet, in truth, much of the merit -of both these works belongs indirectly to Colet. - -As the 'Novum Instrumentum,' upon careful examination, proves to be the -expression, on the part of Erasmus, not merely of his own isolated views, -but of the views held in common by the little band of Oxford Reformers, on -the great subject of which it treats; so the 'Utopia' will be found to be -in great measure the expression, on More's part, of the views of the same -little band of friends on social and political questions. On most of these -questions Erasmus and More, in the main, thought alike: and they owed much -of their common convictions indirectly to the influence of Colet. - -The first book of the 'Utopia' was written after the second, under -circumstances and for reasons which will in due course be mentioned. - -[Sidenote: Second book of the 'Utopia' written first.] - -The second book was complete in itself, and contained the description, by -Raphael, the supposed traveller, of the Utopian commonwealth. Erasmus -informs us that More's intention in writing it was to point out where and -from what causes European commonwealths were at fault, and he adds that it -was written with special reference to _English_ politics, with which More -was most familiar.[556] - -Whilst, however, we trace its close connection with the political events -passing at the time in England, it must not be supposed that More was so -gifted with prescience that he knew what course matters would take. He -could not know, for instance, that Wolsey was about to take the reins of -government so completely into his own hands, as to dispense with a -Parliament for so many years to come. As yet, More and his friends, in -spite of Wolsey's ostentation and vanity, which they freely ridiculed, had -a high opinion of his character and powers. It was not unnatural that, -knowing that Wolsey was a friend to education, and, to some extent at -least, inclined to patronise the projects of Erasmus, they should hope for -the best. Hence the satire contained in 'Utopia' was not likely to be -directed personally against Wolsey, however much his policy might come in -for its share of criticisms along with the rest. - -The point of the 'Utopia' consisted in the contrast presented by its ideal -commonwealth to the condition and habits of the European commonwealths of -the period. This contrast is most often left to be drawn by the reader -from his own knowledge of contemporary politics, and hence the peculiar -advantage of the choice by More of such a vehicle for the bold satire it -contained. Upon any other hypothesis than that the evils against which its -satire was directed were admitted to be _real_, the romance of 'Utopia' -must also be admitted to be harmless. To pronounce it to be dangerous was -to admit its truth. - -[Sidenote: International policy of the Utopians.] - -Take, _e.g._, the following passage relating to the international policy -of the Utopians:-- - -'While other nations are always entering into leagues, and breaking and -renewing them, the Utopians never enter into a league with any nation. For -what is the use of a league? they say. As though there were no natural tie -between man and man! and as though any one who despised this natural tie -would, forsooth, regard mere words! They hold this opinion all the more -strongly, because in that quarter of the world the leagues and treaties of -princes are not observed as faithfully as they should be. For in _Europe_, -and especially in those parts of it where the Christian faith and religion -are professed, the sanctity of leagues is held sacred and inviolate; -partly owing to the justice and goodness of princes, and partly from their -fear and reverence of the authority of the Popes, who, as they themselves -never enter into obligations which they do not most religiously -perform[!], command other princes under all circumstances to abide by -_their_ promises, and punish delinquents by pastoral censure and -discipline. For indeed, with good reason, it would be thought a most -scandalous thing for those whose peculiar designation is "the faithful," -to be wanting in the faithful observance of treaties. But in those distant -regions ... no faith is to be placed in leagues, even though confirmed by -the most solemn ceremonies. Some flaw is easily found in their wording -which is intentionally made ambiguous so as to leave a loophole through -which the parties may break both their league and their faith. Which -craft--yes, _fraud_ and _deceit_--if it were perpetrated with respect to a -contract between private parties, they would indignantly denounce as -sacrilege and deserving the gallows, whilst those who suggest these very -things to princes, glory in being the authors of them. Whence it comes to -pass that justice seems altogether a plebeian and vulgar virtue, quite -below the dignity of royalty; or at least there must be two kinds of it, -the one for common people and the poor, very narrow and contracted, the -other, the virtue of princes, much more dignified and free, so that _that_ -only is unlawful to _them_ which they don't _like_. The morals of princes -being such in that region, it is not, I think, without reason that the -Utopians enter into no leagues at all. Perhaps they would alter their -opinion if they lived amongst us.'[557] - -[Sidenote: Its bitter satire on the policy of princes.] - -Read without reference to the international history of the period, these -passages appear perfectly harmless. But read in the light of that -political history which, during the past few years, had become so mixed up -with the personal history of the Oxford Reformers, recollecting '_how_ -religiously' treaties had been made and broken by almost every sovereign -in Europe--Henry VIII. and the Pope included--the words in which the -justice and goodness of European princes is so mildly and modestly -extolled, become almost as bitter in their tone as the cutting censure of -Erasmus in the 'Praise of Folly,' or his more recent and open satire upon -kings. - -[Sidenote: And on the warlike policy of Henry VIII.] - -Again, bearing in mind the wars of Henry VIII., and how evidently the love -of military glory was the motive which induced him to engage in them, the -following passage contains almost as direct and pointed a censure of the -King's passion for war as the sermon preached by Colet in his presence:-- - -'The Utopians hate war as plainly brutal, although practised more eagerly -by man than by any other animal. And contrary to the sentiment of nearly -every other nation, they regard nothing more inglorious than glory derived -from war.'[558] - -Turning from international politics to questions of internal policy, and -bearing in mind the hint of Erasmus, that More had in view chiefly the -politics of his own country, it is impossible not to recognise in the -'Utopia' the expression, again and again, of the _sense of wrong_ stirred -up in More's heart, as he had witnessed how every interest of the -commonwealth had been sacrificed to Henry VIII.'s passion for war; and -how, in sharing the burdens it entailed, and dealing with the social evils -it brought to the surface, the interests of the poor had been sacrificed -to spare the pockets of the rich; how, whilst the very wages of the -labourer had been taxed to support the long-continued war expenditure, a -selfish Parliament, under colour of the old 'statutes of labourers,' had -attempted to cut down the amount of his wages, and to rob him of that fair -rise in the price of his labour which the drain upon the labour market had -produced. - -[Sidenote: Satire on recent legislation and the statutes of labourers.] - -It is impossible not to recognise that the recent statutes of labourers -was the target against which More's satire was specially directed, in the -following paragraph:-- - -[Sidenote: Injustice to the labouring classes.] - -'Let any one dare to compare with the even justice which rules in Utopia, -the justice of other nations; amongst whom, let me die, if I find any -trace at all of equity and justice. For where is the justice, that -noblemen, goldsmiths, and usurers, and those classes who either do nothing -at all, or, in what they do, are of no great service to the commonwealth, -should live a genteel and splendid life in idleness or unproductive -labour; whilst in the meantime the servant, the waggoner, the mechanic, -and the peasant, toiling almost longer and harder than the horse, in -labour so necessary that no commonwealth could endure a year without it, -lead a life so wretched that the condition of the horse seems more to be -envied; his labour being less constant, his food more delicious to his -palate, and his mind disturbed by no fears for the future?... - -'Is not that republic unjust and ungrateful which confers such benefits -upon the gentry (as they are called) and goldsmiths and others of that -class, whilst it cares to do nothing at all for the benefit of peasants, -colliers, servants, waggoners, and mechanics, without which no republic -could exist? Is not that republic unjust which, after these men have spent -the springtime of their lives in labour, have become burdened with age and -disease, and are in want of every comfort, unmindful of all their toil, -and forgetful of all their services, rewards them only by a miserable -death? - -[Sidenote: Modern governments a conspiracy of the rich against the poor.] - -'Worse than all, the rich constantly endeavour to pare away something -further from the daily wages of the poor, by private fraud, _and even by -public laws_, so that the already existing injustice (that those from whom -the republic derives the most benefit should receive the least reward), is -made still more unjust _through the enactments of public law_! Thus, after -careful reflection, it seems to me, as I hope for mercy, that our modern -republics are nothing but a conspiracy of the rich, pursuing their own -selfish interests under the name of a republic. They devise and invent all -ways and means whereby they may, in the first place, secure to themselves -the possession of what they have amassed by evil means; and, in the second -place, secure to their own use and profit the work and labour of the poor -at the lowest possible price. And so soon as the rich, in the name of the -public (_i.e._ even in the name of the poor), choose to decide that these -schemes shall be adopted, then they become _law_!'[559] - -[Sidenote: The Utopian Commonwealth a true _community_.] - -The whole framework of the Utopian commonwealth bears witness to More's -conviction, that what should be aimed at in his own country and elsewhere, -was a true _community_--not a rich and educated aristocracy on the one -hand, existing side by side with a poor and ignorant peasantry on the -other--but _one people, well-to-do and educated throughout_. - -[Sidenote: Every child educated.] - -Thus, More's opinion was, that in England in his time, 'far more than four -parts of the whole [people], divided into ten, could never read -English,'[560] and probably the education of the other six-tenths was -anything but satisfactory. He shared Colet's faith in education, and -represented that in Utopia _every child was properly educated_.[561] - -[Sidenote: Reduction of the hours of labour.] - -Again the great object of the social economy of Utopia was not to increase -the abundance of luxuries, or to amass a vast accumulation in few hands, -or even in national or royal hands, but to _lessen the hours of labour to -the working man_. By spreading the burden of labour more evenly over the -whole community--by taking care that there shall be no idle classes, be -they beggars or begging friars--More expressed the opinion that the hours -of labour to the working man might probably be reduced to _six_.[562] - -[Sidenote: General sanitary arrangements.] - -Again: living himself in Bucklersbury, in the midst of all the dirt and -filth of London's narrow streets; surrounded by the unclean, -ill-ventilated houses of the poor, whose floors of clay and rushes, never -cleansed, were pointed out by Erasmus as breeding pestilence, and inviting -the ravages of the sweating sickness; himself a commissioner of sewers, -and having thus some practical knowledge of London's sanitary -arrangements; More described the towns of Utopia as well and regularly -built, with wide streets, waterworks, hospitals, and numerous common -halls; all the houses well protected from the weather, as nearly as might -be fireproof, three stories high, with plenty of windows, and doors both -back and front, the back door always opening into a well-kept garden.[563] -All this was Utopian doubtless, and the result in Utopia of the still more -Utopian abolition of private property; but the gist and point of it -consisted in the contrast it presented with what he saw around him in -Europe, and especially in England, and men could hardly fail to draw the -lesson he intended to teach. - -It will not be necessary here to dwell further upon the details of the -social arrangements of More's ideal commonwealth,[564] or to enter at -length upon the philosophical opinions of the Utopians; but a word or two -will be needful to point out the connection of the latter with the views -of that little band of friends whose joint history I am here trying to -trace. - -[Sidenote: Faith in both science and religion.] - -One of the points most important and characteristic is the _fearless faith -in the laws of nature combined with a profound faith in religion_, which -runs through the whole work, and which may, I think, be traced also in -every chapter of the history of the Oxford Reformers. Their scientific -knowledge was imperfect, as it needs must have been, before the days of -Copernicus and Newton; but they had their eyes fearlessly open in every -direction, with no foolish misgivings lest science and Christianity might -be found to clash. They remembered (what is not always remembered in this -nineteenth century), that if there be any truth in Christianity, Nature -and her laws on the one hand and Christianity and her laws on the other, -being framed and fixed by the same Founder, must be in harmony, and that -therefore for Christians to act contrary to the laws of Nature, or to shut -their eyes to facts, on the ground that they are opposed to Christianity, -is--to speak plainly--to fight against one portion of the Almighty's laws -under the supposed sanction of another; to fight, therefore, without the -least chance of success, and with every prospect of doing harm instead of -good. - -[Sidenote: Theory of morals both Utilitarian and Christian.] - -Hence the moral philosophy of the Utopians was both Utilitarian and -Christian. Its distinctive features, according to More, were--1st, that -they placed _pleasure_ (in the sense of 'utility') as the chief object of -life; and 2ndly, that they drew their arguments in support of this as well -from the principles of religion as from natural reason.[565] - -They defined 'pleasure' as 'every emotion or state of body or mind in -which nature leads us to take delight.' And from reason they deduced, as -modern utilitarians do, that not merely the pleasure of the moment must be -regarded as the object of life, but what will produce the greatest amount -and highest kind of pleasure in the long run; that, _e.g._ a greater -pleasure must not be sacrificed to a lesser one, or a pleasure pursued -which will be followed by pain. And from reason they also deduced that, -nature having bound men together by the ties of Society, and no one in -particular being a special favourite of nature, men are bound, in the -pursuit of pleasure, to regard the pleasures of others as well as their -own--to act, in fact, in the spirit of the golden rule; which course of -action, though it may involve some immediate sacrifice, they saw clearly -never costs so much as it brings back, both in the interchange of mutual -benefits, and in the mental pleasure of conferring kindnesses on others. -And thus they arrived at the same result as modern utilitarians, that, -while 'nature enjoins _pleasure_ as the end of all men's efforts,' she -enjoins such a reasonable and far-sighted pursuit of it that 'to live by -this rule is "_virtue_."' - -In other words, in Utopian philosophy, '_utility_' was recognised as _a_ -criterion of right and wrong; and from experience of what, under the laws -of Nature, is man's real far-sighted interest, was derived _a_ sanction to -the golden rule. And thus, instead of setting themselves against the -doctrine of utility, as some would do, on the ground of a supposed -opposition to Christianity, they recognised the identity between the two -standards. They recognised, as Mr. Mill urges, that Christians ought to do -now, 'in the golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth, the complete spirit of the -ethics of utility.'[566] - -The Utopians had no hesitation in defining 'virtue' as 'living according -to nature;' for, they said, 'to this end we have been created by God.' -Their religion itself taught them that 'God in his goodness created men -for happiness;' and therefore there was nothing unnatural in his -rewarding, with the promise of endless happiness hereafter, that 'virtue' -which is living according to those very laws of nature which He Himself -established to promote the happiness of men on earth. - -Nor was this, in More's hands, a merely philosophical theory. He made the -right practical use of it, in correcting those false notions of religion -and piety which had poisoned the morality of the middle ages, and soured -the devotion even of those mediæval mystics whose mission it was to uphold -the true religion of the heart. Who does not see that the deep devotion -even of a Tauler, or of a Thomas à Kempis, would have been deepened had -it recognised the truth that the religion of Christ was intended to add -heartiness and happiness to daily life, and not to draw men out of it; -that the highest ideal of virtue is, not to stamp out those feelings and -instincts which, under the rule of selfishness, make a hell of earth, but -so, as it were, to tune them into harmony, that, under the guidance of a -heart of love, they may add to the charm and the perfectness of life? The -ascetic himself who, seeing the vileness and the misery which spring out -of selfish riot in pleasure, condemns natural pleasure as almost in itself -a sin, fills the heaven of his dreams with white robes, golden crowns, -harps, music and angelic songs. Even _his_ highest ideal of perfect -existence is the unalloyed enjoyment of pleasure. He is a Utilitarian in -his dreams of heaven. - -More, in his 'Utopia,' dreamed of this celestial morality as practised -under earthly conditions. He had banished selfishness from his -commonwealth. He was bitter as any ascetic against vanity, and empty show, -and shams of all kinds, as well as all sensuality and excess; but his -definition of 'virtue' as 'living according to nature' made him reject the -ascetic notion of virtue as consisting in crossing all natural desires, in -abstinence from natural pleasure, and stamping out the natural instincts. -The Utopians, More said, 'gratefully acknowledged the tenderness of the -great Father of nature, who hath given us appetites which make the things -necessary for our preservation also agreeable to us. How miserable would -life be if hunger and thirst could only be relieved by bitter drugs.'[567] -Hence, too, the Utopians esteemed it not only 'madness,' but also -'_ingratitude to God_,' to waste the body by fasting, or to reject the -delights of life, unless by so doing a man can serve the public or promote -the happiness of others.[568] - -[Sidenote: The reverence of the Utopians for natural science.] - -Hence also they regarded the pursuit of natural science, the 'searching -out the secrets of nature,' not only as an agreeable pursuit, but as -'peculiarly acceptable to God.'[569] Seeing that they believed that 'the -first dictate of reason is love and reverence for Him to whom we owe all -we have and all we can hope for,'[570] it was natural that they should -regard the pursuit of science rather as a part of their religion than as -in any way antagonistic to it. But their science was not likely to be -speculative and dogmatic like that of the Schoolmen; accordingly, whilst -they were said to be very expert in the mathematical sciences (_numerandi -et metiendi scientia_), they knew nothing, More said, 'of what even boys -learn here in the "_Parva logicalia_;"' and whilst, by long use and -observation, they had acquired very exact knowledge of the motions of the -planets and stars, and even of winds and weather, and had invented very -exact instruments, they had never dreamed, More said, of those -astrological arts of divination 'which are now-a-days in vogue amongst -Christians.'[571] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Their religion broad and tolerant.] - -[Sidenote: No man punished for his religion.] - -From the expression of so fearless a faith in the consistency of -Christianity with science, it might be inferred that More would represent -the religion of the Utopians as at once broad and tolerant. It could not -logically be otherwise. The Utopians, we are told, differed very widely; -but notwithstanding all their different objects of worship, they agreed -in thinking that there is one Supreme Being who made and governs the -world. By the exigencies of the romance, the Christian religion had only -been recently introduced into the island. It existed there side by side -with other and older religions, and hence the difficulties of complete -toleration in Utopia were much greater hypothetically than they would be -in any European country. Still, sharing Colet's hatred of persecution, -More represented that it was one of the oldest laws of Utopia 'that no man -is to be punished for his religion.' Every one might be of any religion he -pleased, and might use argument to induce others to accept it. It was only -when men resorted to other force than that of persuasion, using reproaches -and violence, that they were banished from Utopia; and _then_, not on -account of their religion, and irrespective of whether their religion were -true or false, but for sowing sedition and creating a tumult.[572] - -This law Utopus founded to preserve the public peace, and for the -interests of religion itself. Supposing only one religion to be true and -the rest false (which he dared not rashly assert), Utopus had faith that -in the long run the innate force of truth would prevail, if supported only -by fair argument, and not damaged by resort to violence and tumult. Thus, -he did not punish even avowed atheists, although he considered them unfit -for any public trust.[573] - -[Sidenote: Priests of both sexes selected by ballot.] - -[Sidenote: Utopian priests.] - -Their priests were very few in number, of either sex,[574] and, like all -their other magistrates, elected by ballot (_suffragiis occultis_);[575] -and it was a point of dispute even with the Utopian _Christians_, whether -_they_ could not elect their own Christian priests in like manner, and -qualify them to perform all priestly offices, without any apostolic -succession or authority from the Pope.[576] Their priests were, in fact, -rather conductors of the public worship, inspectors of the public morals, -and ministers of education, than 'priests' in any sacerdotal sense of the -word. Thus whilst representing _Confession_ as in common use amongst the -Utopians, More significantly described them as confessing not to the -priests but to the heads of families.[577] Whilst also, as in Europe, such -was the respect shown them that they were not amenable to the civil -tribunals, it was said to be on account of the extreme fewness of their -number, and the high character secured by their mode of election, that no -great inconvenience resulted from this exemption in Utopian practice. - -If the diversity of religions in Utopia made it more difficult to suppose -perfect toleration, and thus made the contrast between Utopian and -European practice in this respect all the more telling, so also was this -the case in respect to the conduct of _public worship_. - -[Sidenote: Public worship in Utopia.] - -The hatred of the Oxford Reformers for the endless dissensions of European -Christians; the advice Colet was wont to give to theological students, 'to -keep to the Bible and the Apostles' Creed, and let divines, if they like, -dispute about the rest;' the appeal of Erasmus to Servatius, whether it -would not be better for 'all Christendom to be regarded as one monastery, -and all Christians as belonging to the same religious brotherhood,'--all -pointed, if directed to the practical question of public worship, to a -mode of worship in which all of every shade of sentiment could unite. - -This might be a dream even then, while as yet Christendom was nominally -united in one Catholic Church; and still more practically impossible in a -country like Utopia, where men worshipped the Supreme Being under -different symbols and different names, as it might be now even in a -Protestant country like England, where religion seems to be the source of -social divisions and castes rather than a tie of brotherhood, separating -men in their education, in their social life, and even in their graves, by -the hard line of sectarian difference. It might be a dream, but it was one -worth a place in the dream-land of More's ideal commonwealth. - -[Sidenote: All sects unite in public worship.] - -Temples, nobly built and spacious, in whose solemn twilight men of all -sects meet, in spite of their distinctions, to unite in a public worship -avowedly so arranged that nothing may be seen or heard which shall jar -with the feelings of any class of the worshippers--nothing in which all -cannot unite (for every sect performs its own _peculiar_ rites in -_private_);--no images, so that every one may represent the Deity to his -own thoughts in his own way; no forms of prayer, but such as every one may -use without prejudice to his own private opinion;--a service so expressive -of their common brotherhood that they think it a great impiety to enter -upon it with a consciousness of anger or hatred to any one, without having -first purified their hearts and reconciled every difference; incense and -other sweet odours and waxen lights burned, not from any notion that they -can confer any benefit on God, which even men's prayers cannot, but -because they are useful aids to the worshippers;[578] the men occupying -one side of the temple, the women the other, and all clothed in white; -the whole people rising as the priest who conducts the worship enters the -temple in his beautiful vestments, wonderfully wrought of birds' plumage, -to join in hymns of praise, accompanied by music; then priest and people -uniting in solemn prayer to God in a set form of words, so composed that -each can apply its meaning to himself, offering thanks for the blessings -which surround them, for the happiness of their commonwealth, for their -having embraced a religious persuasion which they _hope_ is the most true -one; praying that if they are mistaken they may be led to what is _really_ -the true one, so that all may be brought to unity of faith and practice, -unless in his inscrutable will the Almighty should otherwise ordain; and -concluding with a prayer that, as soon as it may please Him, He may take -them to Himself; lastly, this prayer concluded, the whole congregation -bowing solemnly to the ground, and then, after a short pause, separating -to spend the remainder of the day in innocent amusement,--this was More's -ideal of public worship![579] - -Such was the second book of the 'Utopia,' probably written by More whilst -on the embassy, towards the close of 1515, or soon after his return. Well -might he conclude with the words, 'I freely confess that many things in -the commonwealth of Utopia I rather _wish_ than _hope_ to see adopted in -_our own_!' - - -IV. THE 'INSTITUTIO PRINCIPIS CHRISTIANI' OF ERASMUS (1516). - -Some months before More began to write his 'Utopia,' Erasmus had commenced -a little treatise with a very similar object. In the spring of 1515, -while staying with More in London, he had mentioned, in a letter to -Cardinal Grimanus[580] at Rome, that he was already at work on his -'Institutes of the Christian Prince,' designed for the benefit of Prince -Charles, into whose honorary service he had recently been drawn. - -[Sidenote: Connection between the 'Utopia' and the 'Christian Prince.'] - -The similarity in the sentiments expressed in this little treatise and in -the 'Utopia' would lead to the conclusion that they were written in -concert by the two friends, as their imitations of Lucian had been under -similar circumstances. Political events must have often formed the topic -of their conversation when together in the spring; and the connection of -the one with the Court of Henry VIII. and the other with that of Prince -Charles, would be likely to give their thoughts a practical direction. -Possibly they may have parted with the understanding that, independently -of each other, both works should be written on the common subject, and -expressing their common views. Be this as it may, while More went on his -embassy to Flanders, and returned to write his 'Utopia,' Erasmus went to -Basle to correct the proof-sheets of the 'Novum Instrumentum,' and to -finish the 'Institutio Principis Christiani.' - -On his return from Basle in the spring of the following year Erasmus -brought his manuscript with him, and left it under the care of the -Chancellor of Prince Charles,[581] to be printed by Thierry Martins, the -printer of Louvain, whilst he himself proceeded to England. Thus it was -being printed while Erasmus was in England in August 1516, and while the -manuscript of the second book of More's 'Utopia' was still lying -unpublished, waiting until More should find leisure to write the -Introductory Book which he was intending to prefix to it. - - * * * * * - -The publication by Erasmus of the 'Christian Prince' so soon after the -'Novum Instrumentum' that the two came before the public together was not -without its significance. It gave to the public expression of the views of -Erasmus that wideness and completeness of range which More had given to -his views by embracing both religious and political subjects in his as yet -unpublished 'Utopia.' - -[Sidenote: Christianity and the laws of nature.] - -By laying hold of the truth that the laws of nature and Christianity owe -their origin to the same great Founder, More had adopted the one -standpoint from which alone, in the long run, the Christian in an age of -rapid progress can look calmly on the discoveries of science and -philosophy without fears for his faith. He had trusted his bark to the -current, because he was sure it must lead into the ocean of truth; while -other men, for lack of that faith, were hugging the shore, mistaking -forsooth, in their idle dreams, the shallow bay in which they had moored -their craft for the fathomless ocean itself! This faith of More's had been -shared by Colet--nay, most probably More had caught it from him. It was -Colet who had been the first of the little group of Oxford Reformers to -proclaim that Christianity had nothing to fear from the 'new -learning,'--witness his school, and the tone and spirit of his Oxford -lectures. Erasmus, too, had shared in this same faith. In his 'Novum -Instrumentum' he had placed Christianity, so far as he was able, in its -proper place--at the head of the advanced thought of the age. - -But More had gone one step further. The man who believes that Christianity -and the laws of nature were thus framed in perfect harmony by the same -Founder must have faith in _both_. As he will not shrink from accepting -the results of science and philosophy, so he will not shrink, on the other -hand, from carrying out Christianity into practice in every department of -social and political life. - -Accordingly More had fearlessly done this in his 'Utopia.' And this Colet -also had done in his own practical way; preaching Christian politics to -Henry VIII. and Wolsey, from his pulpit as occasion required, believing -Christianity to be equally of force in the sphere of international policy -as within the walls of a cloister. And now, in the 'Institutio Principis -Christiani,' Erasmus followed in the same track for the special benefit of -Prince Charles, who, then sixteen years old, had succeeded, on the death -of Ferdinand in the spring of 1516, to the crowns of Castile and Aragon, -as well as to the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily and of the island of -Sardinia. - -[Sidenote: '_The Prince_,' of Machiavelli.] - -[Sidenote: Hugo Grotius.] - -The full significance of this joint action of the three friends will only -be justly appreciated if it be taken into account that probably, at the -very moment when Erasmus was writing his 'Christian Prince' and More his -'Utopia,' the as yet unpublished manuscript of '_The Prince_' of -_Machiavelli_ was lying in the study of its author. The semi-pagan school -of Italy was not only drifting into the denial of Christianity itself, but -it had already cast aside the Christian standard of morals as one which -would not work in practice at least in political affairs. The -Machiavellian theory was already avowedly accepted and acted upon in -international affairs by the Pope himself; and indeed, as I have said, it -was not a theory invented by Machiavelli; what that great philosopher had -achieved was rather the codification of the current practice and -traditions of the age.[582] A revolution had to be wrought in public -feeling before the Christian theory of politics could be established in -place of the one then in the ascendant--a revolution to attempt which at -that time might well have seemed like a forlorn hope. But placed as the -Oxford Reformers were, so close to the ears of royalty, in a position -which gave them some influence at least with Henry VIII., with Prince -Charles, and with Leo X., it was their duty to do what they could. And -possibly it may have been in some measure owing to their labours that a -century later Hugo Grotius, the father of the modern international system, -was able in the name of Europe to reject the Machiavellian theory as one -that would not work, and to adopt in its place the Christian theory as the -one which was sanctioned by the laws of nature, and upon which alone it -was safe to found the polity of the civilised world.[583] - -It may be worth while to notice also one other point which may be said to -turn upon this perception of the relation of Christianity to the laws of -nature. - -To the man who does not recognise the harmony between them, religion and -the world are divorced, as it were. Religion has no place in politics or -business, and scarcely even in family life. These secular matters begin to -be considered as the devil's concerns. A man must choose whether he will -be a monk or man of the world, or still more often he tries to live at the -same time two separate lives, the one sacred, the other secular, trusting -that he shall be able to atone for the sins of the one by the penances and -devotions of the other. This was the condition into which the dogmatic -creed of the Schoolmen had, in fact, brought its adherents. It is a matter -of notorious history that there _had_ grown up this vicious severance -between the clergy and the laity, and between things religious and -secular, and that in consequence religion had lost its practical and -healthy tone, while worldly affairs were avowedly conducted in a worldly -spirit. The whole machinery of confession, indulgences, and penances bore -witness as well to the completeness of the severance as to the -hopelessness of any reunion. - -But to the man who _does_ recognise in the laws of nature the laws of the -Giver of the golden rule, the distinction between things religious and -things secular begins to give way. In proportion as his heart becomes -Christian, and thus catches the spirit of the golden rule, and his mind -becomes enlightened and begins to understand the laws of social and -political economy, in that proportion does his religion lose its ascetic -and sickly character, and find its proper sphere, not in the fulfilment of -a routine of religious observances, but in the honest discharge of the -daily duties which belong to his position in life. - -[Sidenote: The '_Christian Prince_' of Erasmus.] - -The position assumed by Erasmus in these respects will be best learned by -a brief examination of the 'Institutes of the Christian Prince.' - -First he struck at the root of the notion that a prince having received -his kingdom _jure Divino_ had a right to use it for his own selfish ends. -He laid down at starting the proposition that the one thing which a -'prince ought to keep in view in the administration of his government is -that same thing which a people ought to keep in view in choosing a prince, -viz. _the public good_.'[584] - -Christianity in his view was as obligatory on a prince as on a priest or -monk. Thus he wrote to Prince Charles:-- - -'As often as it comes into your mind that you are a prince, call to mind -also that you are a _Christian_ prince.'[585] - -[Sidenote: Duties of a Christian Prince to his people.] - -But the Christianity he spoke of was a very different thing from what it -was thought to be by many. 'Do not think,' he wrote, 'that Christianity -consists in ceremonies, that is, in the observance of the decrees and -constitutions of the Church. The Christian is not he who is baptized, or -he who is consecrated, or he who is present at holy rites; but he who is -united to Christ in closest affection, and who shows it by his holy -actions.... Do not think that you have done your duty to Christ when you -have sent a fleet against the Turks, or when you have founded a church or -a monastery. There is no duty by the performance of which _you_ can more -secure the favour of God _than by making yourself a prince useful to the -people_.'[586] - -Having taken at the outset this healthy and practical view of the -relations of Christianity to the conduct of a prince, Erasmus proceeded to -refer everything to the Christian standard. Thus he continued:-- - -'If you find that you cannot defend your kingdom, without violating -justice, without shedding much human blood, without much injury to -religion, rather lay it down and retire from it.' - -But he was not to retire from the duties of his kingdom merely to save -himself from trouble or danger. 'If you cannot defend the interests of -your people without risk to your life, prefer the public good even to your -own life.'[587]... The Christian prince should be a true father to his -people.[588] - -The good of the people was from the Christian point of view to override -everything else, even royal prerogatives. - -[Sidenote: Limited monarchy the best.] - -'If princes were perfect in every virtue, a pure and simple monarchy -might be desirable; but as this can hardly ever be in actual practice, as -human affairs are now, a _limited monarchy_[589] is preferable, one in -which the aristocratic and democratic elements are mixed and united, and -so balance one another.'[590] And lest Prince Charles should kick against -the pricks, and shrink from the abridgment of his autocratic power, -Erasmus tells him that 'if a prince wish well to the republic, his power -will not be restrained, but aided by these means.'[591] - -After contrasting the position of the pagan and Christian prince, Erasmus -further remarks:-- - -[Sidenote: Consent of the people makes a Prince.] - -'He who wields his empire as becomes a Christian, does not _part_ with his -right, but he holds it in a different way; both more gloriously and more -safely.... Those are not your subjects whom you _force_ to obey you, for -it is _consent_ which makes a prince, but those are your true subjects who -serve you voluntarily.... The duties between a prince and people are -_mutual_. The people owe _you_ taxes, loyalty, and honour; you in your -turn ought to be to the people a good and watchful prince. If you wish to -levy taxes on your people as of right, take care that you first perform -your part--first in the discharge of your duties pay _your_ taxes to -them.'[592] - -[Sidenote: Taxes should not oppress the poor.] - -Proceeding from the general to the particular, there is a separate -chapter, 'De Vectigalibus et Exactionibus,' remarkable for the clear -expression of the views which More had advanced in his 'Utopia,' and -which the Oxford Reformers held in common, with regard to the unchristian -way in which the interests of the poor were too often sacrificed and lost -sight of in the levying of taxes. The great aim of a prince, he contended, -should be to reduce taxation as much as possible. Rather than increase it, -it would be better, he wrote, for a prince to reduce his unnecessary -expenditure, to dismiss idle ministers, to avoid wars and foreign -enterprises, to restrain the rapacity of ministers, and rather to study -the right administration of revenues than their augmentation. If it should -be really necessary to exact something from the people, then, he -maintained, it is the part of a good prince to choose such ways of doing -so as should cause as little inconvenience as possible to those of -_slender means_. It may perhaps be expedient to call upon the rich to be -frugal; but to reduce the _poor_ to hunger and crime would be both most -inhuman and also hardly _safe_.... It requires care also, he continued, -lest the inequality of property should be too great. 'Not that I would -wish to take away any property from any one by force, but that means -should be taken to prevent the wealth of the multitude from getting into -few hands.'[593] - -[Sidenote: Necessaries of life should not be taxed.] - -[Sidenote: It is best to tax luxuries.] - -Erasmus then proceeded to inquire what mode of taxation would prove least -burdensome to the people. And the conclusion he came to was, that 'a good -prince will burden with as few taxes as possible such things as are in -_common use amongst the lowest classes_, such things as corn, bread, beer, -wine, clothes, and other things necessary to life. Whereas these are what -are now most burdened, and that in more than one way; first by heavy taxes -which are farmed out, and commonly called _assizes_; then by _customs_, -which again are farmed out in the same way; lastly by _monopolies_, from -which little revenue comes to the prince, while the poor are mulcted with -great charges. Therefore it would be best, as I have said, that a prince -should increase his revenue by contracting his expenditure; ... and if he -cannot avoid taxing something, and the affairs of the people require it, -let those foreign products be taxed which minister not so much to the -necessities of life as to _luxury and pleasure, and which are used only by -the rich_; as, for instance, fine linen, silk, purple, pepper, spices, -ointments, gems, and whatever else is of that kind.'[594] - -Erasmus wound up this chapter on taxation by applying the principles of -common honesty to the question of _coinage_, in connection with which many -iniquities were perpetrated by princes in the sixteenth century. - -[Sidenote: Honesty in regard to the coinage.] - -'Finally, in coining money a good prince will maintain that good faith -which he owes to both God and man, ... in which matter there are four ways -in which the people are wont to be plundered, as we saw some time ago -after the death of Charles, when a long anarchy more hurtful than any -tyranny afflicted your dominions. First the metal of the coins is -deteriorated by mixture with alloys, next its weight is lessened, then it -is diminished by clipping, and lastly its nominal value is increased or -lowered whenever such a process would be likely to suit the exchequer of -the prince.'[595] - -In the chapter on the '_Making and Amending of Laws_,'[596] Erasmus in the -same way fixes upon some of the points which are so prominently mentioned -in the 'Utopia.' - -[Sidenote: Prevention of crime rather than punishment.] - -Thus he urges that the greatest attention should be paid, not to the -punishment of crimes when committed, but to the prevention of the -commission of crimes worthy of punishment. Again, there is a paragraph in -which it is urged that just as a wise surgeon does not proceed to -amputation except as a last resort, so all remedies should be tried before -_capital punishment_ is resorted to.[597] This was one of the points urged -by More. - -[Sidenote: The nobility.] - -[Sidenote: War.] - -Thus also in speaking of the removal of occasions and causes of crime, he -urged, just as More had done, that idle people should either be set to -work or banished from the realm. The number of priests and monasteries -should be kept in moderation. Other idle classes--especially -soldiers--should not be allowed. As to the nobility, he would not, he -said, detract from the honour of their noble birth, if their character -were noble also. 'But if they are such as we see plenty nowadays, softened -by ease, made effeminate by pleasure, unskilled in all good arts, -revellers, eager sportsmen, not to say anything worse; ... why should this -race of men be preferred to shoemakers or husbandmen?'[598] The next -chapter is '_De Magistratibus et Officiis_,' and then follows one, '_De -Foederibus_,'[599] in which Erasmus takes the same ground as that taken by -More, that Christianity itself is a bond of union between Christian -nations which ought to make leagues unnecessary.[600] In the chapter '_De -Bello suscipiendo_,' he expressed his well-known hatred of war. 'A good -prince,' he said, 'will never enter upon any war at all unless after -trying all possible means it cannot be avoided. If we were of this mind, -scarcely any wars would ever occur between any nations. Lastly, if so -pestilential a thing cannot be avoided, it should be the next care of a -prince that it should be waged with as little evil as possible to his -people, and as little expense as possible of Christian blood, and as -quickly as possible brought to an end.' It was natural that, holding as he -did in common with Colet and More such strong views against war, he should -express them as strongly in this little treatise as he had already done -elsewhere. It is not needful here to follow his remarks throughout. It -would involve much repetition. But it may be interesting to inquire what -remedy or substitutes for war be proposed. He mentioned two. First, the -reference of disputes between princes to arbitrators; second, the -disposition on the part of princes rather to concede a point in dispute -than to insist upon it at far greater cost than the thing is worth.[601] - -[Sidenote: Conclusion.] - -He concludes this, the last chapter of the book, with a personal appeal to -Prince Charles. 'Christ founded a bloodless empire. He wished it always to -be bloodless. He delighted to call himself the "Prince of _Peace_." May He -grant likewise that by _your_ good offices and by _your_ wisdom there may -be a cessation at last from the maddest of wars. The remembrance of past -evils will commend peace to our acceptance, and the calamities of former -times redouble the honour of the benefits conferred by _you_!' - -This was the 'Institutio Principis Christiani' of Erasmus; a work written, -as I have said, while More was writing his 'Utopia,' but printed in August -1516, at Louvain, while Erasmus was in England, and while the manuscript -of the 'Utopia' was lying unpublished, waiting for the completion of -More's Introduction. - - -V. MORE COMPLETES HIS 'UTOPIA'--THE INTRODUCTORY BOOK (1516). - -More's Introduction was still unwritten, and the 'Utopia' thus in an -unfinished state, when Erasmus arrived in England in the autumn of 1516. -Erasmus seems on this occasion to have spent more time with Fisher at -Rochester than with More in London; but he at least paid the latter a -short visit on his way to Rochester,[602] and repeated it before leaving -England. The latter visit seems also to have been more than a flying one, -for we find him writing to Ammonius, that he might possibly stay a few -days longer in England, were he not 'afraid of making himself a stale -guest to More's wife.'[603] Encouraged as More doubtless was by Erasmus, -and spurred on by the knowledge that the 'Institutio Principis Christiani' -was already in the press, he still does not seem to have been able to find -time to complete his manuscript before Erasmus left England. Probably, -however, it was arranged between them that it should be completed and -printed with as little delay as possible at the same press and in the same -type and form as Erasmus's work. - -[Sidenote: 'Utopia' sent to the press.] - -The manuscript was accordingly sent after Erasmus in October,[604] and by -him and Peter Giles at once placed in the hands of Thierry Martins for -publication at Louvain.[605] - -This long delay in the completion of the 'Utopia' had been caused by a -concurrence of circumstances. More had been closely occupied by public -matters, in addition to his judicial duties in the city, and a large -private practice at the bar--a combination of pressing engagements likely -to leave him but little leisure for literary purposes. Even when the daily -routine of public labours was completed, there were domestic duties which -it was not in his nature to neglect. He was passionately fond of his home, -and 'reckoned the enjoyment of his family a necessary part of the business -of the man who does not wish to be a stranger in his own house.'[606] - -Nor did the 'Utopia' itself suffer from the delay in its publication. -Instead of losing its freshness it gained in interest and point; for, as -it happened, the introductory book was written under circumstances which -gave it a peculiar value which it could not otherwise have had. - -On More's return to England from his foreign mission, he had been obliged -to throw himself again into the vortex of public business. The singular -discretion and ability displayed by him in the conduct of the delicate -negotiations entrusted to his charge on this and another occasion, had -induced Henry VIII. to try to attach him to his court. - -[Sidenote: More declines to enter the Royal service.] - -Hitherto he had acted more on behalf of the London merchants than directly -for the King. Now Wolsey was ordered to retain him in the King's service. -More was unwilling, however, to accede to the proposal, and made excuses. -Wolsey, thinking no doubt that he shrank from relinquishing the emoluments -of his position as undersheriff, and the income arising from his practice -at the bar, offered him a pension, and suggested that the King could not, -consistently with his honour, offer him less than the income he would -relinquish by entering his service.[607] More wrote to Erasmus that he had -declined the pension, and thought he should continue to do so; he -preferred, he said, his present judicial position to a higher one, and was -afraid that were he to accept a pension without relinquishing it, his -fellow-citizens would lose their confidence in his impartiality in case -any questions were to arise, as they sometimes did, between them and the -Crown. The fact that he was indebted to the King for his pension might -make them think him a little the less true to their cause.[608] Wolsey -reported More's refusal to the King, who it seems honourably declined to -press him further at present.[609] Such, however, was More's popularity in -the city, and the rising estimation in which he was held, that it was -evident the King would not rest until he had drawn him into his -service--yes, '_dragged_,' exclaims Erasmus, 'for no one ever tried harder -to get admitted to court than he did to keep out of it.'[610] - -[Sidenote: Writes the Introductory Book to explain his reasons.] - -As the months of 1516 went by, More, feeling that his entry into Royal -service was only a question of time, determined, it would seem, to take -the opportunity, while as yet he was free and unfettered, to insert in the -introduction to his unfinished 'Utopia' still more pointed allusion to one -or two matters relating to the social condition of the country and the -policy of Henry VIII.; also at the same time to make some public -explanation of his reluctance to enter the service of his sovereign. - -The prefatory book which More now added to his description of the -commonwealth of Utopia was arranged so as to introduce the latter to the -reader in a way likely to attract his interest, and to throw an air of -reality over the romance. - -[Sidenote: More's imaginary story.] - -[Sidenote: Meets Raphael.] - -More related how he had been sent as an ambassador to Flanders in company -with Tunstal, to compose some important disputes between Henry VIII. and -Prince Charles. They met the Flemish ambassadors at Bruges. They had -several meetings without coming to an agreement. While the others went -back to Brussels to consult their prince, More went to Antwerp to see his -friend Peter Giles. One day, coming from mass, he saw Giles talking to a -stranger--a man past middle age, his face tanned, his beard long, his -cloak hanging carelessly about him, and wearing altogether the aspect of a -seafaring man. - -More then related how he had joined in the conversation, which turned upon -the manners and habits of the people of the new lands which Raphael (for -that was the stranger's name) had visited in voyages he had recently taken -with Vespucci. After he had told them how well and wisely governed were -some of these newly-found peoples, and especially the Utopians, and here -and there had thrown in just criticisms on the defects of European -governments, Giles asked the question, why, with all his knowledge and -judgment, he did not enter into Royal service, in which his great -experience might be turned to so good an account? Raphael expressed in -reply his unwillingness to enter into Royal servitude. Giles explained -that he did not mean any '_servitude_' at all, but _honourable service_, -in which he might confer great public benefits, as well as increase his -own happiness. The other replied that he did not see how he was to be made -happier by doing what would be so entirely against his inclinations. Now -he was free to do as he liked, and he suspected very few courtiers could -say the same. - -[Sidenote: Why Raphael will not enter into Royal service.] - -Here More put in a word, and urged that even though it might be against -the grain to Raphael, he ought not to throw away the great influence for -good which he might exert by entering the council of some great prince. -Raphael replied that his friend More was doubly mistaken. His talents were -not so great as he supposed, and if they were, his sacrifice of rest and -peace would be thrown away. It would do no good, for nearly all princes -busy themselves far more in military affairs (of which, he said, he -neither had, nor wished to have, any experience), than in the good arts of -peace. They care a great deal more how, by fair means or foul, to acquire -new kingdoms, than how to govern well those which they have already. -Besides, their ministers either are, or think that they are, too wise to -listen to any new counsellor; and, if they ever do so, it is only to -attach to their own interest some one whom they see to be rising in their -prince's favour. - -[Sidenote: Raphael on the number of thieves in England.] - -After this, Raphael having made a remark which showed that he had been in -England, the conversation turned incidentally upon _English_ affairs, and -Raphael proceeded to tell how once at the table of Cardinal Morton he had -expressed his opinions freely upon the social evils of England. He had on -this occasion, he said, ventured to condemn the system of the wholesale -execution of thieves, who were hanged so fast that there were sometimes -twenty on a gibbet.[611] The severity was both unjustly great, and also -ineffectual. No punishment, however severe, could deter those from robbing -who can find no other means of livelihood. - -Then Raphael is made to allude to three causes why the number of thieves -was so large:-- - -1st. There are numbers of wounded and disbanded soldiers who are unable to -resume their old employments, and are too old to learn new ones. - -2nd. The gentry who live at ease out of the labour of others, keep around -them so great a number of idle fellows not brought up to any trade, that -often, from the death of their lord or their own illness, numbers of these -idle fellows are liable to be thrown upon the world without resources, to -steal or starve. Raphael then is made to ridicule the notion that it is -needful to maintain this idle class, as some argue, in order to keep up a -reserve of men ready for the army, and still more severely to criticise -the notion that it is necessary to keep a standing army in time of peace. -France, he said, had found to her cost the evil of keeping in readiness -these human wild beasts, as also had Rome, Carthage, and Syria, in ancient -times. - -[Sidenote: Raphael on the rage for pasture-farming.] - -3rd. Raphael pointed out as another cause of the number of thieves--an -evil peculiar to England--the rage for sheep-farming, and the ejections -consequent upon it. 'For,' he said, 'when some greedy and insatiable -fellow, the pest of his county, chooses to enclose several thousand acres -of contiguous fields within the circle of one sheepfold, farmers are -ejected from their holdings, being got rid of either by fraud or force, or -tired out by repeated injuries into parting with their property. In this -way it comes to pass that these poor wretches, men, women, husbands, -wives, orphans, widows, parents with little children--households greater -in number than in wealth, for arable-farming requires many hands--all -these emigrate from their native fields without knowing where to go. Their -effects are not worth much at best; they are obliged to sell them for -almost nothing when they are forced to go. And the produce of the sale -being spent, as it soon must be, what resource then is left to them but -either to steal, and to be hanged, justly forsooth, for stealing, or to -wander about and beg. If they do the latter, they are thrown into prison -as idle vagabonds when they would thankfully work if only some one would -give them employment. For there is no work for husbandmen when there is no -arable-farming. One shepherd and herdsman will suffice for a pasture-farm, -which, while under tillage, employed many hands. Corn has in the meantime -been made dearer in many places by the same cause. Wool, too, has risen in -price, owing to the rot amongst the sheep, and now the little clothmakers -are unable to supply themselves with it. For the sheep are falling into -few and powerful hands; and these, if they have not a _monopoly_, have at -least an _oligopoly_, and can keep up the price. - -[Sidenote: On beer-houses, &c.] - -'Add to these causes the increasing luxury and extravagance of the upper -classes, and indeed of all classes--the tippling houses, taverns, -brothels, and other dens of iniquity, wine and beer houses, and places for -gambling. Do not all these, after rapidly exhausting the resources of -their devotees, educate them for crime? - -[Sidenote: Practical remedies suggested.] - -'Let these pernicious plagues be rooted out. Enact that those who destroy -agricultural hamlets or towns should rebuild them, or give them up to -those who will do so. Restrain these engrossings of the rich, and the -license of exercising what is in fact a monopoly. Let fewer persons be -bred up in idleness. Let tillage farming be restored. Let the woollen -manufacture be introduced, so that honest employment may be found for -those whom want has already made into thieves, or who, being now vagabonds -or idle retainers, will become thieves ere long. Surely if you do not -remedy these evils, your rigorous execution of justice in punishing -thieves will be in vain, which indeed is more specious than either just or -efficacious. For verily if you allow your people to be badly educated, -their morals corrupted from childhood, and then, when they are men, punish -them for the very crimes to which they have been trained from childhood, -what is this, I ask, but first to make the thieves and then to punish -them?'[612] - -Raphael then went on to show that, in his opinion, it was both a bad and a -mistaken policy to inflict the same punishment in the case of both theft -and murder, such a practice being sure to operate as an encouragement to -the thief to commit murder to cover his crime, and suggested that hard -labour on public works would be a better punishment for theft than -hanging. - -[Sidenote: More's connection with Henry VIII.] - -After Raphael had given an amusing account of the way in which these -suggestions of his had been received at Cardinal Morton's table, More -repeated his regret that his talents could not be turned to practical -account at some royal court, for the benefit of mankind. Thus the point of -the story was brought round again to the question whether Raphael should -or should not attach himself to some royal court--the question which Henry -VIII. was pressing upon More, and which he would have finally to settle, -in the course of a few months, one way or the other. It is obvious that, -in framing Raphael's reply to this question, More intended to express his -own feelings, and to do so in such a way that if, after the publication of -the 'Utopia,' Henry VIII. were still to press him into his service, it -would be with a clear understanding of his strong disapproval of the -King's most cherished schemes, as well as of many of those expedients -which would be likely to be suggested by courtiers as the best means of -tiding over the evils which must of necessity be entailed upon the country -by his persistence in them. - -Raphael, in his reply, puts the supposition that the councillors were -proposing schemes of international intrigue, with a view to the -furtherance of the King's desires for the ultimate extension of his -empire:-- - -[Sidenote: Evident reference to English politics and More's position.] - -What if Raphael were then to express his own judgment that this policy -should be entirely changed, the notion of extension of empire given up, -that the kingdom was already too great to be governed by one man, and that -the King had better not think of adding others to it? What if he were to -put the case of the 'Achorians,' neighbours of the Utopians, who some time -ago waged war to obtain possession of another kingdom to which their king -contended that he was entitled by descent through an ancient marriage -alliance [just as Henry VIII. had claimed France as '_his very true -patrimony and inheritance_'], but which people, after conquering the new -kingdom, found the trouble of keeping it a constant burden [just as -England was already finding Henry's recent conquests in France], involving -the continuance of a standing army, the burden of taxes, the loss of their -property, the shedding of their blood for another's glory, the destruction -of domestic peace, the corrupting of their morals by war, the nurture of -the lust of plunder and robbery, till murders became more and more -audacious, and the laws were treated with contempt? What if Raphael were -to suggest that the example of these Achorians should be followed, who -under such circumstances refused to be governed by half a king, and -insisted that their king should choose which of his two kingdoms he would -govern, and give up the other; how, Raphael was made to ask, would such -counsel be received? - -And further: what if the question of ways and means were discussed for -the supply of the royal exchequer, and one were to propose tampering with -the currency; a second, the pretence of imminent war to justify war taxes, -and the proclamation of peace as soon as these were collected; a third, -the exaction of penalties under antiquated and obsolete laws which have -long been forgotten, and thus are often transgressed; a fourth, the -prohibition under great penalties of such things as are against public -interest, and then the granting of dispensations and licenses for large -sums of money; a fifth, the securing of the judges on the side of the -royal prerogative;--'What if here again I were to rise' [Raphael is made -to say] 'and contend that all these counsels were dishonest and -pernicious, that not only the king's honour, but also his safety, rests -more upon his people's wealth than upon his own, who (I might go on to -show) choose a king for their own sake and not for his, viz. that by his -care and labour they might live happily and secure from danger; ... that -if a king should fall into such contempt or hatred of his people that he -cannot secure their loyalty without resort to threats, exactions, and -confiscations, and his people's impoverishment, he had better abdicate his -throne, rather than attempt by these means to retain the name without the -glory of empire?... What if I were to advise him to put aside his sloth -and his pride, ... that he should live on his own revenue, that he should -accommodate his expenditure to his income, that he should restrain crime, -and by good laws prevent it, rather than allow it to increase and then -punish it, that he should repeal obsolete laws instead of attempting to -exact their penalties?... If I were to make such suggestions as these to -men strongly inclined to contrary views, would it not be telling idle -tales to the deaf?'[613] - -Thus was Raphael made to use words which must have been understood by -Henry VIII. himself, when he read them, as intended to convey to a great -extent More's own reasons for declining to accept the offer which Wolsey -had been commissioned to make to him. - -The introductory story was then brought to a close by the conversation -being made again to turn upon the laws and customs of the Utopians, the -detailed particulars of which, at the urgent request of Giles and More, -Raphael agreed to give after the three had dined together. A woodcut in -the Basle edition, probably executed by Holbein, represents them sitting -on a bench in the garden behind the house, under the shade of the trees, -listening to Raphael's discourse, of which the second book of the 'Utopia' -proposed to give, as nearly as might be, a verbatim report. - -[Sidenote: _Utopia_ published at Louvain.] - -With this bold and honest introduction the 'Utopia' was published at -Louvain by Thierry Martins, with a woodcut prefixed, representing the -island of Utopia, and with an imaginary specimen of the Utopian language -and characters. It was in the hands of the public by the beginning of the -new year.[614] - -Such was the remarkable political romance, which, from its literary -interest and merit, has been translated into almost every modern -language--a work which, viewed in its close relations to the history of -the times in which it was written, and the personal circumstances of its -author when he wrote it, derives still greater interest and importance, -inasmuch as it not only discloses the visions of hope and progress -floating before the eyes of the Oxford Reformers, but also embodies, as I -think I have been able to show, perhaps one of the boldest declarations of -a political creed ever uttered by an English statesman on the eve of his -entry into a king's service.[615] - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - - -I. WHAT COLET THOUGHT OF THE 'NOVUM INSTRUMENTUM' (1516). - -Having traced the progress and final publication of these works by Erasmus -and More, the enquiry suggests itself, how were they received? - -And first it may naturally be asked, What did Colet think of them, -especially of the 'Novum Instrumentum'? - -[Sidenote: Erasmus envies Colet's retirement, but works harder than ever.] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus begins his Paraphrases.] - -An early copy had doubtless been sent to him, and with the volume itself, -it would seem, came a letter from Erasmus, probably from Antwerp, by the -hand of Peter Meghen--'Unoculus,' as his friends called him.[616] In this -letter Erasmus had consulted him about his future plans. After the labours -of the past, and suffering as he was from feeble and precarious health, he -had indulged, it would seem, in the expression of longings that he could -share with Colet his prospects of rest. He knew how often Colet had -mentioned the wish to spend his old age in retirement and peace, with one -or two congenial companions, such as Erasmus; and now, just escaped from -his monotonous labours at Basle, he was for the moment inclined to take -Colet at his word. Still, much as he talked of rest, his mind would not -stop working. Witness, for instance, his 'Institutio Principis -Christiani.' In fact, while the 'Novum Instrumentum' and the works of St. -Jerome had been passing through the press the number of other works of his -had increased rather than lessened. During the very intervals of travel he -was sure to be writing some book. On his way to Basle he had written his -letter to Dorpius, and he had published with it a commentary on the first -Psalm, '_Beatus est vir_,' &c., which, by the way, he had dedicated to his -gentle friend, _Beatus_ Rhenanus, because, said he, '_blessed is_ the man -who is such as the Psalm describes.' New editions, also, of the 'De -Copiâ,' of the 'Praise of Folly,' and of the 'Adagia,' were constantly -being issued from the press of Froben, Martins, Schurerius, or some other -printer; for whatever bore the name of Erasmus now found so ready a sale, -that printers were anxious for his patronage. Visions, too, of future work -kept rising up before him. He wanted to write a commentary on the Epistle -to the Romans; and in writing to Colet it would seem that he had confided -to him his project of adding to his Latin version of the New Testament an -honest exposition of its meaning in the form of a simple _paraphrase_--a -work which it took him years to complete. Thus it came to pass that he had -mentioned these literary projects in the same letter in which he had -expressed himself as envious of Colet's anticipated rest, and that freedom -from the cares of poverty to which he himself was so constantly a prey. -Doubtless for a moment it had seemed to him easier to wish himself in -Colet's place than with renewed energy to toil on in his own. - -[Sidenote: Colet driven into retirement.] - -But every heart knoweth its own bitterness. Colet had his share of -troubles, which made him, in his turn, almost envy Erasmus. He felt as -keenly as Erasmus and More did, how the mad rush of princes to arms had -blasted the happy visions of what had seemed like a golden age -approaching, and he had been the first to speak out what he thought; but -now, while More and Erasmus could speak boldly and get Europe to listen to -what they had to say, he was thwarted and harassed by his bishop, and -obliged to crawl into retirement. His work was almost done. He could not -use his pulpit as he used to do. He had spent his patrimony in the -foundation of his school, and he had not another fortune to spend, for his -uncle's quarrel and other demands upon the residue had reduced his means -even below his wants. Nor had he much of bodily strength and energy left. -The sole survivor of a family of twenty-two, his health was not likely to -be robust, and now, at fifty, he spoke of himself as growing old, and -alluded with admiration to the high spirits of his still surviving mother, -and the beauty of her happy old age. - -[Sidenote: He procures the release from prison of one who had injured -him.] - -Still Colet had his heart in the work as much as ever. We do not hear much -of his doings, but what we _do_ hear is all in keeping with his character. -Thus we find him incidentally exerting himself to get some poor prisoner -released from the royal prison, and Erasmus exclaiming, 'I love that -Christian spirit of Colet's, for I hear that it was all owing to him, and -him alone, that N. was released, notwithstanding that N., though always -treated in the most friendly way by Colet, and professing himself as -friendly to Colet, had sided with Colet's enemies at the time that he was -accused by the calumnies of the bishops.'[617] - -It was about the time that he was thus returning good for evil to this -unfortunate prisoner, that the letter of Erasmus and the copy of the -'Novum Instrumentum' came to his hands. - -[Sidenote: Colet's delight in the success of Erasmus.] - -In spite of his own troubles he could hail the labours and success of -Erasmus with delight. Twenty years ago, while alone and single-handed, he -had longed for fellowship; now he could rejoice that in Erasmus he had not -only found a fellow-worker, but a successor who would carry on the work -much further than he could do. He had looked forward with eager -expectation to the appearance of the 'Novum Instrumentum,' and, -anticipating its perusal, had for months past[618] been working hard to -recover the little knowledge of Greek which, during the active business of -life, he had almost lost. And the more he felt that his own work was -drawing to a close, the more was he disposed to encourage Erasmus to go on -with his. He looked upon Erasmus now as the leader of the little band, -forgetting that Erasmus owed, in one sense, almost everything to him. - -This is the beautiful letter he wrote after reading the 'Novum -Instrumentum:'-- - - _Colet to Erasmus._ - - 'You cannot easily believe, my dear Erasmus, how much joy your letter - gave me, which was brought to me by our "one-eyed friend." For I - learned from it where you are (which I did not know before), and also - that you are likely to return to us, which would be very delightful - both to me and to your other friends, of whom you have a great many - here. - - [Sidenote: What Colet thought of the 'Novum Instrumentum.'] - - 'What you say about the New Testament I can understand. The volumes of - your new edition of it [the "Novum Instrumentum"] are here both - eagerly bought and everywhere read. By many, your labours are received - with approval and admiration. There are a few, also, who disapprove - and carp at them, saying what was said in the letter of Martin Dorpius - to you. But these are those divines whom you have described in your - "Praise of Folly" and elsewhere, no less truly than wittily, as men - whose praise is blame, and by whom it is an honour to be censured. - - 'For myself, I so love your work, and so clasp to my heart this new - edition of yours, that it excites mingled feelings. For at one time I - am seized with sorrow that I have not that knowledge of Greek, without - which one is good for nothing; at another time I rejoice in that light - which you have shed forth from the sun of your genius. - - 'Indeed, Erasmus, I marvel at the fruitfulness of your mind, in the - conception, production, and daily completion of so much, during a life - so unsettled, and without the assistance of any large and regular - income. - - [Sidenote: Edition of 'Jerome.'] - - 'I am looking out for your "Jerome," who will owe much to you, and so - shall _we_ also when able to read him with your corrections and - explanations. - - [Sidenote: The 'Christian Prince.'] - - 'You have done well to write "De Institutione Principis Christiani." I - wish Christian princes would follow good institutes! By their madness - everything is thrown into confusion.... - - 'As to the "peaceful resting-place" which you say you long for, I - also wish for one for you, both peaceful and happy; both your age and - your studies require it. I wish, too, that this your final - resting-place may be with us, if you think us worthy of so great a - man; but what we are you have often experienced. Still you have here - some who love you exceedingly. - - 'Our friend, the Archbishop of Canterbury, when I was with him a few - days ago, spoke much of you, and desired your presence here very much. - Freed from all business cares, he lives now in quiet retirement. - - 'What you say about "Christian philosophising" is true. There is - nobody, I think, in Christendom more fit and suited for that - profession and work than you are, on account of the wide range of your - knowledge. _You_ do not say so, but I say so because I think so. - - [Sidenote: Treatise of Erasmus on the First Psalm.] - - 'I have read what you have written on the First Psalm, and I admire - your eloquence. I want to know what you are going to write on the - Epistle to the Romans. - - [Sidenote: The projected 'Paraphrases' of Erasmus.] - - 'Go on, Erasmus. As you have given us the New Testament in Latin, - illustrate it by your expositions, and give us your commentary most at - length on the Gospels. Your length is brevity; the appetite increases - if only the digestive organs are sound. You will confer a great boon - upon those who delight to read your writings if you will explain the - meaning [of the Gospels], which no one can do better than you can. And - in so doing, you will make your name immortal--_immortal_ did I - say?--the name of Erasmus never can perish; but you will confer - eternal _glory_ on your name, and, toiling on in the name of Jesus, - you will become a partaker of his eternal life. - - 'In deploring your fortune you do not act bravely. In so great a - work--in making known the Scriptures--your fortune cannot fail you. - Only put your trust in God, who will be the first to help you, and who - will stir up others to aid you in your sacred labours. - - 'That you should call me happy, I marvel! If you speak of fortune, - although I am not wholly without any, yet I have not much, hardly - sufficient for my expenses. I should think myself happy if, even in - extreme poverty, I had a thousandth part of that learning and wisdom - which you have got without wealth, and which, as it is peculiar to - yourself, so also you have a way of imparting it, which I don't know - how to describe, unless I call it that "Erasmican" way of your own. - - 'If you will let me, I will become your disciple, even in learning - Greek, notwithstanding my advanced years (being almost an old man), - recollecting that Cato learned Greek in his old age, and that you - yourself, of equal age with me, are studying Hebrew. - - 'Love me as ever; and, if you should return to us, count upon my - devotion to your service.--Farewell. - - [Sidenote: Colet's mother.] - - 'From the country at Stepney, with my mother, who still lives, and - wears her advancing age beautifully; often happily and joyfully - speaking of you. On the Feast of the Translation of St. Edward.'[619] - - -II. RECEPTION OF THE 'NOVUM INSTRUMENTUM' IN OTHER QUARTERS (1516). - -Colet was not alone in his admiration of the 'Novum Instrumentum' and its -author. - -[Sidenote: Reception of the 'Novum Instrumentum' in England.] - -William Latimer, of Oxford, one of the earliest Greek scholars in England, -expressed his ardent approval of the new Latin translation, and would have -been glad, he said, if Erasmus had gone still further, and translated even -such words as 'sabbatum' and the like into classical Latin.[620] - -Warham had all along encouraged Erasmus in his labours, both by presents -of money and constant good offices, and now he recommended the 'Novum -Instrumentum' to some of his brother bishops and divines, who, he wrote to -Erasmus, all acknowledged that the work was worthy of the labour bestowed -upon it.[621] - -Fox, the Bishop of Winchester, in a large assembly of magnates, when the -conversation turned on Erasmus and his works, declared that his new -version threw so much light on the New Testament, that it was worth more -to him than ten commentaries, and this remark was approved by those -present.[622] The Dean of Salisbury used almost the same words of -commendation.[623] - -In fact, it would appear that in England it was received coldly only by -that class of pseudo-orthodox divines, now waning both in numbers and -influence, who had consistently opposed the progress of the new learning, -'blasphemed' Colet's school, and censured the heretical tendencies of -Erasmus as soon as their blind eyes had been opened to them by the recent -edition of the 'Praise of Folly.' - -Thus while Erasmus was in England in the autumn, enjoying at Rochester the -hospitality of Bishop Fisher, who was Chancellor of the University of -Cambridge, he was informed that his 'Novum Testamentum' had encountered no -little opposition in some circles at that centre of learning. - -[Sidenote: Its reception at Cambridge.] - -In one of his letters from the Bishop's palace to his friend Boville, who -was resident at Cambridge, he mentions a report that a decree had been -formally issued in one of the colleges, forbidding anyone to bring 'that -book' within the precincts of the college, 'by horse or by boat, on wheels -or on foot.' He hardly knew, he said, whether to laugh at or to grieve -over men 'so studiously blind to their own interests; so morose and -implacable, harder to appease even than wild beasts! How pitiful for men -to condemn and revile a book which they have not even read, or, having -read, cannot understand! They had possibly heard of the new work over -their cups, or in the gossip of the market, ... and thereupon exclaimed, -"O heavens! O earth! Erasmus has corrected the Gospels!" when it is they -themselves who have _depraved_ them.... - -'Are they indeed afraid,' Erasmus continued, 'lest it should divert their -scholars, and empty their lecture-rooms? Why do they not examine the -facts? Scarcely thirty years ago, nothing was taught at Cambridge but the -"parva logicalia" of Alexander, antiquated exercises from Aristotle, and -the "Quæstiones" of Scotus. In process of time improved studies were -added--mathematics, a new, or, at all events, a _renovated_ Aristotle, and -a knowledge of Greek letters.... What has been the result of all this? Now -the University is so flourishing, that it can compete with the best -universities of the age. It contains men, compared with whom, theologians -of the old school seem only the _ghosts_ of theologians. These men grieve -because more and more students study with more and more earnestness the -Gospels and the apostolic Epistles. They had rather that they spent all -their time, as heretofore, in frivolous quibbles. Hitherto there have been -theologians who so far from having read the Scriptures, had never read -even the "_Sentences_," or touched anything beyond the collections of -questions. Ought not,' exclaimed Erasmus, 'such men to be called back to -the very fountain-head?' He then told Boville that he wished his works to -be useful to _all_. He looked to Christ for his chief reward; still he was -glad to have the approval of wise men. He hoped too, that what now was -approved by the _best_ men, would ere long meet with _general_ approval. -He felt sure that posterity would do him justice.[624] - -Nor was the opposition to the 'Novum Instrumentum' by any means confined -to Cambridge. A few weeks later, very soon after Erasmus had left -England--in October--More wrote to inform him that a set of acute men had -determined to scrutinise closely, and criticise remorselessly, what they -could discover to find fault with. A party of them, with a Franciscan -divine at their head, had agreed to divide the works of Erasmus between -them, and to pick out all the faults they could find as they read them. -But, More added, he had heard that they had already given up the project. -The labour of reading was more laborious and less productive than the -ordinary work of mendicants, and so they had gone back again to that.[625] - -The work was indeed full of small errors which might easily give occasion -to adverse critics to exercise their talents. But Erasmus was fully -conscious of this, and within a year of the completion of the first -edition, he was busily at work making all the corrections he could, with a -view to a second edition. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Reception of the 'Novum Instrumentum' on the Continent.] - -The reception of the 'Novum Instrumentum' on the Continent was much the -same as in England. It had some bitter enemies, especially at Louvain and -Cologne.[626] But, on the other hand, letters poured in upon Erasmus from -all sides of warm approval and congratulation,[627] and so great a power -had his name become, that ere long princes competed for his residence -within their dominions; and if their numerous promises had but been -faithfully performed, Erasmus need have had little fear for the future -respecting 'ways and means.' - -[Sidenote: Philip Melanchthon.] - -Amongst the numerous tributes of admiration received by Erasmus, was one -forwarded to him by Beatus Rhenanus, in Greek verse,[628] from the pen of -an accomplished and learned youth at the University of Tubingen, already -known by name to Erasmus, and mentioned with honour in the 'Novum -Instrumentum'--a student devoted to study, and reported to be working so -hard, that his health was in danger of giving way, whom another -correspondent introduced as worthy of the love of 'Erasmus the first,' -inasmuch as he was likely to prove 'Erasmus the second.' His name--then -little known beyond the circle of his intimate friends--was _Philip -Melanchthon_.[629] - - -III. MARTIN LUTHER READS THE 'NOVUM INSTRUMENTUM' (1516). - -[Sidenote: Letter from Spalatin.] - -In the winter of 1516-17, Erasmus received a letter from George Spalatin, -whose name he may have heard before, but to whom he was personally a -stranger. It was dated from the castle of the Elector of Saxony. It was a -letter full of flattering compliments. The writer introduced himself as -acquainted with a friend of Erasmus, and as being a pupil of one of his -old schoolfellows at Deventer. He mentioned his intimacy with the Elector, -whom he reported to be a diligent and admiring reader of the works of -Erasmus, and informed him that these had honourable places on the shelves -of the ducal library. It was, in fact, a letter evidently written with a -definite object; but beating about the bush so long, that one begins to -wonder what matter of importance could require so roundabout an -introduction. - -At length the writer disclosed the object of his letter:--'A friend of -his,' whose name he did not give, had written to him suggesting that -Erasmus in his Annotations on the Epistle to the Romans, in the 'Novum -Instrumentum,' had misinterpreted St. Paul's expression, _justicia -operum_, or _legis_, and also had not spoken out clearly respecting -'original sin.' He believed that if Erasmus would read St. Augustine's -books against Pelagius, &c., he would see his mistake. His friend -interpreted _justicia legis_, or the 'righteousness of works,' not as -referring only to the keeping of the ceremonial law, but to the observance -of the whole decalogue. The observance of the latter might make a -Fabricius or a Regulus, but without Christian faith it would no more -savour of 'righteousness' than a medlar would taste like a fig. This was -the weighty question upon which his friend had asked him to consult the -oracle, and a response, however short, would be esteemed a most gracious -favour.[630] - -[Sidenote: Martin Luther reads the 'Novum Instrumentum.'] - -This unnamed friend of Spalatin was in fact _Martin Luther_. The singular -coincidence, that not only this letter of Spalatin to Erasmus, but also -the letter of Luther to Spalatin,[631] have been preserved, enables us to -picture the monk of Wittemberg sitting in his room in a corner of the -monastery, pondering over the pages of the 'Novum Instrumentum,' and -'moved,' as he reads it, with feelings of grief and disappointment, -because his quick eye discerns that the path in which Erasmus is treading -points in a different direction from his own. - -In truth, Luther, though as yet without European fame--not having yet -nailed his memorable theses to the Wittemberg church-door--had for years -past fixed, if I may use the expression, the cardinal points of his -theology. He had already clenched his fundamental convictions with too -firm a grasp ever to relax. He had chosen his permanent standpoint, and -for years had made it the centre of his public teaching in his -professorial chair at the university, and in his pulpit also. - -The standpoint which he had so firmly taken was _Augustinian_. - -[Sidenote: Luther's Augustinian tendencies.] - -During the four years spent by him in the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt, -into which he had fled to escape from the terrors of conscience, he had -deeply studied, along with the Scriptures, the works of St. Augustine. It -was from the light which these works had shed upon the Epistles of St. -Paul that he had mainly been led to embrace those views upon -'justification by faith' which had calmed the tumult and disarmed the -lightnings of his troubled conscience. This statement rests upon the -authority of Melanchthon, and is therefore beyond dispute.[632] - -Eight years had passed since he had left Erfurt to become a professor in -the Wittemberg University, and four or five years since his return from -his memorable visit to Rome. During these last years his teaching and -preaching had been full of the Augustinian theology. Melanchthon states -that during this period he had written commentaries on the 'Romans,' and -that in them and in his lectures and sermons he had laboured to refute the -prevalent error, that it is possible to merit the forgiveness of sins by -good works, pointing men to the Lamb of God, and throwing great light upon -such questions as 'penitence,' 'remission of sins,' 'faith,' the -difference between the 'Law' and the 'Gospel,' and the like. He also -mentions that Luther, catching the spirit which the writings of Erasmus -had diffused, had taken to the study of Greek and Hebrew.[633] - -We may therefore picture the Augustinian monk--deeply read in the works of -St. Augustine, and, as Ranke expresses it,[634] '_embracing even his -severer views_,' having for years constantly taught them from his pulpit -and professorial chair, clinging to them with a grasp which would never -relax, looking at everything from this immovable Augustinian -standpoint--now in 1516 with a copy of the 'Novum Instrumentum' before him -on his table in his room in the cloisters of Wittemberg, reading it -probably with eager expectation of finding his own views reflected in the -writings of a man who was looked upon as the great restorer of Scriptural -theology. - -[Sidenote: Luther detects the Anti-Augustinian tendencies of Erasmus.] - -He reads the Annotations on the Epistle to the Romans. He does not find -Erasmus using the watchwords of the Augustinian theology. He does not find -the words _justicia legis_ understood in the Augustinian sense, as -referring to the observance of the whole moral law, but, rather, explained -as referring to the Jewish ceremonial. - -He turns as a kind of touchstone to Chapter V., where the Apostle speaks -of death as 'having reigned from Adam to Moses over those who had not -sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.' He finds Erasmus -remarking that he does not think it needful here to resort to the doctrine -of '_original sin_,' however true in itself; he finds him hinting at the -possibility 'of hating Pelagius more than enough,' and of resorting too -freely to the doctrine of 'original sin' as a means of getting rid of -theological difficulties, in the same way as astrologers had invented a -system of _epicycles_ to get them out of their astronomical ones.[635] - -The Augustinian doctrine of 'original sin' compared to the _epicycles_ of -the astrologers! No wonder that Luther was _moved_ as he traced in these -Annotations symptoms of wide divergence from his own Augustinian views. In -writing to Spalatin, he told him that he was 'moved;' and in asking him to -question Erasmus further on the subject, he added that he felt no doubt -that the difference in opinion between himself and Erasmus was a real one, -because that, as regards the interpretation of Scripture, he saw clearly -that Erasmus preferred Jerome to Augustine, just as much as he himself -preferred Augustine to Jerome. Jerome, evidently on principle, he said, -follows the _historical_ sense, and he very much feared that the great -authority of Erasmus might induce many to attempt to defend that -_literal_, i.e. _dead_, understanding [of the Scriptures] of which the -commentaries of Lyra and almost all after Augustine are full.[636] - -Still Luther went on with the study of his 'Novum Instrumentum,' and we -find him writing again from his 'hermitage' at Wittemberg, that every day -as he reads he loses his liking for Erasmus. And again the reason crops -out. Erasmus, with all his Greek and Hebrew, is lacking in Christian -wisdom; 'just as Jerome, with all his knowledge of five languages, was not -a match for Augustine with his one.'... 'The judgment of a man who -attributes _anything_ to the human will' [which Jerome and Erasmus did] -is 'one thing, the judgment of him who recognises _nothing but grace_' -[which Augustine and Luther did] 'is quite another thing.'... -'Nevertheless [continues Luther] I carefully keep this opinion to myself, -lest I should play into the hands of his enemies. May God give him -understanding in his own good time!'[637] - -[Sidenote: Difference in principle between Erasmus and Luther.] - -This is not the place to discuss the rights of the question between Luther -and Erasmus. It is well, however, that by the preservation of these -letters the fact is established to us, which as yet was unknown to -Erasmus, that this Augustinian monk, as the result of hard-fought mental -struggle, had years before this irrevocably adopted and, if we may so -speak, welded into his very being that Augustinian system of religious -convictions, a considerable portion of which Erasmus made no scruple in -rejecting; that at the root of their religious thought there was a -divergence in principle which must widen as each proceeded on his separate -path--unknown as yet, let me repeat it, to Erasmus, but already fully -recognised, though wisely concealed, by Luther. - - -IV. THE 'EPISTOLÆ OBSCURORUM VIRORUM' (1516-17). - -In the meantime symptoms had appeared portending that a storm was brewing -in another quarter against Erasmus. It was not perhaps to be wondered at -that the monks should persist in regarding him as a renegade monk. His -bold reply to the letter of Servatius, and the unsubdued tone in which he -had answered the attack of Martin Dorpius, must have made the monastic -party hopeless of his reconversion to orthodox views. At the same time, -neither his letter to Servatius nor his reply to Dorpius had at all -converted them to his way of thinking. Men perfectly self-satisfied, -blindly believing in the sanctity of their own order, and arrogating to -themselves a monopoly of orthodox learning, were in a state of mind, both -intellectually and morally, beyond the reach of argument, however earnest -and convincing. They still really did believe, through thick and thin, -that the Latin of the Vulgate and the Schoolmen was the sacred language. -They still did believe that Hebrew and Greek were the languages of -heretics; and that to be learned in these, to scoff at the Schoolmen and -to criticise the Vulgate, were the surest proofs of _ignorance_ as well as -impiety. - -[Sidenote: 'Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum.'] - -It was in the years 1516 and 1517 that the 'Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum' -were published. They were written in exaggerated monkish Latin, and -professed to be a correspondence chiefly between monks, conveying their -views and feelings upon current events and the tendencies of modern -thought. Of course the picture they gave was a caricature, but -nevertheless it so nearly hit the truth that More wrote to Erasmus that -'in England it delighted every one. To the learned it was capital fun. -Even the ignorant, who seriously took it all in, smiled at its style, and -did not attempt to defend it; but they said the _weighty opinions_ it -contained made up for that, and under a rude scabbard was concealed a most -excellent blade.'[638] - -The first part was full of the monks' hatred of Reuchlin and the Jews. One -monk writes to his superior to consult him in a difficulty. Two Jews were -walking in the town in a dress so like that of monks that he bowed to them -by mistake. To have made obeisance to a Jew! Was this a venial or a mortal -sin? Should he seek absolution from episcopal authority, or would it -require a dispensation from the Pope?[639] - -Side by side with scrupulosity such as this were hints of secret -immorality and scandal. Immense straining at gnats was put in contrast -with the ease with which camels were swallowed within the walls of the -cloister. - -[Sidenote: Mention of Erasmus in them.] - -In the appendix to the first part Erasmus at length makes his appearance. -The writer of the letter, a medical graduate, informs his learned -correspondent that, being at Strasburg, he was told that a man who was -called 'Erasmus Roterdamus' (till then unknown to him) was in the city--a -man said to be most learned in all branches of knowledge. This, however, -he did not believe. He could not believe that so small a man could have so -vast a knowledge. To test the matter, he laid a scheme with one or two -others to meet Erasmus at table, get him into an argument, and confute -him. He thereupon betook himself to his 'vademecum,' and crammed himself -with some abstruse medical questions, and so armed entered the field. One -of his friends was a lawyer, the other a speculative divine. They met as -appointed. All were silent. Nobody would begin. At length Erasmus, in a -low tone of voice, began to sermonise (_sermonizare_), and when he had -done, another began to dispute _de ente et essencia_. To which the writer -himself responded in a few words. Then a dead silence again. They could -not draw the lion out. At length their host started another hare--praising -both the deeds and writings of Julius Cæsar. The writer here again put -in. He knew something of _poetry_, and did not believe that Cæsar's -'Commentaries' were written by Cæsar at all. Cæsar was a warrior, and -always engaged in military affairs. Such men never are learned men, -therefore Cæsar cannot have known Latin. 'I think,' he continued, 'that -_Suetonius_ (!) wrote those "Commentaries," because I never saw anyone -whose style was so like Cæsar's as his. When I had said this,' he -continued, 'Erasmus laughed, and said nothing, because the subtlety of my -argument had confounded him. So I put an end to the discussion. I did not -care to propound my question in medicine, because I knew he knew nothing -about it, since, though himself a poet, he did not know how to solve my -argument in poetry. And I assert before God that there is not as much in -him as people say. He does not know more than other men, although I -concede that in poetry he knows how to speak pretty Latin. But what of -that!'[640] - -In the second part, published in 1517, Erasmus makes a more prominent -figure. One correspondent had met him at Basle, and 'found many perverse -heretics in Froben's house.'[641] Another writes that he hears Erasmus has -written many books, especially a letter to the Pope, in which he commends -Reuchlin:-- - -'That letter, you know, I have seen. One other book of his also I have -seen--a great book--entitled "Novum Testamentum," and he has sent this -book to the Pope, and I believe he wants the Pope's authority for it, but -I hope he won't give it. One holy man told me that he could prove that -Erasmus was a heretic; because he censured holy doctors, and thought -nothing of divines. One of his things, called "Moria Erasmi," contained,' -he said, 'many scandalous propositions and open blasphemies. On this -account the book would be burned at Paris. Therefore I do not believe that -the Pope will sanction his "great book."'[642] - -Another reports that his edition of St. Jerome has been examined at -Cologne; that in this work Erasmus says that Jerome was not a Cardinal; -that he thinks evil of St. George and St. Christopher, the relics of the -saints and candles, and the sacrament of confession; that many passages -contain blasphemy against the holy doctors.[643] - -These 'Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum' were widely read, and proved like an -advertisement, throughout the monasteries of Europe, of the heresy of -Erasmus and his hatred of monks. As by degrees the latter began to -understand that these allusions to Erasmus were intended to bring ridicule -on themselves, instead of, as they thought at first, to censure Erasmus, -it was likely that their anger should know no bounds.[644] - - -V. THE 'PYTHAGORICA' AND 'CABALISTICA' OF REUCHLIN (1517). - -[Sidenote: Studies of Reuchlin.] - -Reuchlin in his zeal for Hebrew had been led to study along with the old -Testament Scriptures, other Hebrew books, especially the 'Cabala,' and, -after the fashion of his Jewish teachers, had lost himself in the -'mystical value of words' and in the Pythagorean philosophy. He believed, -writes Ranke, that by treading in the footsteps of the 'Cabala,' he should -ascend from symbol to symbol, from form to form, till he should reach -that last and purest form which rules the empire of mind, and in which -human mutability approaches to the Immutable and Divine[645]--whatever -that might mean. - -Reuchlin had embodied his speculations on these subjects in a work upon -which he wished for the opinion of Erasmus and his friends. - -[Sidenote: Reuchlin's works sent by Erasmus to England.] - -Erasmus accordingly sent a copy of this book to Bishop Fisher, with a -letter asking his opinion thereupon.[646] He sent it, it seems, by More, -who, _more suo_, as Fisher jokingly complained, purloined it,[647] so that -it did not reach its destination. What had become of it may be learned -from the following letter from Colet to Erasmus, playful and laconic as -usual, and beaming with that true humility which enabled him to unite with -his habitual strength of conviction an equally habitual sense of his own -fallibility and imperfect knowledge. It is doubly interesting also as the -last letter written by Colet which time has spared. - - _Colet to Erasmus._[648] - - 'I am half angry with you, Erasmus, that you send messages to me in - letters to others, instead of writing direct to myself; for though I - have no distrust of our friendship, yet this roundabout way of - greeting me through messages in other people's letters makes me - jealous lest others should think you loved me less than you do. - - 'Also, I am half angry with you for another thing--for sending the - "Cabalistica" of Reuchlin to Bishop Fisher and not to me. I do not - grudge your sending _him_ a copy, but you might have sent _me_ one - also. For I so delight in your love, that I am jealous when I see you - more mindful of others than of myself. - - 'That book did, however, after all come into my hands first. I read it - through before it was handed to the bishop. - - 'I dare not express an opinion on this book. I am conscious of my own - ignorance, and how blind I am in matters so mysterious, and in the - works (opibus--_operibus_?) of so great a man. However, in reading it, - the chief miracles seemed to me to lie more in the words than the - things; for, according to him, Hebrew words seem to have no end of - mystery in their characters and combinations. - - [Sidenote: Colet's opinion on them.] - - 'O Erasmus! of books and of knowledge there is no end. There is no - thing better for _us_ in this short life than to live holily and - purely, and to make it our daily care to be purified and enlightened, - and really to practise what these "Pythagorica" and "Cabalistica" of - Reuchlin promise; but, in my opinion, there is no other way for us to - attain this than by the earnest love and imitation of _Jesus_. - Wherefore leaving these wandering paths, let us go the short way to - work. I long, to the best of my ability, to do so.[649] - Farewell.--_From London, 1517._' - - -VI. MORE PAYS A VISIT TO COVENTRY (1517?). - -It chanced about this time that More had occasion to go to Coventry to see -a sister of his there. - -[Sidenote: Coventry.] - -[Sidenote: Monastic establishments at Coventry.] - -Coventry was a very nest of religious and monastic establishments. It -contained, shut up in its narrow streets, some six thousand souls. On the -high ground in the heart of the city the ancient Monastery and Cathedral -Church of the monks of St. Benedict lifted their huge piles of masonry -above surrounding roofs. By their side, and belonging to the same ancient -order, rose into the air like a rocket the beautiful spire of St. -Michael's, lightly poised and supported by its four flying buttresses, -whilst in the niches of the square tower, from which these were made to -spring, stood the carved images of saints, worn and crumbled by a -century's storms and hot suns. There, too, almost within a stone's throw -of this older and nobler one, and as if faintly striving but failing to -outvie it, rose the rival spires of Trinity Church, and the Church of the -Grey Friars of St. Francis; while in the distance might be seen the square -massive tower of the College of Babbelake, afterwards called the Church of -St. John; the Monastery of the Carmelites or White Friars; and the -Charterhouse, where Carthusian monks were supposed to keep strict vigils -and fasts in lonely and separate cells. And beneath the shadow of the -spire of St. Michael's stood the Hall of St. Mary, chased over with carved -work depicting the glory of the Virgin Mother, and covered within by -tapestry representing her before the Great Throne of Heaven, the moon -under her feet, and apostles and choirs of angels doing her homage. Other -hospitals and religious houses which have left no trace behind them, were -to be found within the walls of this old city. Far and wide had spread the -fame of the annual processions and festivals, pageants and miracle plays, -which even royal guests were sometimes known to witness. And from out the -babble and confusion of tongues produced by the close proximity of so many -rival monastic sects, rose ever and anon the cry for the martyrdom of -honest Lollards, in the persecution of whom the Pharisees and Sadducees of -Coventry found a temporary point of agreement. It would seem that, not -many months after the time of More's visit, _seven_ poor gospellers were -burned in Coventry for teaching their children the paternoster and ten -commandments in their own English tongue.[650] - -[Sidenote: Fit of Mariolatry at Coventry.] - -This was Coventry--its citizens, if not 'wholly given up to idolatry,' yet -'in all things too superstitious,' and, like the Athenians of old, prone -to run after 'some new thing.' At the time of which we speak, they were -the subjects of a strange religious frenzy--a fit of _Mariolatry_. - -The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin had not -yet been finally settled. It was the bone of contention between the rival -monastic orders. The Franciscans or Grey Friars, following Scotus, waged -war with the Dominicans, who followed Aquinas. Pope Sixtus IV. had in 1483 -issued a bull favouring the Franciscans and the doctrine of the Immaculate -Conception, and Foxe tells us that it was in consequence 'holden in their -schools, written in their books, preached in their sermons, taught in -their churches, and set forth in their pictures.' On the other side had -occurred the tragedy of the weeping image of the Virgin, and the detection -and burning of the Dominican monks who were parties to the fraud. - -It chanced that in Coventry a Franciscan monk made bold to preach publicly -to the people, that _whoever should daily pray through the Psalter of the -Blessed Virgin could never be damned_. The regular pastor of the place, -thinking that it would soon blow over, and that a little more devotion to -the Virgin could do no harm, took little notice of it at first. But when -he saw the worst men were the most religious in their devotion to the -Virgin's Psalter, and that, relying on the friar's doctrine, they were -getting more and more bold in crime, he mildly admonished the people from -his pulpit not to be led astray by this new doctrine. The result was he -was hissed at, derided, and publicly slandered as an enemy of the Virgin. -The friar again mounted his pulpit, recounted miraculous stories in favour -of his creed, and carried the people away with him. - -[Sidenote: More's dispute with a friar.] - -More shall tell the rest in his own words:-- - -'While this frenzy was at its height, it so happened that I had to go to -Coventry to visit a sister of mine there. I had scarcely alighted from my -horse when I was asked the question, "Whether a person who daily prayed -through the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin could be damned?" I laughed at -the question as absurd. I was told forthwith that my answer was a -dangerous one. A most holy and learned father had declared the contrary. I -put by the whole affair as no business of mine. Soon after I was asked to -supper. I promised, and went. Lo and behold! in came an old, stooping, -heavy, crabbed friar! A servant followed with his books. I saw I must -prepare for a brush. We sat down, and lest any time should be lost, the -point was at once brought forward by our host. The friar made answer as he -already had preached. I held my tongue, not liking to mix myself up in -fruitless and provoking disputations. At last they asked me what view I -took of it. And when I was obliged to speak, I spoke what I thought, but -in few words and offhand. Upon this the friar began a long premeditated -oration, long enough for at least two sermons, and bawled all supper time. -He drew all his argument from the miracles, which he poured out upon us in -numbers enough from the "Marial;" and then from other books of the same -kind, which he ordered to be put on the table, he drew further authority -for his stories. Soon after he had done I modestly began to answer; first, -that in all his long discourse he had said nothing to convince those who -perchance did not admit the miracles which he had recited, and _this might -well be, and a man's faith in Christ be firm notwithstanding_. And even if -these were mostly true, they proved nothing of any moment; for though you -might easily find a prince who would concede something to his enemies at -the entreaty of his mother, yet never was there one so foolish as to -publish a law which should provoke daring against him by the promise of -impunity to all traitors who should perform certain offices to his mother. - -'Much having been said on both sides, I found that he was lauded to the -skies while I was laughed at as a fool. The matter came at last to that -pass, by the depraved zeal of men who cloaked their own vices under -colour of piety, that the opinion could hardly be put down, though the -Bishop with all his energy tried all the means in his power to do -so.'[651] - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - - -I. THE SALE OF INDULGENCES (1517-18). - -While Erasmus in 1517 was hard at work at the revision of his New -Testament, publishing the first instalment of his Paraphrases,[652] -recommending the 'Utopia' and the 'Christian Prince' to the perusal of -princes and their courtiers,[653] expressing to his friends at the Papal -Court his trust that under Leo X. Rome herself might become the centre of -peace and religion,[654]--while Erasmus was thus working on hopefully, -preparing the way, as he thought, for a peaceful reform, Europe was -suddenly brought, by the scandalous conduct of princes and the Pope, to -the very brink of revolution. - -[Sidenote: Leo X. wants money.] - -Leo X. was in want of money. He had no scruple to tax the Christian world -for selfish family purposes any more than his predecessors in the Papal -chair; but times had altered, and he thought it prudent, instead of doing -so openly, to avoid scandal, by cloaking his crime in double folds of -imposture and deception. It mattered little that a few shrewd men might -suspect the dishonesty of the pretexts put forth, if only the multitude -could be sufficiently deluded to make them part with their money. - -[Sidenote: Tenths and indulgences.] - -A war against the Turks could be proposed and abandoned the moment the -'tenths' demanded to pay its expenses were safe in the Papal exchequer. If -_indulgences_ were granted to all who should contribute towards the -building of St. Peter's at Rome, the profits could easily be devoted to -more pressing uses. So, in the spring of 1517, the payment of a tenth was -demanded from all the clergy of Europe, and commissions were at the same -time issued for the sale of indulgences to the laity. Some opposition was -to be expected from disaffected princes; but experience on former -occasions had proved that these would be easily bribed to connive at any -exactions from their subjects by the promise of a share in the spoil.[655] - -Hence the project seemed to the Papal mind justified on Machiavellian -principles, and, judged by the precedents of the past, likely to succeed. - -[Sidenote: Satire on indulgences in the 'Praise of Folly.'] - -But the seeds of opposition to Machiavellian projects of this kind had -recently been widely sown. More in his 'Utopia,' and Erasmus in his -'Christian Prince,' had only a few months before spoken plain words to -people and princes on taxation and unjust exactions. Erasmus, too, in his -'Praise of Folly,' had spoken contemptuously of the _crime of false -pardons_, in other words, of Papal _indulgences_.[656] And though -Lystrius, in his recent marginal note on this passage, had explained that -Papal indulgences are not included in this sweeping censure, '_unless they -be false_, it being no part of our business to dispute of the pontifical -power,' yet he had almost made matters worse by adding:-- - -'This one thing I know, that what Christ promised concerning the remission -of sins is more certain than what is promised by men, especially since -this whole affair [of indulgences] is of recent date and invention. -Finally a great many people, relying on these pardons, are encouraged in -crime, and never think of changing their lives.'[657] - -How eagerly the 'Praise of Folly' was bought and read by the people has -already been seen. New editions had recently been exceedingly numerous, -for the notes of Lystrius had opened the eyes of many who had not fully -caught its drift before. An edition in French had moreover appeared, and -(Erasmus wrote) it was thereby made intelligible even to monks, who -hitherto had been too deeply drowned in sensual indulgence to care -anything about it, whose ignorance of Latin was such that they could not -even understand the Psalms, which they were constantly mumbling over in a -senseless routine.[658] - -[Sidenote: Luther's Theses.] - -Silently and unseen the leaven had been working; and when, on October 31, -Luther posted up his theses on the church-door at Wittemberg, defying -Tetzel and his wicked trade, he was but the spokesman, perhaps -unconsciously to himself, of the grumbling dissent of Europe. - -[Sidenote: Other opposition to indulgences.] - -Discontent against the proceedings of the Papal Court was not by any means -confined to Wittemberg. It had got wind that the tenths and indulgences -were resorted to for private family purposes of the Pope's; that they -were part of a system of imposture and deception; and hence they -encountered opposition, political as well as religious, in more quarters -than one. - -[Sidenote: European princes bribed by a share in the spoil.] - -[Sidenote: Opposition of German princes.] - -Unhappily, the Pope had reckoned with reason on the connivance of princes. -Their exchequers were more than usually empty, and they had proved for the -most part glad enough to sell their consciences, and the interests of -their subjects, at the price of a share in the spoil. Had it been -otherwise the Papal collectors would have been forbidden entrance into the -dominions of many a prince besides Frederic of Saxony! The Pope offered -Henry VIII. a fourth of the moneys received from the sale of indulgences -in England, and the English Ambassador suggested that one-third would be a -reasonable proportion.[659] When in December 1515 the Pope had asked for a -tenth from the English clergy, he had found it needful to abate his demand -by one-half, and even this was refused by Convocation on the ground that -they had already paid six-tenths to enable the King to defend the -patrimony of St. Peter, and that the victories of Henry VIII. had removed -all dangers from the Roman See;[660] and no sooner was there any talk of -the new tenth of 1517, than the Papal collector in England was immediately -sworn, probably as a precautionary measure, not to send any money to -Rome.[661] Prince Charles, in anticipation of the amount to be collected -in his Spanish dominions, obtained a loan of 175,000 ducats. The King of -France made a purse for himself out of the collections in France,[662] -and by the Pope's express orders paid over a part of what was left direct -to the Pope's nephew Lorenzo,[663] for whom it was rumoured in select -circles that the money was required. The Elector of Maintz also received a -share of the spoil taken from his subjects.[664] The Emperor had made -common cause with the Pope, in hopes of attaining thereby the realisation -of long-indulged dreams of ambition, and all Europe would have been thus -bought over;[665] had not the princes of the empire unexpectedly refused -to follow his leading, and to grant any taxes on their subjects without -their consent.[666] - -[Sidenote: Political condition of Europe.] - -[Sidenote: Political scandals.] - -These facts will be sufficient to show that the question of Papal taxation -was becoming a serious political question. The ascendency of ecclesiastics -in the courts of princes had, moreover, again and again been the subject -of complaint on the part of the Oxford Reformers. These Papal scandals -revealed a state not only of ecclesiastical, but also of political -rottenness surpassing anything which had yet been seen. Church and State, -the Pope and the Emperor, princes and their ecclesiastical advisers, were -seen wedded in an unholy alliance against the rights of the people. -Ecclesiastical influence, and the practice of Machiavellian principles, -had brought Christendom into a condition of anarchy in which every man's -hand was against his neighbour. The politics of Europe were in greater -confusion than ever. Not only was the Emperor in league with the Pope -against the interests of Europe, but he was obtaining money from England -under the pretext of siding with England against France and Prince -Charles, while he was at the same moment making a secret treaty with -France and preparing the way for the succession of Charles to the empire. -The three young and aspiring princes--Henry, Francis, and Charles--were -eyeing one another with shifting suspicions, and jealously plotting -against one another in the dark. Europe in the meantime was kept in a -chronic state of warfare. Scotland was kept by France always on the point -of quarrelling with England. The Duke of Gueldres and his 'black band' -were committing cruel depredations in the Netherlands to the destruction -of the peace and prosperity of an industrious people.[667] Franz von -Sickingen was engaged in what those who suffered from it spoke of as -'inhuman private warfare.'[668] Such was the state of Germany, that, to -quote the words of Ranke, 'there was hardly a part of the country which -was not either distracted by private wars, troubled by internal divisions, -or terrified by the danger of an attack from some neighbouring -power.'[669] The administration of civil and criminal law was equally bad. -Again, to quote from the same historian, 'The criminal under ban found -shelter and protection; and as the other courts of justice were in no -better condition--in all, incapable judges, impunity for misdoers, and -abuses without end--disquiet and tumult had broken out in all parts. -Neither by land nor water were the ways safe: ... the husbandman, by whose -labours all classes were fed, was ruined; widows and orphans were -deserted; not a pilgrim or a messenger or a tradesman could travel along -the roads....'[670] Such, according to Ranke, were the complaints of the -German people in the Diet of Maintz in 1517, and the Diet separated -without even suggesting a remedy.[671] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus meditates a journey southward, and then returning to -England.] - -It was from a continent thus brought, by the madness of the Pope and -princes, to the very brink of both a civil and a religious revolution, -that Erasmus looked longingly to England as 'out of the world, and perhaps -the least corrupted portion of it'[672]--as that retreat in which, after -one more journey southwards, to print the second edition of his New -Testament and 'some other works,' he hoped at length to spend his -declining years in peaceful retirement. The following portion of a letter -to Colet will also show how fully he saw through the policy of Leo X., -hated the madness of princes, and shared the indignation of Luther at the -sale of indulgences. - - _Erasmus to Colet._ - - [Sidenote: Erasmus on indulgences.] - - [Sidenote: He sees through the Pope's pretexts.] - - 'I am obliged, in order to print the New Testament and some other - books, to go either to Basle, or, more probably, I think, to _Venice_: - for I am deterred from Basle partly by the plague and partly by the - death of Lachnerus, whose pecuniary aid was almost indispensable to - the work. "What," you will say, "are you, an old man, in delicate - health, going to undertake so laborious a journey!--in these times, - too, than which none worse have been seen for six hundred years; while - everywhere lawless robbery abounds!" But why do you say so? I was - _born_ to this fate; if I _die_, I die in a work which, unless I am - mistaken, is not altogether a bad one. But if, this last stroke of my - work being accomplished according to my intention, I should chance to - return, I have made up my mind to spend the remainder of my life with - you, in retirement from a world which is everywhere rotten. - Ecclesiastical hypocrites rule in the courts of princes. The court of - Rome clearly has lost all sense of shame; for _what could be more - shameless than these continued indulgences_? Now a war against the - Turks is put forth as a pretext, when the real purpose is to drive the - Spaniards from Naples; for Lorenzo, the Pope's nephew, who has married - the daughter of the King of Navarre, lays claim to Campania. If these - turmoils continue, the rule of the Turks would be easier to bear than - that of these Christians.'[673] - -[Sidenote: 'Julius de Coelo exclusus.'] - -Erasmus wrote to Warham in precisely the same strain,[674] and shortly -afterwards, on March 5, 1518, in a letter to More, he exclaimed, 'The Pope -and some princes are playing a fresh game under the pretext of a horrid -war against the Turks. Oh, wretched Turks! unless this is too much like -bluster on the part of us Christians.' And, he added, 'They write to me -from Cologne that a book has been printed by somebody, describing "Pope -Julius disputing with Peter at the gate of paradise." The author's name is -not mentioned. The German press will not cease to be violent until some -law shall restrain their boldness, to the detriment also of us, who are -labouring to benefit mankind.'[675] - -This satire, entitled 'Julius de Coelo exclusus,' was eagerly purchased -and widely read,[676] and was one of a series of satirical pamphlets upon -the Papacy and the policy of the Papal party, for which the way had been -prepared by the 'Praise of Folly' and the 'Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum.' -It was one of the signs of the times. - - -II. MORE DRAWN INTO THE SERVICE OF HENRY VIII.--ERASMUS LEAVES GERMANY FOR -BASLE (1518). - -It was at this juncture--at this crisis it may well be called--in European -politics, that More was induced at length, by the earnest solicitations of -Henry VIII., to attach himself to his court under circumstances which -deserve attention. - -[Sidenote: 'Evil May-day.'] - -In the spring of 1517, a frenzy more dangerous than that in which the men -of Coventry indulged had seized the London apprentices. Not wholly without -excuse, they had risen in arms against the merchant strangers, who were -very numerous in London, and to some of whom commercial privileges and -licenses had, perhaps, been too freely granted by a minister anxious to -increase his revenue. Thus had resulted the riots of 'the evil May-day,' -and More had some part to play in the restoration of order in the city. - -[Sidenote: More's embassy to Calais.] - -Then, in August 1517, he was sent on an embassy to Calais with Wingfield -and Knight. Their mission ostensibly was to settle disputes between French -and English merchants, but probably its real import was quite as much to -pave the way for more important negotiations. - -[Sidenote: Henry VIII. meditates giving up his French conquests.] - -No sooner had English statesmen opened their eyes to the fact that -Maximilian had been playing into the hands of the French King against the -interests of England, than, with the natural perversity of men who had no -settled principles to guide their international policy, they began -themselves, out of sheer jealousy, once more to court the favour of the -sovereign against whom they had so long been fruitlessly plotting. They -began secretly to seek to bring about a French alliance with England, -which should out-manoeuvre the recent treaty of the Emperor with France. -Thus, by a sudden and unlooked-for turn in continental politics, was -brought about the curious fact that, within a few months of the -publication of the 'Utopia,' in which More had advocated such a policy, -the surrender of Henry's recent conquests in France was under discussion. -By February in the following year (1518) not only was Tournay restored to -France, but a marriage had been arranged between the infant Dauphin of -France and the infant Princess Mary of England. This of course involved -the abandonment, at all events for a time, of Henry's personal claims on -the crown of France.[677] What share More had in the conversion of the -King to this new policy remains untold; but it is remarkable that within -so short a time his Utopian counsels should have been so far practically -followed, and that he himself should have been chosen as one of the -ambassadors to Calais to prepare the way for it. - -[Sidenote: More's Utopian counsels followed.] - -It would be impossible here to enter into a detailed examination of the -political relations of England; suffice it to say, that a pacific policy -seems to have gained the upper hand for the moment, and that even Wolsey -himself seems to have admitted the necessity of so far following More's -Utopian counsels as to cut down the annual expenditure of the kingdom, and -to husband her resources.[678] - -It may have been only a momentary lull in the King's stormy passion for -war, but it lasted long enough to admit of the renewal of the King's -endeavours to draw More into his service, and of More's yielding at last -to Royal persuasions. - -[Sidenote: More drawn into court.] - -Roper tells us that the immediate occasion of his doing so was the great -ability shown by him in the conduct of a suit respecting a 'great ship' -belonging to the Pope, which the King claimed for a forfeiture. In -connection with which, Roper tells us that More, 'in defence on the Pope's -side, argued so learnedly, that both was the aforesaid forfeiture restored -to the Pope, and himself among all the hearers, for his upright and -commendable demeanour therein, so greatly renowned that for no entreaty -would the King from henceforth be induced any longer to forbear his -service.'[679] - -What passed between the King and his new courtier on this occasion, and -upon what conditions More yielded to the King's entreaties, Roper does not -mention in this connection; but that he maintained his independence of -thought and action, may be inferred from the fact that eighteen years -after, when in peril of his life from Royal displeasure, he had occasion -upon his knees to remind his sovereign of 'the most godly words that his -Highness spake unto him at his first coming into his noble service--the -most virtuous lesson that ever a prince taught his servant--willing him -_first to look to God, and after God unto him_!'[680] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Henry VIII. rises again in the favour of Erasmus.] - -Now that Henry VIII. had apparently changed his policy, now that he was -giving up his pretensions to the crown of France, and no longer talking of -invading her shores, now that he seemed to be calling to his counsels the -very man who, next to Colet, had spoken more plainly than anyone else in -condemnation of that warlike policy in which Henry VIII. had so long -indulged, now that Henry VIII. himself seemed to be returning to his first -love of letters and the 'new learning,' the hopes of Erasmus began once -more to rely upon _him_ rather than upon any other of the princes of -Europe. Erasmus had lost his confidence in Leo X. Prince Charles was now -going to Spain, leaving the Netherlands in a state of confusion and -anarchy, a prey to the devastations of the 'black band,' and for the -present little could reasonably be expected from him, notwithstanding all -the good advice Erasmus had given him in the 'Christian Prince.' - -While Henry VIII. had been wild after military glory, and had seemed ready -to sacrifice everything to this dominant passion, Erasmus had thought it -useless to waste words upon him which he would not heed; but the war being -over in September 1517, he had sent him a copy of the 'Christian Prince,' -and encouraged his royal endeavours to still the tempests which during the -past few years had so violently raged in human affairs. Nor is it without -significance that in this letter to Henry VIII. we find him using warm -words in commendation of a trait of the King's character, which Erasmus -said he admired above all others; viz. this,--that he delighted 'in the -converse of prudent and learned men, _especially of those who did not know -how to speak just what they thought would please_.'[681] - -Under other circumstances such words written to Henry VIII. might have -seemed like satire or perhaps empty adulation, but written as they were -while Henry was as yet unsuccessfully trying to induce More to enter his -service, and only a few months after the publication of the 'Utopia,' they -do not read like words of flattery. - -When in writing to Fisher he had spoken of England as 'out of the world, -or perhaps the least corrupted portion of it,' he had honestly expressed -his real feelings at a time when, whilst continental affairs were in -hopeless confusion and anarchy, there were at least some hopeful symptoms -that a better policy would be adopted for the future by Henry VIII. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus thinks More will serve the best of kings.] - -It was strictly in accordance with the same feelings that, on hearing that -More had yielded to the King's wishes, he wrote to him on April 24, 1518, -not to congratulate him on the step he had taken, but to tell him that the -only thing which consoled him in regard to it was the consideration that -he would serve under 'the best of kings.' And from this remark he passed -by a natural train of thought to speak of the dangers which would attend -his own projected journey southwards through Germany, and bitterly to -allude to the '_novel clemency_' of the Dukes of Cleves, Juliers, and -Nassau, who had been secretly conspiring to disperse in safety the 'black -band' of political ruffians, at whose depredations they had too long -connived. Had their scheme been successful, it would have cast loose these -lawless ruffians upon society without even the control of their robber -leaders. But, as it was, the people took the matter into their own hands, -and disconcerted the conspiracy of their princes. The peasantry, -exasperated by constant depredations, and thirsting for the destruction of -the robbers, had risen in a body and surrounded them. A chance blast from -a trumpet had revealed their whereabouts, and in the _mêlée_ which -followed, more than a thousand were cut to pieces; the rest escaped to -continue their work of plunder.[682] It was not remarkable if, living in -the midst of anarchy such as this, Erasmus should envy the comparative -security of England, and even for the moment be inclined to praise the -harsh justice with which English robbers, instead of being secretly -protected and encouraged, were sent to the gallows.[683] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus going to Basle.] - -Erasmus had decided upon going to Basle, and in writing to Beatus -Rhenanus[684] to inform him that he intended to do so in the course of the -summer, 'if it should be safe to travel through Germany,' he spoke of the -condition of Germany as '_worse than that of the infernal regions_,' on -account of the numbers of robbers; and asked what princes could be about -to allow such a state of things to exist. - -'All sense of shame,' he wrote, 'has vanished altogether from human -affairs. I see that the very height of tyranny has been reached. The Pope -and kings count the people not as men, but _as cattle in the market_.' - -[Sidenote: Erasmus leaves Louvain for Basle.] - -Once more, on May 1, Erasmus wrote to Colet before leaving for Basle, to -tell him that he really was going, in spite of the dangers of travel -through a country full of disbanded ruffians; to complain of the cruel -clemency of princes who spare scoundrels and cut-throats, and yet do not -spare their own subjects, to whom those who oppress their people are -dearer than the people themselves; and to reiterate his intention to fly -back to his English friends as soon as his work at Basle should be -accomplished. And then he ventured on the journey.[685] - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - - -I. ERASMUS ARRIVES AT BASLE--HIS LABOURS THERE (1518). - -Erasmus arrived at Basle on Ascension Day, May 13, 1518.[686] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus reaches Basle and falls ill.] - -But though he had escaped the robbers, and survived the toils of the -journey, he reached Basle in a state of health so susceptible of -infection, that, in the course of a day or two, he found himself laid up -with that very disease which he had mentioned in his letter to Colet as -prevalent at Basle, and as one great reason why he had shrunk from going -there.[687] - -But even an attack of this 'plague' did not prevent him from beginning his -work at once. - -[Sidenote: His reply to Dr. Eck.] - -Whilst suffering from its early symptoms, during intervals of pain and -weakness,[688] he wrote a careful reply to a letter he had received from -Dr. Eck, Professor of the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria, -complaining, as Luther had already done, indirectly through Spalatin, of -the anti-Augustinian proclivities of the 'Novum Instrumentum.'[689] - -Luther and Eck had already had communications on theological subjects. -The Wittemberg theologian had sent to his Ingolstadt brother for his -approval, through a mutual friend, a set of propositions aimed against the -Pelagian tendencies of the times.[690] - -But Eck and Luther, whilst both admirers of St. Augustine, and both -jealous of Erasmus and his anti-Augustinian proclivities, rested their -objections on somewhat different grounds. - -[Sidenote: Dr. Eck holds to plenary inspiration.] - -Luther looked coldly on the 'Novum Instrumentum' mainly because he thought -he found in its doctrinal statements traces of Pelagian heresy. Dr. Eck -objected not so much to any error in doctrine which it might contain, as -_to the method of Biblical criticism which it adopted throughout_. He -objected to the suggestion it contained, that the Apostles quoted the old -Testament from memory, and, therefore, not always correctly. He objected -to the insinuation that their Greek was colloquial, and not strictly -classical. - -With regard to the first point, he referred to the well-known, and, as he -thought, 'most excellent argument of St. Augustine' against the admission -of _any_ error in the Scriptures, lest the authority of the _whole_ should -be lost. And with regard to the second, he charged Erasmus with making -himself a preceptor to the Holy Spirit, as though the Holy Spirit had been -wanting in attention or learning, and required the defects resulting from -his negligence to be now, after so many centuries, supplied by Erasmus. - -He made these criticisms, he wrote, not in the spirit of opposition, but -because he could not agree with the preference shown by Erasmus to Jerome -over Augustine. It was the one point in which the Erasmian creed was at -fault. Nearly all the learned world was Erasmian already, but this one -thing all Erasmians complained of in Erasmus--that he would not study the -works of St. Augustine. If he would but do this, Eck was sure he would -acknowledge that it would be rash indeed to assign to St. Augustine any -other than the highest place amongst the fathers of the Church.[691] - -[Sidenote: Reply of Erasmus.] - -Erasmus replied[692] to the first objection, that, in his judgment, the -authority of the whole Scriptures would _not_ fall with any slip of memory -on the part of an Evangelist--_e.g._ if he put 'Isaiah' by mistake for -'Jeremiah'--because no point of importance turns upon it. We do not -forthwith think evil of the whole life of Peter because Augustine and -Ambrose affirm that even after he had received the Holy Ghost he fell into -error on some points; and so our faith is not altogether shaken in a whole -book because it has some defects. - -With regard to the colloquial Greek of the Apostles, he took the authority -of Jerome, and Origen, and the Greek fathers as good evidence on that -point. - -With respect to his preference for Jerome over Augustine, he knew what he -was about. His preference for Jerome was deliberate, and rested on good -grounds. When he came to the passage in Eck's letter, where he stated that -all Erasmians complained of his one fault--not reading Augustine--he could -not read it without laughing. 'I know of nothing in me,' he wrote, 'why -anyone should wish to be _Erasmian_, and I altogether hate that term of -division. We are all _Christians_, and labour, each in his own sphere, to -advance the glory of Christ.' But that he had not read the works of -Augustine! Why, they were the very first that he did read of the writings -of the fathers. He had read them over and over again. Let his critics -examine his works, they would find that there was scarcely a work of St. -Augustine which was not there quoted many hundred times. Let him compare -Augustine and Jerome on their merits. Jerome was a pupil of Origen, and -one page of Origen teaches more Christian philosophy than ten of -Augustine. Augustine scarcely knew Greek; at all events was not at home in -Greek writers. Besides this, by his own confession, he was busied with his -bishopric, and could hardly snatch time to learn what he taught to others. -Jerome devoted _thirty-five years_ to the study of the Scriptures. - -In the meantime, in conclusion, he observed that the difference of opinion -between himself and Eck upon these points need not interrupt their -friendship, any more than the difference of opinion upon the same point -between Jerome and Augustine interrupted theirs. - -Having despatched this reply to Eck, and recovered from what proved a -short but sharp attack of illness, Erasmus wrote to More on the 1st of -June to advise him of his safe arrival at Basle, of his illness and -recovery, and to express the hope that a few months would see his labours -there accomplished. If the Fates were propitious, he hoped to return to -Brabant in September.[693] - - * * * * * - -What were the works which he had come to Basle to publish during these -tumultuous times? - -[Sidenote: New editions of works of Erasmus.] - -The second edition of the New Testament will require a separate notice -by-and-by. A new and corrected edition of More's 'Utopia' was already in -hand, and waiting only for a letter which Budæus was writing to be -prefixed to it.[694] A new edition of the 'Institutio Principis -Christiani' was also to come forth from the press of Froben.[695] - -It might seem hopeless to put forth works such as these, expressing views -so far in advance of the practices of the times, but the fact that new -editions were so rapidly called for proved that they were eagerly read. In -the same letter in which Erasmus ridiculed to More the projected -expedition against the Turks, and spoke of the violence of the German -press and the satire which had just appeared, '_Julius de Coelo -exclusus_,' he spoke of his having seen another edition of the 'Utopia' -just printed at Paris.[696] - -In the previous year, 1517, Froben had printed a sixth edition of the -'Adagia,' which had now expanded into a thick folio volume, and become a -receptacle for the views of Erasmus on many chance subjects. In this -edition he had expressed his indignant feelings against the political -anarchy and Papal scandals of the period, and he told More to look -particularly at what he had written on the adage, '_Ut fici oculis -incumbunt_;'[697] in which was an allusion to the 'insatiable avarice, -unbridled lust, most pernicious cruelty, and great tyranny' of princes; -and to the evil influence of those ecclesiastics who, ever ready to do the -dirty work of princes and popes, abetted and mixed themselves up with the -worst scandals.[698] And again it is remarkable to find how rapidly this -ponderous edition of the 'Adagia' must have been sold to admit of another -following in 1520, still further increased in bulk--a large folio volume -of nearly 800 pages. - -[Sidenote: Collections of letters printed.] - -[Sidenote: Letter to Volzius.] - -In addition to these reprints, two separate collections of some of his -letters were printed by Froben in 1518,[699] evidently intended to aid in -spreading more widely those plain-spoken views on various subjects which -he had expressed in his private letters to his friends during the last few -years. Another edition was also called for of the 'Enchiridion;' and -Erasmus, on his arrival at Basle, burning as well he might with increased -indignation against the scandals of the times, wrote a new preface, in the -form of a letter to Volzius, the Abbot of a monastery at Schelestadt--a -letter which, containing in almost every line of it pointed allusion to -passing events, was eagerly devoured by thinking men all over Europe, and -passed through several editions in a very short space of time. - -It was a letter in which he repeated the conviction which he had learned -twenty years before from Colet, that the true Christian creed was -exceedingly simple, adapted not for the learned alone, but for _all_ men. - -And upon this ground he defended the simplicity of his little handy-book, -contrasting it with the '_Summa_' of Aquinas. 'Let the great doctors, -which must needs be but few in comparison with other men, study and busy -themselves in those great volumes.' The 'unlearned and rude multitude, -which Christ died for, ought to be provided for also.' 'Christ would that -the way should be plain and open to every man,' and therefore, we -ourselves ought to endeavour, with all 'our strength to make it as easy as -can be.'[700] - -He then alluded to the war against the Turks, and hinted that it would be -better to try to convert them. Do we wonder, he urged, that Christianity -does not spread? that we cannot convert the Turks? What is the use of -laying before them the ponderous tomes of the Schoolmen, full of 'thorny -and cumbrous and inextricably subtle imaginations of instants, -formalities, quiddities,' and the like? We ought to place before them the -simple philosophy of Christ contained in the _Gospels_ and _Apostolic -Epistles_, simplifying even their phraseology; giving them in fact the -pith of them _in as simple and clear a form as possible_. And of what use -would even this be if our lives belied our creed? They must see that we -ourselves are servants and imitators of Jesus Christ, that we do not covet -anything of theirs for ourselves, but that we desire their salvation and -the glory of Christ. This was the true, pure, and powerful theology which -in olden time subjected to Christ the pride of philosophers and the -sceptres of kings. - -Erasmus then, after a passing censure of the scandals brought upon -Christianity by the warlike policy of priests and princes, the sale of -indulgences, and so forth, proceeded to criticise the religion of modern -monks, their reliance on ceremonies, their degeneracy, and worldliness. - -'... Once the monastic life was a _retreat_ or _retirement_ from the -world, of men who were called out of idolatry to Christ: now those who are -called monks are found in the very vortex of worldly business, exercising -a sort of tyrannical rule over the affairs of men. They alone are holy, -other men are scarcely Christians. _Why should we thus narrow the -Christian profession, when Christ wished it to be as broad as -possible?_[701] Except the big name, what is a _state_ but one great -monastery? Let no one despise another because his manner of life is -different.... In every path of life let all strive to attain to the mind -of Christ [_scopum Christi_]. Let us assist one another, neither envying -those who surpass us, nor despising those who may lag behind. And if -anyone should excel another, let him beware lest he be like the Pharisee -in the Gospel, who recounted his good deeds to God; rather let him follow -the teaching of Christ, and say, "I am an unprofitable servant." No one -more truly has faith than he who distrusts himself. No one is really -farther from true religion than he who thinks himself most religious. -Nothing is worse for Christian piety than for what is really of the world -to be misconstrued to be of Christ--for human authority to be preferred to -Divine.'[702] - -It was a letter firm and calm in its tone, and well adapted to the end in -view. It was dated from Basle, in August, 1518. - -The 'Enchiridion,' with this prefatory letter, was published in September, -together with some minor works, amongst which was the 'Discussion on the -Agony in the Garden,' including Colet's reply, in which he had expressed -his views on the theory of the 'manifold senses' of Scripture, the whole -forming an elegant quarto volume printed in the very best type of Froben. -Another beautiful edition was published at Cologne in the following year. - - -II. THE SECOND EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT (1518-19). - -The time had come for Erasmus more fully and publicly to reply to the -various attacks which had been made upon the 'Novum Instrumentum.' - -Its most bitter opponents had been the ignorant Scotists and monks who -were caricatured in the 'Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum.' 'There are none,' -wrote Erasmus to a friend, 'who bark at me more furiously than they who -have never seen even the outside of my book. Try the experiment upon any -of them, and you will find what I tell you is true. When you meet any one -of these brawlers, let him rave on at my New Testament till he has made -himself hoarse and out of breath, then ask him gently whether he has read -it. If he have the impudence to say "_yes_," urge him to produce one -passage that deserves to be blamed. You will find that he cannot.'[703] - -To opponents such as these, Erasmus had sufficiently replied by the -re-issue of the 'Enchiridion' with the new prefatory letter to Volzius. - -But there was another class of objectors to the 'Novum Instrumentum' who -were not ignorant and altogether bigoted, and who honestly differed from -the views of Erasmus; some of them, like Luther, because he did not follow -the Augustinian theology; others, like Eck, who adhered to Augustine's -theory of verbal inspiration; others, again, who were jealous of the -tendencies of the 'new learning,' and saw covert heresies in all -departures from the beaten track. - -[Sidenote: Second edition of the New Testament.] - -The reply of Erasmus to these was a second edition of his New Testament; -and this was already in course of publication at Froben's press.[704] - -Erasmus took pains in the second edition to correct an immense number of -little errors which had crept into the first. But in those points in which -it was the expression of the views of the Oxford Reformers, he altered -nothing, unless it were to express them more clearly and strongly, or to -defend what he had said in the 'Novum Instrumentum.' - -Thus the passage condemned by Luther, in which the resort by theologians -to the doctrine of 'original sin' was compared to the invention of -epicycles by mediæval astronomers, was retained in all essential -particulars without modification.[705] - -So, too, the passages censured by Eck as inimical to the Augustinian -theory of the inspiration of the Scriptures, were not only retained, but -amplified, while opportunity was taken to strengthen the arguments in -favour of the freer view of inspiration held by the Oxford Reformers.[706] - -Again; the main drift and spirit of the body of the work remained -unchanged. Its title, however, was altered from 'Novum Instrumentum' to -'Novum Testamentum.' - -In speaking of the 'Novum Instrumentum' it was observed, that perhaps the -most remarkable portion of the work was the prefatory matter, especially -the 'Paraclesis.' - -[Sidenote: 'Paraclesis.'] - -This 'Paraclesis' remained the same in the second edition as in the 'Novum -Instrumentum,' including the passages quoted in a former chapter, urging -the translation of the New Testament into every language, so that it might -become the common property of the ploughman and the mechanic, and even of -Turks and Saracens, and ending also with the passage in which Erasmus had -so forcibly summed up the value of the Gospels and Epistles, by pointing -out how 'living and breathing a picture' they presented of Christ -'speaking, healing, dying, and rising again, bringing his life so vividly -before the eye, that we almost seem to have seen it ourselves.' - -[Sidenote: 'Ratio Veræ Theologiæ.'] - -Next to the 'Paraclesis,' in the first edition, had followed a few -paragraphs treating of the 'method of theological study.' This in the -second edition was so greatly enlarged as to become an important feature -of the work. It was also printed separately, and passed through several -editions under the title, '_Ratio Veræ Theologiæ_.' - -Erasmus in this treatise pointed out, as he had done before, the great -advantages of the study of the New Testament in its original language, -and urged that all branches of knowledge, natural philosophy, geography, -history, classics, mythology, should be brought to bear upon it, again -assigning the reason which he had before given,--'that we may follow the -story, and seem not only to read it but to _see_ it; for it is wonderful -how much light--how much _life_, so to speak--is thrown by this method -into what before seemed dry and lifeless.' - -[Sidenote: Example of the historical method from Origen.] - -Contrasting the results of this method with that commonly in use in -lectures and sermons, he exclaimed, 'How these very things which were -meant to warm and to enliven, themselves lie cold and without any life!' -And then, to give an example of the true method, he recommended the -student to study the homily of Origen on 'Abraham commanded to sacrifice -his son,' in which a type or example is set before our eyes, to show that -the power of faith is stronger than all human passions. The object [of -Origen] is to point out, dwelling on each little circumstance, by what and -how many ways the trial struck home over and over again to the heart of -the father. 'Take, he said, thy _son_. What parent's heart would not -soften at the name of son? But that the sacrifice might be still greater, -it is added--thy _dearest_ son--and yet more emphatic--_whom thou lovest_. -Here surely, was enough for a human heart to grapple with.... But Isaac -was more than merely a son, he was the son of promise. The good man longed -for posterity, and all his hope depended on the life of this one child. He -was commanded to ascend a high mountain, and it took him _three days_ to -get there. During all the time, what conflicting thoughts must have rent -the heart of the parent! his human affections on the one side, the Divine -command on the other. As they are going, the boy carrying the wood, calls -to his father who bears the fire and the sword, "Father!" and he replies, -"What dost thou want, my son?" How must the heart of the old man have -throbbed with the pulsations of his love! Who would not have been moved -with loving pity for the simplicity of the obedient boy, when he said, -"Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the victim?" In how many ways -was the faith of Abraham tried! And now mark with what firmness, with what -constancy, did he go on doing what he was commanded to do. He did not -reply to God, he did not argue with him concerning his promised -faithfulness, he did not even mourn with his friends and relations over -his childlessness, as most men would have done to lighten their grief. -Seeing the place afar off, he told his servants to stop, lest any of them -should hinder his carrying out what was commanded.... He himself built the -altar; he himself bound the boy and put him on the wood; the sword -quivered in his grasp, and would have slain his only son, on whom all his -cherished hope of posterity depended, had not suddenly the voice of an -angel stayed the old man's hand.'[707] - -Thus (continued Erasmus), but more at length and more elegantly, are these -things related by Origen, I hardly know whether more to the pleasure or -profit of the reader; although, be it observed, they are construed -_altogether according to the historical sense_; nor does he apply any -other method to the Holy Scriptures than that which Donatus applies to the -comedies of Terence when elucidating the meaning of the classics. - -It would almost seem that Erasmus might have read Luther's letter to -Spalatin in which he complained of St. Jerome's adhering upon principle to -the _historical_ sense, and mourned over the tendency he had seen in -Erasmus to follow his example. Luther spoke of this literal historical -method of interpretation as the reason why, in the hands of commentators -since St. Augustine, the Bible had been a _dead_ book. Erasmus thought, on -the other hand, that the only way to restore the position of the Bible as -a _living_ book was to apply to it the same method which common sense -applied to all other books; to resume, in fact, that literal and -historical method which had been neglected since the days of St. Jerome, -and which Origen had so successfully applied to the story of Abraham in -the passage he had cited. It is singular also that, in quoting from Origen -this example of the skilful application of the historical method, he was -quoting from the father whose rich imagination was mainly responsible for -the theory of 'the manifold senses.' - -The adoption of the common sense historical method of interpreting the -Scriptures, made it possible and needful to rest faith in Christianity on -its own evidences rather than upon the dogmatic authority of the Church, -her fathers, doctors, schoolmen, or councils. To this Erasmus seems to -have been fully alive. He was not prepared to throw aside the authority of -the general consent of Christians, especially of the early fathers, as a -thing of naught, but he was too conscious of the fallibility of all such -authority to rest wholly upon it. Besides, one evident object he had in -view was to gain back again to Christianity those disciples of the new -learning who, in revulsion from the Christianity of Alexander VI., Cæsar -Borgia, and Julius II., were trying to satisfy themselves with a refined -semi-pagan philosophy. And no ecclesiastical authority could avail to undo -what ecclesiastical scandal had done in that quarter. - -The stress which in this little treatise Erasmus laid upon internal -evidence will be best illustrated by a few examples. - -Take first the following argument for the truth of Christianity. - -[Sidenote: Argument for the truth of Christianity.] - -He recommends the student 'attentively to observe, in both New and Old -Testaments, the wonderful compass and consistency of the whole story, if I -may so speak, of Christ becoming a man for our sake. This will help us not -only more rightly to understand what we read, but also to read with -greater faith. For no _lie_ was ever framed with such skill as in -everything to comport with itself. Compare the types and prophecies of the -Old Testament which foreshadowed Christ, and these same things happening -as they were revealed to the eye of faith. Next to them was the testimony -of angels--of Gabriel to the Virgin at his conception, and again of a -choir of angels at his birth. Then came the testimony of the shepherds, -then that of the Magi, besides that of Simeon and Anna. John the Baptist -foretold his coming. He pointed him out with his finger when he came as he -whose _coming_ the prophets predicted. And lest we should not know what to -hope for from him, he added, "Behold him who taketh away the sin of the -world!"... - -'Next observe the whole course of his life, how he grew up to youth, -always in favour with both God and man.... At twelve years of age, -teaching and listening in the temple, he first gave a glimpse of what he -was. Then by his first miracle, at the marriage feast, in private, he made -himself known to a few. For it was not until after he had been baptized -and commended by the voice of his Father and the sign of the dove; lastly, -not until after he had been tried and proved by the forty days' fast and -the temptation of Satan, that he commenced the work of _preaching_. Mark -his birth, education, preaching, death; you will find nothing but a -perfect example of poverty and humility, yea of innocence. The whole range -of his doctrine, as it was consistent with itself, so it was consistent -with his life, and also consistent with his nature. He taught innocence; -he himself so lived that not even suborned witnesses, after trying in many -ways to do so, could find anything that could plausibly be laid to his -charge. He taught gentleness: he himself was led as a lamb to the -slaughter. He taught poverty, and we do not read that he ever possessed -anything. He warned against ambition and pride: he himself washed his -disciples' feet. He taught that this was the way to true glory and -immortality: he himself, by the ignominy of the cross, has obtained a name -which is above every name; and whilst he sought no earthly kingdom, he -earned the empire both of heaven and earth. When he rose from the dead, he -taught what he had taught before. He had taught that death is not to be -feared by the good, and on that account he showed himself risen again. In -the presence of the same disciples he ascended into heaven, that we might -know whither we are to strive to follow. Lastly, that heavenly Spirit -descended which by its inspiration made his apostles what Christ wished -them to be. You may perhaps find in the books of Plato or Seneca what is -not inconsistent with the teaching of Christ; you may find in the life of -Socrates some things which are certainly consistent with the life of -Christ; but this wide range, and all things belonging to it in harmonious -agreement _inter se_, you will find in _Christ_ alone. There are many -things in the prophets both divinely said and piously done, many things in -Moses and other men famous for holiness of life, but this complete range -you will not find in any _man_.'[708]... - -From this general view of the 'wonderful compass and consistency of the -whole story' let us pass with Erasmus to details. We shall find him -following the same method in treating of each point, taking pains to rest -his belief rather on the evidence of _facts_ than upon mere dogmatic -authority. - -[Sidenote: Proofs of the innocence of Christ.] - -Thus in treating of the '_innocence_ of Christ,' it would have been easy -to have quoted a few authoritative passages from the Apostolic epistles, -and to have relied upon these, but Erasmus chose rather to rest on the -variety of evidence afforded by the many different kinds of witnesses -whose testimony is recorded in the New Testament. After alluding to the -testimony of the voice from heaven, of John the Baptist, and of the -_friends_ of Jesus, he thus proceeds:-- - -'... The men who were sent to take him bore witness that "never man spake -as this man."... _Pilate_ also bore witness, "I am pure from the blood of -this _just man_; see ye to it." Pilate's _wife_ also bore witness, "have -nothing to do with that _just person_."... Hostile judges recognised his -innocence, rejecting the evidence of the many witnesses. They declared, -and themselves were witnesses, that the suborned men _lied_: they had -nothing to object but the saying about the destruction and rebuilding of -the temple.... The wretched _Judas_ confessed, "I have sinned, in -betraying _innocent_ blood." The centurion at the cross confessed, "truly -this was the Son of God." The wicked Pharisees confessed that they had -nothing to lay to his charge why he should be crucified, but the saying -about the temple. Thus was he so guiltless, that nothing could even be -_invented_ against him with any show of _probability_.'[709] - -[Sidenote: Proofs of Christ's humanity.] - -In the same way, in order to show that Christ was truly a _man_, instead -of quoting texts to prove it, he pointed to the facts 'that he called -himself the "Son of man;" that he grew up through the usual stages of -growth; that he slept, ate, hungered, and thirsted; that he was wearied by -travel; that he was touched by human passions. We read in Matthew that he -pitied the crowd; in Mark, that he was angry and grieved and groaned in -spirit; in John, that his mind was moved before his passion; that such was -his anguish in the garden that his sweat was like drops of blood; that he -thirsted on the cross, which was what usually happened during crucifixion; -that he wept over the city of Jerusalem; that he wept and was moved at the -grave of Lazarus.'[710] - -[Sidenote: Proofs of the divinity of Christ.] - -And in the same way to prove Christ's divinity, Erasmus pointed to his -miracles, and their consistency with his own declarations. Again he -wrote, 'Who indeed would look for true salvation from a mere man?... He -said that he was sent from heaven, that he was the Son of God, that he had -been in heaven. He called God his Father; and the Jews understood what he -meant by it, for they said, "Thou, a man, makest thyself God." Lastly, he -rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sent down the Paraclete, by -whom the Apostles were suddenly refreshed.'[711] - -[Sidenote: The mode by which Christ influenced the world.] - -Another subject upon which Erasmus dwelt was 'the way which was adopted by -Christ to draw the world under his influence.' He showed how the prophets -and the preaching of John had prepared the way for him. 'He did not seek -suddenly to change the world; for it is difficult to remove from men's -minds what they have imbibed in childhood, and what has been handed down -to them by common consent from their ancestors. First, John went before -with the baptism of repentance; then the Apostles went forth, not yet -announcing the coming Messiah, but only that the kingdom of heaven was at -hand. By means of poor and unlearned men the thing began, ... and for a -long while he bore with the rudeness and distrust of even these, that they -might not seem to have believed rashly. Thomas pertinaciously disbelieved, -and not until he had touched the marks of the nails and the spear did he -exclaim, "My Lord and my God!" When about to ascend to heaven, he -upbraided all of them for their hardness of heart and difficulty in -believing what they had seen.... He added the evidence of miracles, but -even these were nothing but acts of kindness. He never worked a miracle -for anyone who had not faith. The crowd were witnesses of nearly all he -did. He sent the lepers to the priests, not that they might be healed, but -that it might be more clearly known that they were healed.... And for all -the benefits he rendered, he never once took any reward, nor glory, nor -money, nor pleasure, nor rule, so that the suspicion of a corrupt motive -might not be imputed to him. And it was not till after the Holy Spirit had -been sent that the Gospel trumpet was sounded through the whole world, -_lest it should seem that he had sought anything for himself while alive_. -Moreover, there is no testimony held more efficacious amongst mortals than -blood. By his own death, and that of his disciples, he set a seal to the -truth of his teaching. I have already alluded to the consistency of his -whole life.'[712] - -[Sidenote: Precepts of the New Testament.] - -These passages will serve as examples of the means by which, in this -treatise, Erasmus sought to bring out the facts of the life of Christ as -the true foundation of the Christian faith, instead of the dogmas of -scholastic theology. After thus thoughtfully dwelling upon the facts of -the life of Christ, he proceeds to examine his teaching, and he concludes -that there were two things which he peculiarly and perpetually -inculcated--faith and love--and, after describing them more at length, he -writes, 'Read the New Testament through, you will not find in it any -precept which pertains to _ceremonies_. Where is there a single word of -meats or vestments? Where is there any mention of fasts and the like? -_Love_ alone He calls _His_ precept. Ceremonies give rise to differences; -from love flows peace.... And yet _we_ burden those who have been made -free by the blood of Christ with all these almost senseless and more than -Jewish constitutions!'[713] - -Finally, turning from the New Testament and its theology to the Schoolmen -and theirs, he exclaimed, 'What a spectacle it is to see a divine of -eighty years old knowing nothing but mere sophisms!'[714] and ended with -the sentences which have already been quoted as the conclusion of the -shorter treatise prefixed to the 'Novum Instrumentum.' - -This somewhat lengthy examination of 'the method of true theology' will -not have been fruitless, if it should place beyond dispute what was -pointed out with reference to the 'Novum Instrumentum,' that its value lay -more in its prefaces, and its main drift and spirit as a whole, than in -the critical exactness of its Greek text or the correctness of its -readings. If it could be said of the 'Novum Instrumentum' that much of its -value lay in its preface--in its beautiful '_Paraclesis_'--it may also be -said that the importance of the second edition was greatly enhanced by the -addition of the '_Ratio Veræ Theologiæ_.' - -And as, like its forerunner, this second edition went forth under the -shield of Leo X.'s approval, with the additional sanction of the -Archbishops of Basle and of Canterbury, and with all the prestige of -former success, it must have been felt to be not only a firm and -dignified, but also a triumphant reply to the various attacks which had -been made upon Erasmus--a reply more powerful than the keenest satire or -the most bitter invective could have been--a reply in which the honest -dissentient found a calm restatement of what perhaps he had only half -comprehended; the candid critic, the errors of which he complained -corrected; and the blind bigot, the luxury of something further to -denounce.[715] - - -III. ERASMUS'S HEALTH GIVES WAY (1518). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus leaves Basle.] - -[Sidenote: Reaches Louvain ill.] - -After several months' hard and close labour in Froben's office in the -autumn of 1518, Erasmus left Basle, jaded and in poor health. As he -proceeded on his journey to Louvain his maladies increased. Carbuncles -made their appearance, and added to the pains of travel. He reached -Louvain thoroughly ill; and turned into the house of the hospitable -printer, Thierry Martins, almost exhausted. A physician was sent for. He -told Martins and his wife that Erasmus had the plague, and never came -again for fear of contagion. Another was sent for, but he likewise did not -repeat his visit. A third came, and pronounced it not to be the plague. A -fourth, at the first mention of ulcers, was seized with fear, and though -he promised to call again, sent his servant instead. And thus for weeks -lay Erasmus, ill and neglected by the doctors, in the house of the good -printer at Louvain.[716] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Joy of the monks at the report of the death of Erasmus.] - -Some monks were drinking together at Cologne, a city where Erasmus had -many bigoted enemies. One of the fraternity of preaching friars brought -to them the news that Erasmus was dead at Louvain! The intelligence was -received with applause by the convivial monks, and again and again was the -applause repeated, when the preacher added, in his monkish Latin, that -Erasmus had died, like a heretic as he was, '_sine lux, sine crux, sine -Deus_.'[717] - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - - -I. ERASMUS DOES NOT DIE (1518). - -The monks of Cologne were disappointed. Erasmus did not die. His illness -turned out not to be the plague. After four weeks' nursing at the good -printer's house, he was well enough to be removed to his own lodgings -within the precincts of the college. Thence he wrote to Beatus Rhenanus in -these words:-- - - _Erasmus to Beatus Rhenanus._[718] - - * * * * * - - [Sidenote: Erasmus describes his illness.] - - 'My dear Beatus,--Who would have believed that this frail delicate - body, now weaker from increasing age, after the toils of so many - journeys, after the labours of so many studies, should have survived - such an illness? You know how hard I had been working at Basle just - before.... A suspicion had crossed my mind that this year would prove - fatal to me, one malady succeeded so rapidly upon another, and each - worse than the one which preceded it. When the disease was at its - height, I neither felt distressed with desire of life, nor did I - tremble at the fear of death. All my hope was in Christ alone, and I - prayed for nothing to him except that he would do what he thought - best for me. Formerly, when a youth, I remember I used to tremble at - the very name of death!...' - -Had Erasmus fallen a victim to the plague and died at the house of Martins -the printer, as the friar had reported, and the convivial monks had too -readily believed, it does not seem likely that his death would have been -as dark and godless as they fancied it might have been. As it was, instead -of dying without lighted tapers and crucifix and transubstantiated wafer, -or, in monkish jargon, '_sine lux, sine crux, sine Deus_,' their enemy -_still lived_, and the disappointed monks, instead of ill-concealed -rejoicings over his death, were obliged to content themselves for many -years to come with muttering in quite another tone, 'It were good for that -man if he had never been born.'[719] - - -II. MORE AT THE COURT OF HENRY VIII. (1518). - -[Sidenote: The sweating sickness.] - -[Sidenote: Death of Ammonius.] - -While the plague had been raging in Germany, the sweating sickness had -been continuing its ravages in England. Before More left for Calais it had -struck down, after a few days' illness, Ammonius, with whom Erasmus and -More had long enjoyed intimate friendship. Wolsey also had narrowly -escaped with his life, after repeated attacks. When More returned from the -embassy he found the sickness still raging. In the spring of 1518 the -court was removed to Abingdon, to escape the contagion of the great city; -and whilst there, More, who now was obliged to follow the King wherever he -might go, had to busy himself with precautionary measures to prevent its -spread in Oxford, where it had made its appearance.[720] - -[Sidenote: Greeks and Trojans at Oxford.] - -Whilst at Abingdon, he was called upon, also, to interfere with his -influence to quiet a foolish excitement which had seized the students at -Oxford. It was not the spread of the sweating sickness which had caused -their alarm; but the increasing taste for the study of Greek had roused -the fears of divines of the old school. The enemies of the 'new learning' -had raised a faction against it. The students had taken sides, calling -themselves Greeks and Trojans, and, not content with wordy warfare, they -had come to open and public insult. At length, the most virulent abuse had -been poured upon the Greek language and literature, even from the -university pulpit, by an impudent and ignorant preacher. He had denounced -all who favoured Greek studies as 'heretics;' in his coarse phraseology, -those who taught the obnoxious language were '_diabolos maximos_' and its -students '_diabolos minutulos_.' - -More, upon hearing what had been passing, wrote a letter of indignant but -respectful remonstrance to the university authorities.[721] He and Pace -interested the King also in the affair, and at their suggestion he took -occasion to express his royal pleasure that the students 'would do well to -devote themselves with energy and spirit to the study of Greek -literature;' and so, says Erasmus, 'silence was imposed upon these -brawlers.'[722] - -[Sidenote: A foolish preacher at Court.] - -On another occasion the King and his courtiers had attended Divine -service. The court preacher had, like the Oxford divine, indulged in abuse -of Greek literature and the modern school of interpretation--having -Erasmus and his New Testament in his eye. Pace looked at the King to see -what he thought of it. The King answered his look with a satirical smile. -After the sermon the divine was ordered to attend upon the King. It was -arranged that More should reply to the arguments he had urged against -Greek literature. After he had done so, the divine, instead of replying to -his arguments, dropped down on his knees before the King, and simply -prayed for forgiveness, urging, however, by way of extenuating his fault, -that he was carried away by the spirit in his sermon when he poured forth -all this abuse of the Greek language. 'But,' the King here observed, 'that -spirit was not the spirit of _Christ_, but the spirit of _foolishness_.' -He then asked the preacher what works of Erasmus he had read. He had not -read any. 'Then,' said the King, 'you prove yourself to be a fool, for you -condemn what you have never read.' 'I read once,' replied the divine, 'a -thing called the "Moria."'... Pace here suggested that there was a decided -congruity between that and the preacher. And finally the preacher himself -relented so far as to admit:--'After all I am not so _very_ hostile to -Greek letters, because they were derived from the Hebrew.' The King, -wondering at the distinguished folly of the man, bade him retire, but with -strict injunctions never again to preach at Court![723] - -So far, then, from More's new position having extinguished his own -opinions or changed his views, he had the satisfaction of being able now -and then to advance the interests of the 'new learning,' and to act the -part of its 'friend at court.' - - -III. THE EVENING OF COLET'S LIFE (1518-19). - -[Sidenote: The sweating sickness.] - -The sweating sickness continued its ravages in England, striking down one -here and another there with merciless rapidity. It was generally fatal on -the first day. If the patient survived twenty-four hours he was looked -upon as out of danger. But it was liable to recur, and sometimes attacked -the same person four times in succession. This was the case with Cardinal -Wolsey; whilst several of the royal retinue were attacked and carried off -at once, Wolsey's strong constitution carried him through four successive -attacks.[724] - -[Sidenote: Colet three times attacked by it.] - -During the period of its ravages Colet was three times attacked by it and -survived, but with a constitution so shattered, and with symptoms so -premonitory of consumptive tendencies, as to suggest to him that the time -might not be far distant when he too must follow after his twenty-one -brothers and sisters, and leave his aged mother the survivor of all her -children. - -Meanwhile an accidental ray of light falls here and there upon the -otherwise obscure life of Colet during these years of peril, revealing -little pictures, too beautiful in their simple consistency with all else -we know of him to be passed by unheeded. - -The first glimpse we get of Colet reveals him engaged in the careful and -final completion of the rules and statutes by which his school was to be -governed after his own death. Having spent a good part of his life and his -fortune in the foundation of this school, as the best means of promoting -the cause which he had so deeply at heart, one might have expected that he -would have tried, in fixing his statutes, to give permanence and -perpetuity to his own views. This is what most people try to do by -endowments of this kind. - -No sooner do most reformers clear away a little ground, and discover what -they take to be truths, than they attempt, by organising a sect, founding -endowments, and framing articles and trust-deeds, to secure the permanent -tradition of their own views to posterity in the form in which they are -apprehended by themselves. Hence, in the very act of striking off the -fetters of the past, they are often forging the fetters of the future. -Even the Protestant Reformers, whilst on the one hand bravely breaking the -yoke under which their ancestors had lived in bondage, ended by fixing -another on the neck of their posterity. Those who remained in the old -bondage found themselves, as the result of the Reformation, bound still -tighter under Tridentine decrees: whilst those who had joined the exodus, -and entered the promised land of the Reformers, found it to be a land of -almost narrower boundaries than the one they had left. Freed from Papal -thraldom it might be, but bound down by an Augustinian theology as rigid -and dogmatic as that from which they had escaped. - -If Colet did not do likewise, he resisted with singular wisdom and success -a temptation which besets every one under his circumstances. That Colet -strove to found no sect of his own has already been seen. If the movement -which he had done so much to set agoing had produced its fruits--if a -school or party had been the result--he had not called it, or felt it to -be, in any way his _own_; he might call it 'Erasmican' in joke, and leave -Erasmus indignantly to repudiate 'that name of division;' but Erasmus -expressed the view of Colet as well as his own when he said to the abbot, -'Why should we try to narrow what Christ intended to be broad?' - -Perfectly consistent with this feeling, Colet did not now show any anxiety -to perpetuate his own particular views by means of the power which, as the -founder of the endowment, he had a perfect right to exercise. The truth -was, I think, that he retained the spirit of free enquiry--the mind open -to light from whatever direction--to the last, in full faith that the -facts of Christianity--in so far as they are facts--must have everything -to gain and nothing to lose from the discovery of other facts in other -fields of knowledge. As I have before pointed out, the Oxford Reformers -felt that they were living in an age of discovery and progress; they never -dreamed that they had reached finality either in knowledge or creed; it -would have been a sad blow to their hopes if they had been told that they -had. They took a humble view of their own attainments, and had faith in -the future. - -[Sidenote: Colet settles the statutes of his school.] - -In this spirit do we find Colet in these days of peril from the sweating -sickness, and conscious that his shattered health must soon give way, -settling the statutes of his school with a wisdom seldom surpassed even in -more modern times. - -First, with great practical shrewdness, instead of putting his school -under the charge of ecclesiastics or clergymen, he intrusted it entirely -'to the most honest and faithful fellowship of the _Mercers_ of London.' -As Erasmus expressed it, 'of the whole concern, he set in charge, not a -bishop, not a chapter, not dignitaries, but married citizens of -established reputation.'[725] Time had been when Colet had regarded -'marriage' as almost an unholy thing. But he had seen much both of the -church and the world since then; and as perhaps his faith in Dionysian -speculations had lessened, his English common sense had more and more -asserted its own. He had, as already mentioned, wisely advised Thomas More -to marry. In his 'Right fruitful Admonition concerning the Order of a good -Christian Man's Life,' from which I have quoted before, he had said, 'If -thou intend to marry, or be married, and hast a good wife, thank our Lord -therefor, for she is of his sending.' So now he intrusted his school to -'married citizens;' and Erasmus adds, 'when he was asked the reason, he -said, that nothing indeed is certain in human affairs, but that yet -amongst _these_ he had found the least corruption.[726]... He used to -declare that he had nowhere found less corrupt morals than among married -people, because natural affection, the care of their children, and -domestic duties, are like so many rails which keep them from sliding into -all kinds of vice.'[727] - -In defining the duties and salaries of the masters of his school, he -provided expressly that they might be married men (and those chosen by him -actually were so);[728] but they were to hold their office 'in no rome of -continuance and perpetuity, but upon their duty in the school.' The -chaplain was to be 'some good, honest, and virtuous man, and to help to -teach in the school.' - -Respecting the children he expressed his desire to be that they should not -be received into the school until they could read and write fairly, and -explained 'what they shall be taught' in general terms; 'for,' said he, -'it passeth my wit to devise and determine in particular.' - -Then, last of all, he added the following clause, headed, 'Liberty to -Declare the Statutes:'-- - -[Sidenote: Colet wisely gives power to alter the statutes.] - -'And notwithstanding these statutes and ordinances before written, in -which I have declared my mind and will; yet because in time to come many -things may and shall survive and grow by many occasions and causes which -at the making of this book was not possible to come to mind; in -consideration of the assured truth and circumspect wisdom and faithful -goodness of the most honest and substantial fellowship of the Mercery of -London, to whom I have committed all the care of the school, and trusting -in their fidelity and love that they have to God and man and to the -school; and also believing verily that they shall always dread the great -wrath of God:--_Both all this that is said, and all that is not said, -which hereafter shall come into my mind while I live to be said, I leave -it wholly to their discretion and charity_: I mean of the wardens and -assistances of the fellowship, with such other counsel as they shall call -unto them--good lettered and learned men--_they to add and diminish of -this book and to supply it in every default_; and also to declare in it -every obscurity and darkness as time and place and just occasion shall -require; calling the dreadful God to look upon them in all such business, -and exhorting them to fear the terrible judgment of God, which seeth in -darkness, and shall render to every man according to his works; and -finally, praying the great Lord of mercy, for their faithful dealing in -this matter, now and always to send unto them in this world much wealth -and prosperity, and after this life much joy and glory.'[729] - -This done, he wrote in the Book of Statutes the following -memorandum:--'This book I, John Colet, delivered into the hands of Master -Lilly the 18th day of June 1518, that he may keep it and observe it in the -school.'[730] - -[Sidenote: Colet prepares his tomb at St. Paul's.] - -Having completed the statutes of his school, Colet turned his attention to -a few other final arrangements, including certain reforms in the church of -St. Paul's.[731] He had already prepared a simple tomb for himself at the -side of the choir of the great cathedral with which his labours had been -so closely connected, and the simple inscription, 'Johannes Coletus,' was -already carved on the plain monumental stone which was to cover his grave. -Thus he was ready to depart whenever the summons should arrive. But the -pale messenger came not yet. - -Meanwhile Colet retained his interest in passing events. If he seemed to -take little part in public affairs, it was not owing to his want of -interest in them. It would almost seem that he sympathised much during -this quiet season with Luther's attack upon Indulgences, and was a reader -of those of his works--chiefly pamphlets--which had reached England. This, -however, rests only upon the remark of Erasmus, that he was in the habit -of reading heretical books, declaring that he often got more good from -them than from the Schoolmen;[732] and the further statement made -incidentally by Erasmus to Luther, that there were in England some men in -the highest position who thought well of his works.[733] His close -retirement may be accounted for as well by his shattered health as by the -circumstance that Bishop Fitzjames still lived in his grey hairs to harass -him. - -It was probably to secure a safe retreat in emergency beyond the -jurisdiction of this bigoted bishop that Colet was building his 'nest,' as -he called it, within the precincts of the Charterhouse--not in London, but -at Sheen, near Richmond. Whether he ever really entered this 'nest,' so -long in course of preparation, does not appear. Perhaps there was no need -for it. - -[Sidenote: Colet receives a letter from Marquard von Hatstein.] - -Little as of late he had mixed himself up with public affairs, he was -still looked up to by those who, through the report of Erasmus, recognised -his almost apostolic piety and wisdom. Thus, in his quiet retirement, he -received a letter from Marquard von Hatstein, one of the canons of Maintz, -a connection of Ulrich von Hutten's,[734] mentioned by Erasmus as 'a most -excellent young man;'[735] one of the little group of men who, under the -lead of the Archbishop of Maintz, had boldly taken the side of Reuchlin -against his persecutors--a letter which shows so true an appreciation of -Colet's character and relation to the movement which was now known as -'Erasmian,' that it must have been exceedingly grateful to the feelings of -Colet, now that he had set his house in order, and was ready to leave in -other hands the work which he himself had commenced. - - _Marquard von Hatstein to John Colet._[736] - - 'I have often thought with admiration of _your_ blessedness, who born - to wealth and of so illustrious a family have added to these gifts of - fortune manners and intellectual culture abundantly corresponding - therewith. For such is your learning, piety, and manner of life, such - lastly your Christian constancy, that notwithstanding all these gifts - of fortune, you seem to care for little but that you may run in the - path of Christ in so noble a spirit, that you are not surpassed by any - even of those who call themselves "mendicants." For they in many - things simulate and dissimulate for the sake of sensual pleasures. - - 'When recently the trumpet of cruel war sounded so terribly, how did - you hold up against it the image of Christ! the olive-branch of peace! - You exhorted us to tolerance, to concord, to the yielding up of our - goods for the good of a brother, instead of invading one another's - rights. You told us that there was no cause of war between Christians, - who are bound together by holy ties in a love more than fraternal. And - many other things of a like nature did you urge, with so great - authority, that I may truly say that the virtue of Christ thus set - forth by Colet was seen from afar. And thus did you discomfit the dark - designs of your enemies. Men raging against the truth, you conquered - with the mildness of an apostle. You opposed your gentleness to their - insane violence. Through your innocence you escaped from any harm, - even though by their numbers (for there is always the most abundant - crop of what is bad) they were able to override your better opinion. - With a skill like that with which Homer published the praises of - Achilles, Erasmus has studiously held up to the admiration of the - world and of posterity the name of England, and especially of Colet, - whom he has so described that there is not a good man of any nation - who does not honour you. I seem to myself to see that each of you owes - much to the other, but which of the two owes most to the other I am - doubtful. For he must have received good from you: seeing that you are - hardly likely to have been magnified by his colouring pen. You, - however, if I may freely say what I think, do seem to owe some thanks - to him for making publicly known those virtues which before were - unknown to us. Still I fancy you are not the less victor in the matter - of benefits conferred, since you have blessed Erasmus, a stranger to - England, otherwise an incomparable man, with so many - friends--Mountjoy, More, Linacre, Tunstal, &c.... - - 'Having commenced my theological studies, I have learned from the - conversation and writings of Erasmus to regard you as my exemplar. I - wish I could really follow you as closely as I long to do. I long, not - only to improve myself in letters, but to lead a holier life. Farewell - in Christ. VI. Cal. Maii, Anno MDXX.' (should be probably 1519).[737] - - -IV. MORE'S CONVERSION ATTEMPTED BY THE MONKS (1519). - -Erasmus was as much hated by the monks in England as by the monks at -Cologne; but they found their attempts to stir up ill-feeling against him -checkmated by the influence of More and his friends. - -More's father was known to be a good Catholic, and probably to belong, as -an old man with conservative tendencies was likely to do, to the orthodox -party. He himself was now too near the royal ear to be a harmless adherent -of the new learning--as they had learned to their cost before now. He was -so popular, too, with all parties! If only he could be detached from -Erasmus and brought over to their own side, what a triumph it would be! - -[Sidenote: More receives a letter from a monk.] - -So an anonymous letter was written by a monk to More, expressing great -solicitude for his welfare, and fears lest he should be corrupted by too -great intimacy with Erasmus; lest he should be led astray, by too great -love of his writings, into the adoption of his new and foreign doctrines! - -The good monk was particularly shocked at the hints thrown out by Erasmus -in his writings, that, after all, the holy doctors and fathers of the -Church were fallible. - -He took up the vulgar objections which the letter of Dorpius, and a still -more recent attack upon Erasmus, by an Englishman named Edward Lee, had -put into every one's mouth, and tried to persuade More to be wise in time, -lest he should become infected with the Erasmian poison. - -More's letter in reply to the over-anxious monk has been preserved.[738] - -[Sidenote: His reply.] - -He indignantly repelled the insinuation that he was in danger of -contamination from his intimacy with Erasmus, whose New Testament the very -Pope had sanctioned, who lived in the nearest intimacy with such men as -Colet, Fisher, and Warham; to say nothing of Mountjoy, Tunstal, Pace, and -Grocyn. Those who knew Erasmus best, loved him most. - -Then turning to the charge made against Erasmus, that he denied the -infallibility of the fathers, More wrote:-- - -[Sidenote: Alludes to Luther's clinging by tooth and nail to Augustine.] - -'Do _you_ deny that they ever made mistakes? I put it to you--when -Augustine thought that Jerome had mistranslated a passage, and Jerome -defended what he had done, was not _one of the two_ mistaken? When -Augustine asserted that the Septuagint is to be taken as an indubitably -faithful translation, and Jerome denied it, and asserted that its -translators had fallen into errors, was not one of the two mistaken? When -Augustine, in support of his view, adduced the story of the wonderful -agreement of the different translations produced by the inspired -translators writing in separate cells, and Jerome laughed at the story as -absurd, was not one of the two mistaken? When Jerome, writing on the -Epistle to the Galatians, translated its meaning to be that, Peter was -blamed by Paul for dissimulating, and Augustine denied it, was not one of -them mistaken?... Augustine asserts that demons and angels also have -material and substantial bodies. I doubt not that even _you_ deny this! He -asserts that infants dying without baptism are consigned to physical -torments in eternal punishment--how many are there who believe this now? -unless it be that Luther, _clinging by tooth and nail to the doctrine of -Augustine_, should be induced to revive this antiquated notion....'[739] - -I have quoted this passage from More's letter because it shows clearly, -not only how fully More had adopted the position taken up by Erasmus, but -also how fully his eyes were open to the fact, that the rising reformer of -Wittemberg did '_cling by tooth and nail to the doctrine of Augustine_,' -and was likely, by doing so, to be led astray into some of the harsh -views, and, as he thought, obvious errors of that Holy Father. - -[Sidenote: But his own view not Pelagian.] - -At the same time the following passage may be quoted as proof that, in -rejecting the Augustinian creed, More and his friends did not run into the -other extreme of Pelagianism. - -He had told the monk at the beginning of his letter, that after he had -shown how safe was the ground upon which Erasmus and he were walking in -the valley, he would turn round and assail the lofty but tottering -citadel, from which the monk looked down upon them with so proud a sense -of security. So after he had disposed of the monk's arguments, he began:-- - -'Into what factions--into how many sects is the order cut up! Then, what -tumults, what tragedies arise about little differences in the colour or -mode of girding the monastic habit, or some matter of ceremony which, if -not altogether despicable, is at all events not so important as to -warrant the banishment of all charity. How many, too, are there (and this -is surely worst of all) who, relying on the assurances of their monastic -profession, inwardly raise their crests so high that they seem to -themselves to move in the heavens, and reclining among the solar rays, to -look down from on high upon the people creeping on the ground like ants, -looking down thus, not only on the ungodly, but also upon all who are -without the circle of the enclosure of their order, so that for the most -part nothing is holy but what they do themselves.... They make more of -things which appertain specially to the religious order, than of those -valueless and very humble things which are in no way peculiar to them but -entirely common to all Christian people, such as the vulgar -virtues--faith, hope, charity, the fear of God, humility, and others of -the kind. Nor, indeed, is this a new thing. Nay, it is what Christ long -ago denounced to his chosen people, "Ye make the word of God of none -effect through your traditions."... - -'There are multitudes enough who would be afraid that the devil would come -upon them and take them alive to hell, if, forsooth, they were to set -aside their usual garb, whom nothing can move when they are grasping at -_money_. - -[Sidenote: More relates an anecdote.] - -'Are there only a few, think you, who would deem it a crime to be expiated -with many tears, if they were to omit a line in their hourly prayers, and -yet have no fearful scruple at all, when they profane themselves by the -worst and most infamous lies?... Indeed, I once knew a man devoted to the -religious life--one of that class who would nowadays be thought "most -religious." This man, by no means a novice, but one who had passed many -years in what they call regular observances, and had advanced so far in -them that he was even set over a convent--but, nevertheless, more careless -of the precepts of God than of monastic rites--slid down from one crime to -another, till at length he went so far as to meditate the most atrocious -of all crimes--a crime execrable beyond belief--and what is more, not a -simple crime, but one pregnant with manifold guilt, for he even purposed -to add sacrilege to murders and parricide. When this man thought himself -insufficient without accomplices for the perpetration of so many crimes, -he associated with himself some ruffians and cutpurses. They committed the -most horrible crimes which I ever heard of. They were all of them thrown -together into prison. I do not wish to give the details, and I abstain -from the names of the criminals, lest I should renew anything of past -hatred to an innocent order. - -'But to proceed to narrate the circumstances on account of which I have -mentioned this affair. I heard from those wicked assassins that, when they -came to that religious man in his chamber, they had not spoken of the -crime; but being introduced into his private chapel, they appeased the -sacred Virgin by a salutation on their bent knees according to custom. -_This being properly accomplished, they at length rose purely and piously -to perpetrate their crime!_... - -'Now, I have not mentioned this with the view either to defame the -religion of the monks with these crimes, since the same soil may bring -forth useful herbs and pestiferous weeds, or to condemn the rites of those -who occasionally salute the sacred Virgin, than which nothing is more -beneficial; but because people trust so much in such things that under the -very security which they thus feel they give themselves up to crime. - -'From reflections such as these you may learn the lesson which the -occasion suggests. That you should not grow too proud of your own -sect--nothing could be more fatal. Nor trust in private observances. That -you should _place your hopes rather in the Christian faith than in your -own_; and not trust in those things which you can do _for yourself_, but -in those which you cannot do _without God's help_. You can fast by -yourself, you can keep vigils by yourself, you can say prayers by -yourself--and you can do these things by the devil! But, verily, Christian -faith, which Christ Jesus truly said to be in spirit; Christian hope, -which, despairing of its own merits, confides only in the mercy of God; -Christian charity, which is not puffed up, is not made angry, does not -seek its own glory,--none, indeed, can attain these except by the grace -and gracious help of God alone. - -'By how much the more you place your trust in those virtues which are -common to Christendom, by so much the less will you have faith in private -ceremonies, whether those of your order or your own; and by how much the -less you trust in them by so much the more will they be useful. For then -at last God will esteem you a faithful servant, when you shall count -yourself good for nothing.' - -That these passages prove that More and his friends had not set aside -monasticism, or even Mariolatry, as altogether wrong, cannot be too -clearly recognised. In an age of transition it is the _direction_ of the -thoughts and aims of men which constitutes the radical difference or -agreement between them, rather than the exact distance that each may have -travelled on the same road. Luther himself had not yet in his hatred of -ceremonies travelled so far as the Oxford Reformers, though in after years -he went farther, because he travelled faster than they did. Upon these -questions they were very much practically at one. And if here and there -the three friends observed in Luther an impetuosity which carried him into -extremes, much as they might differ from some of his statements, and the -tone he sometimes adopted, their respect for his moral earnestness, and -their perception of the amount of exasperation to which his hot nature was -exposed, made them readily pardon what they could not approve. They had as -yet little idea--though More's letter showed that they had _some_--much -less than Luther himself had--how practically important was the difference -between them. For the moment their two orbits seemed almost to coincide. -They seemed even to be approaching each other. They seemed to meet in -their common hatred of the formalism of the monks, in their common attempt -to grasp at the spirit--the reality--of religion through its forms and -shadows. They had little idea that they were crossing each other's path, -and that ere long, as each pursued his course, the divergence would become -wider and wider. - - -V. ERASMUS AND THE REFORMERS OF WITTEMBERG (1519). - -[Sidenote: Luther protected by the Elector of Saxony.] - -In the summer of 1518 Melanchthon had joined Luther at Wittemberg. During -the remainder of that year the controversy on Indulgences was going on. -Rome had taken the matter up. Luther had appeared before the Papal legate -Cajetan, and from his harsh demand of simple recantation, had shrunk with -horror and fled back into Saxony. The legate had threatened that Rome -would never let the matter drop, and urged the Elector of Saxony to send -Luther to Rome. But he had made common cause with the poor monk, and -refused to banish him. Leo X. was afraid to quarrel with Frederic of -Saxony, and under the auspices of Miltitz, aided by the moderation of -Luther and the firmness of his protector, a little oil was thrown on the -troubled waters. But in the spring of 1519, when the Papal tenths came to -be exacted, murmurs were heard again on all sides. Hutten commenced his -series of satirical pamphlets, and it became evident that the storm was -not permanently laid, the lull might last for a while, but fresh tempests -were ahead.[740] - -It was during this interval of uncertainty that the first intercourse took -place between Erasmus and the Wittemberg Reformers. - -[Sidenote: Melanchthon's opinion of Erasmus.] - -Letters had already passed between Melanchthon and Erasmus; they had been -known to one another by name for some years, and were on the best of -terms. Thus Melanchthon, in writing to a friend of his in January 1519, -spoke of Erasmus as 'the first to call back theology to her -fountain-head,'[741] and of Luther as belonging to the same school. He -freely admitted how much greater was the learning of Erasmus than that of -Luther, and when in March he received from Froben a copy of the 'Method of -True Theology,' told Spalatin that 'this illustrious man seemed to have -touched upon many points in the same strain as Luther, for in these -things,' he said, 'they agreed;' adding, that Erasmus was 'freer than -Luther, because he had the assistance of real and sacred learning;' and he -mentioned this as an illustration of what he had just been saying, 'that -every good man thought well of their cause.'[742] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus's opinion of Melanchthon.] - -Erasmus, on his side, also spoke in the highest possible terms of -Melanchthon. He had great hopes from his youth that he might long survive -himself, and if he did, he predicted that his name would throw that of -Erasmus into the shade.[743] - -Whilst, however, Erasmus thus freely acknowledged the friendship and -merits of Melanchthon, he was careful not to commit himself to an approval -of all that Luther was doing. And surely it was wise; for that his strong -Augustinian tendencies were well known to the Oxford Reformers, has -already been seen in More's letter to the anonymous monk. - -[Sidenote: What he says of Luther to Melanchthon.] - -On April 2, 1519, in reply to a letter from Melanchthon[744] mentioning -Luther's desire of his approval, Erasmus wrote, that 'while every one of -his friends honoured Luther's private life, _as to his doctrine there were -different opinions_. He himself had not read Luther's books. Luther had -censured some things deservedly, but he wished that he had done so as -happily as he had freely.' At the end of this letter he expressed his -affectionate anxiety lest Melanchthon should be wearing himself out by too -hard study.[745] - -[Sidenote: Luther writes to Erasmus.] - -On March 28, Luther had written a letter to Erasmus, which probably -crossed this on the way between Wittemberg and Louvain. It was a letter in -which he had not made the slightest allusion to any difference of opinion -between himself and Erasmus. On the contrary, he had spoken as though he -held Erasmus in the greatest possible honour. He had spoken of his having -a place, and 'reigning' in the hearts of all who really loved literature. -He had been reading the new preface to the 'Enchiridion,' and from it and -from his friend Fabricius Capito he had learned that Erasmus had not only -heard but approved of what he had done respecting indulgences. And with -much genuine humility he had begged Erasmus to acknowledge him, however -ignorant and unknown to fame, buried as it were in his cell, _as a brother -in Christ_, by whom he himself was held in the greatest affection and -regard.[746] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus replies to Luther.] - -To this Erasmus, on May 30, replied, in a letter in which he _did_ address -Luther as a 'brother in Christ.' He said he had not yet read the books -which had created so much clamour, and therefore could not judge of them. -He had looked into his Commentaries on the Psalms, was much pleased with -them, and hoped they would prove useful. Some of the best men in England, -even some at Louvain, thought well of him and his writings. As to himself, -he devoted himself, as he had done all along, to the revival of good -literature [including first and foremost the Scriptures]. And it seemed to -him, he said, that more good would come of courteous modesty than of -impetuosity. It was by this that Christ drew the world under his -influence. It was thus that Paul abrogated that Judaical law, treating it -all as typical. It were better to exclaim against _abuses_ of pontifical -authority than against the Popes themselves. 'May the Lord Jesus daily -impart to you abundantly' (he concluded) 'of his own Spirit to his own -glory and the public good.'[747] - -Thus he seems to have said the same things to both Melanchthon and Luther. - -In the same strain, also, he wrote to others _about_ them. - -[Sidenote: What Erasmus says about Luther to others.] - -To the exasperated monks, who charged him with aiding and abetting Luther -in writing the books which had caused such a tumult, he replied that, as -he had not read them, he could not even express a decided opinion upon -them.[748] - -To Cardinal Wolsey he wrote, that he had only read a few pages of Luther's -books, not because he disliked them, but because he was so closely -occupied with his own. Luther's life was such that even his enemies could -not find anything to slander. Germany had young men of learning and -eloquence who would, he foretold, bring her great glory. Eobanus, Hutten, -and Beatus Rhenanus were the only ones he knew personally. If these German -students were too free in their criticisms, it should be remembered to -what constant exasperation they had been submitted in all manner of ways, -both public and private.[749] - -To Hutten, who was perhaps the most hot-headed of these German young men, -and whose satire had already proved itself more trenchant and bitter than -any in which Erasmus had ever indulged, he urged moderation, and said -that for himself he had rather spend a month in trying to explain St. Paul -or the Gospels than waste a day in quarrelling.[750] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus is writing his 'Paraphrases.'] - -Erasmus was, in fact, working hard at his 'Paraphrases.' That on the -Epistle to the Romans had been already printed in 1517, in the very best -type of Thierry Martins, and forming a small and very readable octavo -volume. Those on the next seven epistles[751] now followed in quick -succession in the spring of 1519. How fully the heart of Erasmus was in -his work is incidentally shown by the fact that, being obliged to write a -pamphlet in defence of a former publication of his, he cut it short by -saying that he had rather be working at the Paraphrase on the 'Galatians,' -which he was just completing.[752] And Erasmus was preparing, in addition -to these Paraphrases on the Epistles, others, at Colet's desire, more -lengthy, on the Gospels. Here was work enough surely on hand to excuse him -from entering into the Lutheran controversy--work precisely of that kind, -moreover, which he had told Luther that he was devoting himself to. It was -the work which, when he was longing for rest, and his zeal for the moment -was threatening to flag, Colet had urged him to go on with through good -and evil fortune; and which he himself, in his letter to Servatius, had -said he was determined to work at to the day of his death. It is clear -that he was in earnest when he told Hutten that he 'had rather spend a -month in expounding St. Paul than waste a day in quarrelling.' - -It seems to me, therefore, that the attitude of Erasmus towards Luther -was that, not of a coward, but of a man who knew what he was about. - - -VI. ELECTION OF CHARLES V. TO THE EMPIRE (1519). - -On January 12, 1519, Maximilian had died. It is not within the scope of -this history to trace the steps and countersteps, the plots and -counterplots, the bribery and treachery--the Machiavellian means and -devices--in which nearly every sovereign in Europe was implicated, to the -detriment of both conscience and exchequer, and which ended in placing -Charles V., then absent in Spain, at the head of the German empire. With -the accession of the new emperor commenced a new political era, which -belongs to the history of the Protestant Reformation, and not to that of -the Oxford Reformers. - -Erasmus was too hard at work at his Paraphrases to admit of his meddling -in politics, even though he himself had an honorary connection with the -court of the prince who was the successful candidate, and had written his -'_Christian Prince_' expressly for his benefit. - -Colet was living in retirement, suffering from shattered health, too -closely watched by the restless eye of his bishop to take any part in -public affairs.[753] - -Even More, though now a constant attendant upon Henry VIII., was probably -not initiated into continental secrets, and even had he shared all the -counsels of Wolsey, any part which he might play would be purely -executive, and belong rather to the history of his own political career -than to that of the fellow-work of the three friends. He probably had -little or nothing really to do with Wolsey's plottings to secure the -empire for his master, in order that he might, on the death of Leo X., -secure the Papal chair for himself. But there was one circumstance -connected with the election of the Emperor of too much significance to be -passed over in this history without distinct mention--the part which Duke -Frederic of Saxony played in it; and this shall simply be alluded to in -the words of Erasmus himself. - -[Sidenote: Noble conduct of the Elector of Saxony.] - -'The Duke Frederic of Saxony has written twice to me in reply to my -letter. Luther is supported solely by his protection. He says that he has -acted thus for the sake rather of the _cause_ than of the person [of -Luther]. He adds that he will not lend himself to the oppression of -innocence in his dominions by the malice of those who seek their own, and -not the things of Christ.' And Erasmus goes on to say, that 'when the -imperial crown was offered to Frederic of Saxony by all [the electors], -with great magnanimity he had refused it, the very day before Charles was -elected. And' (he writes) 'Charles never would have worn the imperial -title had it not been declined by Frederic, whose glory in refusing the -honour was greater than if he had accepted it. When he was asked who he -thought should be elected, he said that no one seemed to him able to bear -the weight of so great a name but Charles. In the same noble spirit he -firmly refused the 30,000 florins offered him by our people [_i.e._ the -agents of Charles]. When he was urged that at least he would allow 10,000 -florins to be given to his servants, "They may take them" (he said) "if -they like, but no one shall remain my servant another day who accepts a -single piece of gold."' 'The next day' (continues Erasmus) 'he took horse -and departed, lest they should continue to bother him. This was related to -me as entirely reliable, by the Bishop of Liege, who was present at the -Imperial Diet.'[754] - -Well did the conduct of the Elector of Saxony merit the admiration of -Erasmus. Would that Charles V. had merited as fully the patronage of the -wise Elector! - -It was a significant fact that, after all the bribery and wholesale -corruption by which this election was marked, the only prince who in the -event had a chance of success, other than Charles, was the one man who was -superior to corruption, and would not allow even his servants to be -bribed, who did not covet the imperial dignity for himself, but firmly -refused it when offered to him--the protector of Luther against the Pope -and the empire--the hope and strength of the Protestant Revolution which -was now so rapidly approaching. - - -VII. THE HUSSITES OF BOHEMIA (1519). - -While the election of the Emperor was proceeding the famous disputation at -Leipzig took place, which commenced between Carlstadt and Eck, upon the -question of grace and free-will, and was continued between Eck and Luther -on the primacy of the Pope--that remarkable occasion on which, after -pressing Eck into a declaration that all the Greek and other Christians -who did not acknowledge the primacy of the Pope, were heretics and lost, -Luther himself was finally driven to assert, probably as much to his own -surprise as to that of his auditors, 'that among the articles on which -the Council of Constance grounded its condemnation of John Huss, were some -fundamentally Christian and evangelical.' - -[Sidenote: Luther finds he is a Hussite.] - -Well might Duke George mutter in astonishment '_a plague upon it_.' A few -months later Luther himself, after pondering the matter over and over with -his New Testament and Melanchthon, was obliged to exclaim, 'I taught -Huss's opinions without knowing them, and so did Staupitz: we are all of -us Hussites without knowing it! Paul and _Augustine_ are Hussites! I do -not know what to think for amazement.'[755] - -[Sidenote: Letter from Schlechta to Erasmus.] - -[Sidenote: The Pyghards of Bohemia.] - -Meanwhile, before Luther had come to the conclusion _that he himself_, -with St. Augustine, was a _Hussite_, Erasmus had been in correspondence -with Johannes Schlechta, a Bohemian,[756] on the religious dissensions -which existed in Bohemia and Moravia, and with special reference to the -_Hussite_ sect of the '_Pyghards_,' or United Brethren.[757] Schlechta had -informed Erasmus that, setting aside Jews and unbelieving philosophers -who denied the immortality of the soul, the people were divided into three -sects:--First, the Papal party, including most of the magistrates and -nobility. Secondly, a party to which he himself belonged, who acknowledged -the Papacy, but differed from other good Catholics in dispensing the -Sacrament in both kinds to the laity, and in chanting the Epistle and -Gospel at mass, not in Latin, but in the vulgar tongue; to which customs -they most pertinaciously adhered, on the ground that they were confirmed -and approved in the Council of Basle (1431).[758] Thirdly, the sect of the -'Pyghards' [or 'United Brethren'], who since the times of John Zisca[759] -had maintained their ground through much bloodshed and violence. These, he -said, regarded the Pope and clergy as manifest 'Anti-christs;' the Pope -himself sometimes as the 'Beast,' and sometimes as the 'Harlot' of the -Apocalypse. They chose rude and ignorant and even married laymen as their -priests and bishops. They called each other 'brothers and sisters.' They -acknowledged no writings as of authority but the Old and New Testaments. -Fathers and Schoolmen they counted nothing by. Their priests used no -vestments, and no forms of prayer but 'the Lord's Prayer.' They thought -lightly of the sacraments; used no salt or holy water--only pure -water--in baptism, and rejected extreme unction. They saw only simple -bread and wine, no divinity, in the Sacrament of the Altar, and regarded -these only as signs representing and commemorative of the death of Christ, -who they said was in heaven. The suffrages of the saints and prayers for -the dead they held to be vain and absurd, and also auricular confession -and penance. Vigils and fasts they looked upon as hypocritical. The -festivals of the Virgin, Apostles, and Saints, they said, were invented by -the idle; Sunday, Christmas, Good Friday, and Pentecost they observed. -Other pernicious dogmas of theirs were not worthy of mention to Erasmus. -If, however (his Bohemian friend added), the first two of these three -sects could but be united, then perhaps this vicious sect, now much on the -increase, owing to recent ecclesiastical scandals, might, by the aid of -the King, be either _exterminated_ or forced into a better form of creed -and religion. Erasmus, he concluded, had now the whole circumstances of -these Bohemian divisions before him.[760] - -Here, then, Erasmus was brought into direct contact with the opinions of -the very sect to which Luther was gradually approaching, but had not yet -discovered his proximity. - -The reply of Erasmus may be regarded, therefore, as evidence of his views, -not only on the opinions and practices of the Hussites of Bohemia, but -also as foreshadowing what would be his views with regard to the opinions -and practices of Luther and the Protestant Reformers so soon as they -should publicly profess themselves Hussites. - -[Sidenote: Reply of Erasmus.] - -'You point out,' (Erasmus wrote) 'that Bohemia and Moravia are divided up -into three sects. I wish, my dear Schlechta, that some pious hand could -unite the three into one!' - -The second party (Erasmus said) erred, in his opinion, more in scornfully -rejecting the judgment and custom of the Roman Church than in thinking it -right to take the Eucharist in both kinds, which was not an unreasonable -practice in itself, though it might be better to avoid singularity on such -a point. As to the 'Pyghards,' he did not see why it followed that the -Pope was Antichrist, because there had been some bad popes, or that the -Roman Church was the 'harlot,' because she had often had wicked cardinals -or bishops. Still, however bad the 'Pyghards' might be, he would not -advise a resort to violence. It would be a dangerous precedent. As to -their electing their own priests and bishops, that was not opposed to -primitive practice. St. Nicholas and St. Ambrose were thus elected, and in -ancient times even kings were elected by the people. If they were in the -habit of electing ignorant and unlearned men, that did not matter much, if -only their _holy life_ outweighed their ignorance. He did not see why they -were to be blamed for calling one another 'brothers and sisters.' He -wished the practice could obtain amongst all Christians, if only the fact -were consistent with the words. In thinking less highly of the Doctors -than of the Scriptures--that is, in preferring God to man--they were in -the right; but altogether to reject them was as bad as altogether to -accept them. Christ and the Apostles officiated in their everyday dress; -but it is impious to condemn what was instituted, not without good reason, -by the fathers. Vigils and fasts, in moderation, he did not see why they -rejected, seeing that they were commended by the Apostles; but he had -rather that men were _exhorted_ than _compelled_ to observe them. Their -views about festivals were not very different from Jerome's. Nowadays the -number of festivals had become enormous, and on no days were more crimes -committed. Moreover, the labourer was robbed by so many festivals of his -regular earnings. - -As to the cure for these diseases of Bohemia: he desired _unity_, and -expressed his views how unity could be best attained. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus thinks the Church should be broad and tolerant.] - -'In my opinion' (he wrote) 'many might be reconciled to the Church of Rome -if, instead of everything being defined, we were contented with what is -evidently set forth in the Scriptures or necessary to salvation. And these -things are _few_ in number, and the _fewer_ the easier for _many_ to -accept. Nowadays out of one article we make six hundred, some of which are -such that men might be ignorant of them or doubt them without injury to -piety. It is in human nature to cling by tooth and nail to what has once -been defined. The sum of the philosophy of Christ' (he continued) 'lies in -this--that we should know that all our hope is placed in God, who freely -gives us all things through his son Jesus; that by his death we are -redeemed; that we are united to his body in baptism in order that, dead to -the desires of the world, we may so follow his teaching and example as not -only not to admit of evil, but also to deserve well of all; that if -adversity comes upon us we should bear it in the hope of the future reward -which is in store for all good men at the advent of Christ. Thus we should -always be progressing from virtue to virtue, and whilst assuming nothing -to ourselves, ascribe all that is good to God. If there should be anyone -who would inquire into the Divine nature, or the nature (_hypostasis_) of -Christ, or abstruse points about the sacraments, let him do so; only let -him not try to force his views upon others. In the same way as very -verbose instruments lead to controversies, so too many definitions lead to -differences. Nor should we be ashamed to reply on some questions: "God -knows how this should be so, it is enough for me to believe that it is." I -know that the pure blood and body of Christ are to be taken purely by the -pure, and that he wished it to be a most sacred sign and pledge both of -his love to us and of the fellowship of Christians amongst themselves. Let -me, therefore, examine myself whether there be anything in me inconsistent -with Christ, whether there be any difference between me and my neighbour. -As to the rest, _how_ the same body can exist in so small a form and in so -many places at once, in my opinion such questions can hardly tend to the -increase of piety. I know that I shall rise again, for this was promised -to all by Christ, who was the first who rose from the dead. As to the -questions, with what body, and how it can be the same after having gone -through so many changes, though I do not disapprove of these things being -inquired into in moderation on suitable occasions, yet it conduces very -little to piety to spend too much labour upon them. Nowadays men's minds -are diverted, by these and other innumerable subtleties, from things of -vital importance. Lastly it would tend greatly to the establishment of -concord, if secular princes, and especially the Roman Pontiff, would -abstain from all tyranny and avarice. For men easily revolt when they see -preparations for enslaving them, when they see that they are not to be -invited to piety but caught for plunder. If they saw that we were innocent -and desirous to do them good, they would very readily accept our -faith.'[761] - -It will be seen that the point of this letter turns not _directly_ upon -the difference which Luther had discerned between himself and Erasmus -(viz. that the one rejected and the other accepted the doctrinal system of -St. Augustine), but rather upon questions involving the duty and object of -'_the Church_.' From More's delineation of the Church of Utopia, it has -been seen that the notion of the Oxford Reformers was that the Church was -intended to be broad and tolerant, not to define doctrine and enforce -dogmas, but to afford a practical bond of union whereby Christians might -be kept united in one Christian brotherhood, in spite of their differences -in minor matters of creed. In full accordance with this view, Erasmus had -blamed Schlechta and his party, in this letter, not for holding their -peculiar views respecting the 'Supper,' but for making them a ground for -separation from their fellow-Christians. So also he blamed Schlechta -(himself a dissenter from Rome) for his harsh feelings towards the -'Pyghards' and his wish 'to exterminate' them. So, too, whilst -sympathising strongly with the poor 'Pyghards' in many of the points in -which they differed from the Church of Rome, he blamed them for jumping to -the conclusion that the Church was 'Antichrist,' and for flying into -extremes. So, too, he blamed the Church herself, as he always had blamed -her, for so narrowing her boundaries as to shut out these -ultra-dissenters of Bohemia from her communion. - -Now it is obvious that at the foundation of the position here assumed by -Erasmus, and elsewhere by the Oxford Reformers, lay the conviction that -many points of doctrine were in their nature uncertain and unsettled--that -many attempted definitions of doctrine, on such subjects as those involved -in the Athanasian Creed, in the Augustinian system, and in scholastic -additions to it, were, after all, and in spite of all the ecclesiastical -authority in the world, just as unsettled and uncertain as ever; in fact, -mere hypotheses, which in their nature never _can_ be verified. - -[Sidenote: The point at issue between the Oxford Reformers and those who -held by the Augustinian system.] - -Here again, therefore, was _indirectly_ involved the point at issue -between Erasmus and Luther; between the Oxford and the Wittemberg -Reformers. For the latter in accepting the Augustinian system still -adhered, in spirit, to the scholastic or dogmatic system of theology. To -treat questions such as those above mentioned as open and unsettled seemed -to them to be playing the part of the sceptic. Luther was honestly and -naturally shocked when he found Erasmus hinting that the doctrine of -'original sin' was in some measure analogous to the epicycles of the -astrologer. He was equally shocked again when Erasmus, a few years after, -treated the question of the Freedom of the Will as one insoluble in its -nature, involving the old philosophical questions between free-will and -fate.[762] And why was he shocked? Because the Augustinian system which -he had adopted, treated these questions as finally concluded. And how were -they concluded? By the judgment of the church based upon a verbally -inspired and infallible Bible. - -Luther did not indeed assert so strongly the verbal inspiration of the -Bible, much less of the Vulgate version, as Dr. Eck and other Augustinian -theologians had done; yet his standing-point obliged him practically to -assume the truth of this doctrine, as it obliged his successors more and -more strongly to assert it as the years rolled on. And so, whilst -rejecting, even more thoroughly than Erasmus ever did, the ecclesiastical -authority of the Church of Rome, yet it is curious to observe that, in -doing so, Luther did not reject the notion of ecclesiastical authority in -itself, but rather, amidst many inconsistencies, set up the authority of -what he considered to be the _true_ church against that of the church -which he regarded as the _false_ one. As a consistent Augustinian he was -driven to assume, in replying to the Wittemberg prophets on the one hand -and the scepticism of Erasmus on the other, that there is a true church -somewhere, and that somewhere in the true church there is an authority -capable of establishing theological hypotheses. He was not willing that -the Scriptures should be left simply to the private judgment of each -individual for himself. He even allowed himself to claim for the public -ministers of his own church--'the leaders of the people and the preachers -of the word'--authority 'not only for themselves but also for others, and -for the salvation of others, to judge with the greatest certainty the -spirit and dogmas of all men.'[763] - -Not that Luther always consistently upheld this doctrine any more than -Erasmus consistently upheld its opposite. Luther was often to be found -asserting and using the right of private judgment against the authority of -Rome, as Erasmus was often found upholding the authority of the Catholic -Church and her authorised councils against the rival authority of Luther's -schismatic and unauthorised church. In times of transition, men _are_ -inconsistent; and regard must be had rather to the direction in which they -are moving than the precise point to which at any particular moment they -may have attained. And what I wish to impress upon the reader is -this--that not only Luther, but all other Reformers, from Wickliffe down -to the modern Evangelicals, who have adopted the Augustinian system and -founded their reform upon it, have practically assumed as the basis of -their theology, first, the plenary inspiration of each text contained in -the Scriptures; and, secondly, the existence of an ecclesiastical -authority of some kind capable of establishing theological hypotheses; so -that, _in this respect_, Luther and other Augustinian reformers, instead -of advancing beyond the Oxford Reformers, have lagged far behind, seeing -that they have contentedly remained under a yoke from which the Oxford -Reformers had been labouring for twenty years to set men free. - -[Sidenote: The power of St. Augustine.] - -In saying this I am far from overlooking the fact, that the Protestant -Reformers, in reverting to a purer form of Augustinian doctrine than that -held by the Schoolmen, did practically by it bring Christianity to bear -upon men with a power and a life which contrasted strangely with the cold -dead religion of the Thomists and Scotists. I am as far also from -underrating the force and the fire of St. Augustine. What, indeed, must -not that force and that fire have been to have made it possible for him to -bind the conscience of Western Christendom for fourteen centuries by the -chains of his dogmatic theology! And when it is considered, on the one -hand, that the greatest of the Schoolmen were _so loyal_ to St. Augustine, -that some of their subtlest distinctions were resorted to expressly to -mitigate the harshness of the rigid results of his system, and thus were -attempts, not to get from under its yoke, but _to make it bearable_;[764] -and, on the other hand, that the chief _reactions_ against scholastic -formalism--those of Wickliffe, Huss, Luther, Calvin, the Portroyalists, -the Puritans, the modern Evangelicals--were _Augustinian_ reactions; so -far from _under_-estimating the power of the man whose influence was so -diverse and so vast, it may well become an object of ever-increasing -astonishment to the student of Ecclesiastical History. - -At the same time, these considerations must raise also our estimate of the -need and the value of the firm stand taken 350 years ago by the Oxford -Reformers against this dogmatic power so long dominant in the realm of -religious thought. It has been seen in every page of this history, that -they had taken their standpoint, so to speak, _behind_ that of St. -Augustine; behind even the schism between Eastern and Western Christendom; -behind those patristic hypotheses which grew up into the scholastic -theology; behind that notion of Church authority by which these hypotheses -obtained a fictitious verification; behind the theory of 'plenary -inspiration,' without which the Scriptures could not have been converted, -as they were, into a mass of raw material for the manufacture of any -quantity of hypotheses--behind all these--on the foundation of _fact_ -which underlies them all. - -The essential difference between the standpoints of the Protestant and -Oxford Reformers Luther had been the first to perceive. And the -correctness of this first impression of Luther's has been singularly -confirmed by the history of the three-and-a-half centuries of Protestant -ascendency in Western Christendom. The Protestant movement, whilst -accomplishing by one revolutionary blow many objects which the Oxford -Reformers were striving and striving in vain to compass by constitutional -means, has been so far antagonistic to their work in other directions as -to throw it back--not to say _to wipe it out of remembrance_--so that in -this nineteenth century those Christians who have desired, as they did, to -rest their faith upon honest facts, and not upon dogmas--upon evidence, -and not upon authority--instead of taking up the work where the Oxford -Reformers left it, have had to begin it again at the beginning, as Colet -did at Oxford in 1496. They have had, like the Oxford Reformers, to combat -at the outset the theory of 'plenary inspiration,' and the tendency -inherited along with it from St. Augustine, by both Schoolmen and -Protestant Reformers, to build up a theology, as I have said, upon -unverified hypotheses, and to narrow the boundaries of Christian -fellowship by the imposition of dogmatic creeds so manufactured. They have -had to meet the same arguments and the same blind opposition; to bear the -same taunts of heresy and unsoundness from ascendant orthodox schools; to -be pointed at by their fellow-Christians as insidious enemies of the -Christian faith, because they have striven to present it before the eyes -of a scientific age, as what they think it really is--_not_ a system of -unverified hypotheses, but a faith in _facts_ which it would be -unscientific even in a disciple of the positive philosophy to pass by -unexplored. - - -VIII. MORE'S DOMESTIC LIFE (1519). - -By the aid of a letter from Erasmus to Ulrich Hutten,[765] written in July -1519, one more lingering look may be taken at the beautiful picture of -domestic happiness presented by More's home. This history would be -incomplete without it. - -[Sidenote: More forty years old.] - -[Sidenote: His first wife.] - -The 'young More,' with whom Colet and Erasmus had fallen in love twenty -years ago, was now past forty.[766] The four motherless children, -Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John, awhile ago nestling round their -widowed father's knee, as the dark shadow of sorrow passed over the once -bright home in Bucklersbury, were now from ten to thirteen years old. The -good stepmother, Alice Middleton, is said to have ruled her household -well, and her daughter had taken a place in the family circle as one of -More's children. There was a marked absence of jarring or -quarrelling,[767] which in such a household bore witness to the goodnature -of the mistress. She could not, indeed, fill altogether the void left in -More's heart by the loss of his first wife--the gentle girl brought up in -country retirement with her parents and sisters, whom he had delighted to -educate to his own tastes, in letters and in music, in the fond hope that -she would be to him a lifelong companion,[768] and respecting whom, soon -after his second marriage, in composing the epitaph for the family tomb, -in which _she_ was already laid, he had written this simple line:-- - - 'Cara Thomæ jacet hic Joanna uxorcula Mori!'[769] - -[Sidenote: His second wife.] - -The 'dame Alice,' though somewhat older than her husband and matronly in -her habits, 'nec bella nec puella,' as he was fond of jokingly telling -her, out of deference to More's musical tastes, had learned to sing and to -play on the harp;[770] but, after all, she was more of the housekeeper -than of the wife. It was not to her but to his daughter Margaret that his -heart now clung with fondest affection. - -[Sidenote: More's true piety.] - -More himself, Erasmus described to Hutten as humorous without being -foolish, simple in his dress and habits, and, with all his popularity and -success, neither proud nor boastful, but accessible, obliging, and kind to -his neighbours.[771] Fond of liberty and ease he might be, but no one -could be more active or more patient than he when occasion required -it.[772] No one was less influenced by current opinion, and yet no man had -more common sense.[773] Averse as he was to all superstition, and having -shown in his 'Utopia' what were regarded in some quarters as freethinking -tendencies, he had to share with Colet the sneers of the 'orthodox,' yet a -tone of unaffected piety pervaded his life. He had stated times for -devotion, and when he prayed, it was not as a matter of form, but from his -heart. When, too, as he often did, he talked to his intimate friends of -the life to come, Erasmus tells Hutten that he evidently spoke from his -heart, and not without the brightest hope.[774] - -[Sidenote: The children's animals.] - -[Sidenote: Their celebrated monkey.] - -He was careful to cultivate in his children not only a filial regard to -himself, but also feelings of mutual interest and intimacy. He made -himself one of them, and took evidently as much pleasure as they did in -their birds and animals--the monkey, the rabbits, the fox, the ferret, and -the weasel.[775] Thus when Erasmus was a guest at his house, More would -take him into the garden to see the children's rabbit hutches, or to -watch the sly ways of the monkey; which on one occasion so amused Erasmus -by the clever way in which it prevented the weasel from making an assault -upon the rabbits through an aperture between the boards at the back of the -hutch, that he rewarded the animal by making it famous all over Europe, -telling the story in one of his 'Colloquies.'[776] Whereupon so important -a member of the household did this monkey become, that when Hans Holbein -some years afterwards painted his famous picture of the household of Sir -Thomas More, its portrait was taken along with the rest, and there to this -day it may be seen nestling in the folds of dame Alice's robes. - -[Sidenote: Their interest in his pursuits.] - -If More thus took an interest in the children's animals, so they were -trained to take an interest in his pictures, his cabinet of coins and -curiosities, and his literary pursuits. He did everything he could to -allure his children on in acquiring knowledge. If an astronomer came in -his way he would get him to stay awhile in his house, to teach them all -about the stars and planets.[777] And it surely must have been More's -children whom Erasmus speaks of as learning the Greek alphabet by shooting -with their bows and arrows at the letters.[778] - -[Sidenote: Letter to his children in verse.] - -Unhappily of late More had been long and frequently absent from home. -Still, even when away upon an embassy, trudging on horseback dreary stages -along the muddy roads, we find him on the saddle composing a metrical -letter in Latin to his 'sweetest children, Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, -and John,' which, when a second edition of his 'Epigrams' was called for, -was added at the end of the volume and printed with the rest by the great -printer of Basle[779]--a letter in which he expresses his delight in their -companionship, and reminds them how gentle and tender a father he has been -to them, in these loving words:-- - - Kisses enough I have given you forsooth, but stripes hardly ever, - If I have flogged you at all it has been with the tail of a peacock! - - * * * * * - - Manners matured in youth, minds cultured in arts and in knowledge, - Tongues that can speak your thoughts in graceful and elegant language:-- - These bind my heart to yours with so many ties of affection - That now I love you far more than if you were merely my children. - - * * * * * - - Go on (for you can!), my children, in winning your father's affection, - So that as now your goodness has made me to feel as though never - I really had loved you before, you may on some future occasion, - - * * * * * - - Make me to love you so much that my present love may seem nothing! - -What a picture lies here, even in these roughly translated lines, of the -gentle relation which during years of early sorrow had grown up between -the widowed father and the motherless children! - -It is a companion-picture to that which Erasmus drew in colours so -glowing, of More's home at Chelsea many years after this, when his -children were older and he himself Lord Chancellor. What a gleam of light -too does it throw into the future, upon that last farewell embrace between -Sir Thomas More and Margaret Roper upon the Tower-wharf, when even stern -soldiers wept to behold their 'fatherly and daughterly affection!' - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: More's character.] - -This was the man whom Henry VIII. had at last succeeded in drawing into -his court; who reluctantly, this summer of 1519,[780] in order that he -might fulfil his duties to the King, had laid aside his post of -under-sheriff in the city and his private practice at the bar; 'who now,' -to quote the words of Roper, 'was often sent for by the King into his -traverse, where sometimes in matters of astronomy, geometry, divinity, and -such other faculties, and sometimes of his worldly affairs, he would sit -and confer with him. And otherwhiles in the night would he have him up -into the leads there to consider with him the diversities, courses, -motions, and operations of the stars and planets. - -'And because he was of a pleasant disposition, it pleased the King and -Queen after the Council had supped for their pleasure commonly to call for -him to be merry with them. Till he,' continues Roper, 'perceiving them so -much in his talk to delight that he could not once in a month get leave to -go home to his wife and his children (whose company he most desired), and -to be absent from court two days together but that he should be thither -sent for again; much misliking this restraint of his liberty, began -thereupon somewhat to dissemble his nature, and so by little and little -from his former mirth to disuse himself.'[781] - -This was the man who, after 'trying as hard to keep out of court as most -men try to get into it,' had accepted office on the noble understanding -that he was 'first to look unto God, and after God to the King,' and who -under the most difficult circumstances, and in times most perilous, -whatever may have been his faults and errors, still - - Reverenced his conscience as his King, - -and died at last upon the scaffold, a martyr to integrity! - - -IX. THE DEATH OF COLET (1519). - -Erasmus was working hard at his Paraphrases at Louvain, when the news -reached him that _Colet was dead_! On the 11th September Pace had written -to Wolsey that 'the Dean of Paul's had lain continually since Thursday _in -extremis_, but was not yet dead.'[782] He had died on the 16th of -September 1519. - -[Sidenote: The grief of Erasmus on hearing of it.] - -[Sidenote: His estimate of Colet's character.] - -When Erasmus heard of it, he could not refrain from weeping. 'For thirty -years I have not felt the death of a friend so bitterly,'[783] he wrote to -Lupset, a young disciple of Colet's. 'I seem,' he wrote to Pace, 'as -though only half of me were alive, Colet being dead. What a _man_ has -_England_ and what a _friend_ have _I_ lost!' To another Englishman he -wrote, 'What avail these sobs and lamentations? They cannot bring him back -again. In a little while we shall follow him. In the meantime we should -rejoice for Colet. He now is safely enjoying _Christ_, whom he always had -upon his lips and at his heart.'[784] To Tunstal, 'I should be -inconsolable for the death of Colet did I not know that my tears would -avail nothing for him and for me;'[785] and to Bishop Fisher, 'I have -written this weeping for Colet's death.... I know it is all right with him -who, escaped from this evil and wretched world, is in present enjoyment of -that Christ whom he so loved when alive. I cannot help mourning in the -public name the loss of so rare an example of Christian piety, so -remarkable a preacher of Christian truth!'[786] And, in again writing to -Lupset, a month or two afterwards, a long letter, pouring his troubles, on -account of a bitter controversy which Edward Lee had raised up against -him, into the ears of Lupset, instead of, as had hitherto been his wont, -into the ears of Colet, he exclaimed in conclusion, 'O true theologian! O -wonderful preacher of evangelical doctrine! With what earnest zeal did he -drink in the philosophy of Christ! How eagerly did he imbibe the spirit -and feelings of St. Paul! How did the purity of his whole life correspond -to his heavenly doctrine! How many years following the example of St. -Paul, did he teach the people without reward!'[787] 'You would not -hesitate,' finally wrote Erasmus to Justus Jonas, 'to inscribe the name of -this man in the roll of the saints although uncanonised by the Pope.' - -[Sidenote: More's estimate of Colet's character.] - -'For generations,' wrote More, 'we have not had amongst us any one man -more learned or holy!'[788] - -The inscription on the leaden plate laid on the coffin of Dean Colet[789] -bore witness that he died 'to the great grief of the whole people, by -whom, for his integrity of life and divine gift of preaching, he was the -most beloved of all his time;' and his remains were laid in the tomb -prepared by himself in St. Paul's Cathedral. - - -X. CONCLUSION. - -[Sidenote: The fellow-work of the Oxford Reformers accomplished.] - -With the death of Colet this history of the Oxford Reformers may fitly -end. Erasmus and More, it is true, lived on sixteen years after this, and -retained their love for one another to the last. But even _their_ future -history was no longer, to the same extent as it had been, a joint history. -Erasmus never again visited England, and if they did meet during those -long years, it was a chance meeting only, on some occasion when More was -sent on an embassy, and their intercourse could not be intimate. - -[Sidenote: The Protestant Reformation a new movement under which theirs -was submerged.] - -The fellow-work of the Oxford Reformers was to a great extent accomplished -when Colet died. From its small beginnings during their college -intercourse at Oxford it had risen into prominence and made its power felt -throughout Europe. But now for three hundred years it was to stop and, as -it were, to be submerged under a new wave of the great tide of human -progress. For, as has been said, the Protestant Reformation was in many -respects a new movement, and not altogether a continuation of that of the -Oxford Reformers. - -As yet the 'tragedy of Luther' had appeared only like the little cloud no -bigger than a man's hand rising above the horizon. But scarcely had a year -passed from Colet's death before the whole heavens were overcast by it, -and Christendom was suddenly involved, by the madness of her rulers, in -all the terrors of a religious convulsion, which threatened to shake -social and civil, as well as ecclesiastical, institutions to their -foundations. - -[Sidenote: The future course of the survivors could not alter the -fellow-work of the past.] - -How Erasmus and More met the storm--how far they stood their ground, or -were carried away by natural fears and disappointment from their former -standing-point--is well worthy of careful inquiry; but it must not be -attempted here. In the meantime, the subsequent course of the two -survivors could not alter the spirit and aim of the fellow-work to which -for so many years past the three friends had been devoting their lives. - -Their fellow-work had been to urge, at a critical period in the history of -Christendom, the necessity of that thorough and comprehensive reform which -the carrying out of Christianity into practice in the affairs of nations -and of men would involve. - -[Sidenote: Nature of the Reform urged by the Oxford Reformers.] - -[Sidenote: Religious Reform.] - -Believing Christianity to be true, they had faith that it would work. -Deeply imbued with the spirit of Christianity as the true religion of the -heart, they had demanded, not so much the reform of particular -ecclesiastical abuses, as that the whole Church and the lives of -Christians should be reanimated by the Christian spirit. Instead of -contenting themselves with urging the correction of particular theological -errors, and so tinkering the scholastic creed, they had sought to let in -the light, and to draw men's attention from dogmas to the facts which lay -at their root. Having faith in free inquiry, they had demanded freedom of -thought, tolerance, education. - -[Sidenote: Political Reform.] - -Believing that Christianity had to do with secular as well as with -religious affairs, they had urged the necessity, not only of religious but -also of political reform. And here again, instead of attacking particular -abuses, they had gone to the root of the matter, and laid down the _golden -rule_ as the true basis of political society. They not only had censured -the tyranny, vices, and selfishness of princes, but denied the divine -right of kings, assuming the principle that they reign by the consent and -for the good of the nations whom they govern. Instead of simply asserting -the rights of the people against their rulers in particular acts of -oppression, they had advocated, on Christian and natural grounds, the -equal rights of rich and poor, and insisted that the good of the _whole -people as one community_ should be the object of all legislation. - -[Sidenote: International Reform.] - -Believing lastly in the Christian as well as in the natural brotherhood of -nations, they had not only condemned the selfish wars of princes, but also -claimed that the golden rule, instead of the Machiavellian code, should be -regarded as the true basis of international politics. - -Such was the broad and distinctively _Christian_ Reform urged by the -Oxford Reformers during the years of their fellow-work. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Their demand for Reform, though listened to, refused.] - -And if ever any reformers had a fair chance of a hearing in influential -quarters, surely it was they. They had direct access to the ears of Leo -X., of Henry VIII., of Charles V., of Francis I.; not to mention -multitudes of minor potentates, lay and ecclesiastical, as well as -ambassadors and statesmen, whose influence upon the politics of Europe was -scarcely less than that of princes. But though they were courted and -patronised by the potentates of Europe, _their reform was refused_. - -The destinies of Christendom, by a remarkable concurrence of -circumstances, were thrown very much into the hands of the young Emperor -Charles V.; and, unfortunately for Christendom, Charles V. turned out to -be the opposite of the 'Christian Prince' which Erasmus had done his best -to induce him to become. Leo X. also had bitterly disappointed the hopes -of Erasmus. When the time for final decision came, in the Diet of Worms -the Emperor and the Pope were found banded together in the determination -to refuse reform. - -[Sidenote: Reform of Luther.] - -In the meantime the leadership of the Reform movement had passed into -other and sterner hands. Luther, concentrating his energies upon a -narrower point, had already, in making his attack upon the abuse of -Indulgences, raised a definite quarrel with the Pope. Within fifteen -months of the death of Colet, he had astonished Europe by defiantly -burning the Bull issued against him from Rome. And summoned by the Emperor -to Worms, to answer for his life, he still more startled the world by -boldly demanding, in the name of the German nation from the Emperor and -Princes, that Germany should throw off the Papal yoke from her neck. For -this was practically what Luther did at Worms.[790] - -[Sidenote: Luther's battle-cry at the Diet of Worms.] - -The Emperor and Princes had to make up their minds, whether they would -side with the Pope or with the nation, and they decided to side with the -Pope. They thought they were siding with the stronger party, but they were -grievously mistaken. Their defiance of Luther was engrossed on parchment. -Luther's defiance of _them_, and assertion of the rights of conscience -against Pope and Emperor, rang through the ages. It stands out even now as -a watershed in history dividing the old era from the new. - -[Sidenote: The refusal of Reform followed by a period of Revolution.] - -In the history of the next three centuries, it is impossible not to trace -the onward swell, as it were, of a great revolutionary wave, which, -commencing with the Peasant War and the Sack of Rome, swept on through the -Revolt of the Netherlands, the Thirty Years' War, the Puritan Revolution -in England, and the foundation of the great American Republic, until it -culminated and broke in the French Revolution. It is impossible not to -see, in the whole course of the events of this remarkable period, an -onward movement as irresistible and certain in its ultimate progress as -that of the great geological changes which have passed over the physical -world. - -It is in vain to speculate upon what might have been the result of the -concession of broad measures of reform whilst yet there was time; but in -view of the bloodshed and misery, which, humanly speaking, might have been -spared, who can fail to be impressed with the terrible responsibility, in -the eye of History, resting upon those by whom, in the sixteenth century, -the reform was refused? They were utterly powerless, indeed, to stop the -ultimate flow of the tide, but they had the terrible power to turn, what -might otherwise have been a steady and peaceful stream, into a turbulent -and devastating flood. They had the terrible power, and they used it, of -involving their own and ten succeeding generations in the turmoils of -revolution. - - - - -APPENDIX A. - -EXTRACTS FROM MS. Gg. 4, 26, IN THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, -TRANSLATIONS OF WHICH ARE GIVEN AT PAGES 37, 38 OF THIS WORK. - - -_Fol. 4 b._ 'Quapropter concludit Paulus justificatos ex fide, et soli deo -confidentes per Jesum reconciliatos esse deo, restitutosque ad gratiam; ut -apud deum stent et maneant ipsi filii dei, et filiorum dei certam gloriam -expectent. Pro qua adipiscenda interim ferenda sunt omnia patienter: ut -firmitas spei declaretur. Quæ quidem non falletur. Siquidem ex dei amore -et gratia erga nos ingenti reconciliati sumus, alioquin eius filius pro -nobis etiam impiis et contrariis deo non interiisset. Quod si alienatos a -se dilexit, quanto magis reconciliatos et diligit et dilectos conservabit. -Quamobrem firma et stabili spe ac letitia esse debemus, confidereque deo -indubitanter per Jesum Christum; per quem unum hominem est ad deum -reconciliatio. Nam ab illo ipso primo homine, et diffidentia, -impietateque, et scelere ejusdem, totum humanum genus deperiit. - -_f. 5 b._ 'Sed hic notandum est, quod hec gracia nichil est aliud, quam -dei amor erga homines; eos videlicet, quos vult amare, amandoque inspirare -spiritu suo sancto, qui ipse est amor, et dei amor, qui (ut apud Joannem -evangelistam ait salvator) ubi vult spirat. Amati autem et inspirati a deo -vocati sunt, ut, accepto amore, amantem deum redament et eundem amorem -desiderent et expectent. Hec exspectacio et spes, ex amore est. Amor vero -noster est, quia ille nos amat, non (ut scribit Joannes in secunda -epistola) quasi nos prius dilexerimus deum: sed quia ipse prior dilexit -nos, eciam nullo amore dignos, siquidem impios et iniquos, jure ad -sempiternum interitum destinatos. Sed quosdam, quos ille novit et voluit, -deus dilexit, diligendo vocavit, vocando justificavit, justificando -magnificavit. Hec in deo graciosa dileccio et caritas erga homines, ipsa -vocacio et justificacio et magnificacio est: nec quicquid aliud tot verbis -dicimus quam unum quiddam, scilicet amorem dei erga homines eos quos vult -amare. Item cum homines gracia attractos, vocatos, justificatos, et -magnificatos dicimus, nichil significamus aliud, quam homines amantem deum -redamare. - -_f. 18._ ... 'aperte videas providente et dirigente deo res duci, atque ut -ille velit in humanis fieri; non ex vi quidem aliqua illata, quum nichil -est remotius a vi quam divina actio: sed cum hominis natura voluntate et -arbitrio, divina providentia et voluntate latenter et suaviter et quasi -naturaliter comitante, atque una et simul cum eo incedente tam -mirabiliter, ut et quicquid velis egerisque agnoscatur a deo, et quod ille -agnoverit statuitque fore simul id necessario fiat. - -_ff. 79, 80._ 'Hominis anima constat intellectu et voluntate. Intellectu -sapimus. Voluntate possumus. Intellectus sapientia, fides est. Voluntatis -potentia, charitas. Christus autem dei virtus, i.e. potentia, est, et dei -sapientia. Per christum illuminantur mentes ad fidem: qui illuminat omnem -hominem venientem in hunc mundum, et dat potestatem filios dei fieri, iis -qui credunt in nomine ejus. Per christum etiam incenduntur voluntates in -charitatem: ut deum, homines, et proximum ament: in quibus est completio -legis. A deo ergo solo per christum et sapimus et possumus; eo quod in -christo sumus. Homines autem ex se intellectum habent cæcum, et voluntatem -depravatam in tenebrisque ambulant et nesciunt quid faciunt.... - -'Christus autem (ut modo dixi) dei virtus, et dei sapientia est. Qui sunt -calidis radiis illius divinitatis acciti ut illi in societate adhereant, -hii quidem sunt _tercii_ [1. Jews; 2. Gentiles; 3. Christians], illi quos -Paulus vocatos et electos in illam gloriam, appellat: quorum mentes -presentia divinitatis illustrantur; voluntates corriguntur; qui fide -cernunt clare sapientiam christi, et amore ejusdem potentiam fortiter -apprehendunt.' - - - - -APPENDIX B. - -EXTRACTS FROM MS. ON I. CORINTHIANS. EMMANUEL COLLEGE MS. 3. 3. 12. - - -(_a_) 'Deus autem ipse animi instar totus in toto est, et totus in -qualibet parte: verumtamen non omnes partes similiter deificat (dei enim -animare deificare est), sed varie, videlicet, ut convenit ad -constructionem ejus, quod est in eo unum, ex pluribus. Hoc compositum -eciam ex deo et hominibus, modo templum dei, modo ecclesia, modo domus, -modo civitas, modo regnum, a _dei_ prophetis appellatur.... In quo quum -Corinthei erant, ut videri voluerunt et professi sunt: sapienter sane -Paulus animadvertens si quid laude dignum in illis erat, inde exorditur, -et gracias agit de eo quod præ se ferunt boni, quodque adhuc fidei et -ecclesiæ fundamentum tenent; ut hoc leni et molli principio alliciat eos -in lectionem reliquæ epistolæ, faciatque quod reprehendit in moribus eorum -facilius audiant. Nam si statim in initio asperior fuisset graviusque -accusasset, profecto teneros adhuc animos et novellos in religione, -presertim in gente ilia Greca, arrogante et superba, ac prona in -dedignationem, a se et suis exhortationibus discussisset. Prudenter igitur -et caute agendum fuit pro racione personarum, locorum et temporum: in -quibus observandis fuit Paulus certe unus omnium consideratissimus, qui -proposito fini ita novit media accommodare: ut quum nihil aliud quesierat -nisi gloriam Jesu christi in terris, et amplificationem fidei ac -charitatis, homo divina usus solertia nihil nec egit nec omisit unquam -apud aliquos, quod ejusmodi propositum vel impediret vel retardaret. -Itaque jam necessario correcturus quamplurima per literas in Corinthiis, -qui, post ejus ab eis discessum, obliqua acciderant, acceptiore utitur -principio et quasi quendam aditum facit ad reliqua, quæ non nihil amara -cogitur adhibere, ut salutaris medicinæ poculum, modo ejus os saccharo -illiniatur, Corinthii libenter admittant et hauriant. Quanquam vero -Corinthii omnes qui fuerunt ex ecclesia christum professi sunt, in -illiusque doctrina et nomine gloriati sunt: tamen super hoc fundamento -nonnullorum erant malæ et pravæ edificationes partim ignorantia partim -malicia superintroductæ. Fuerunt enim quidam parum modesti, idemque non -parum arrogantes, qui deo et christo et christi apostolis non nihil -posthabitis, ceperunt de lucro suo cogitare, ac freti sapientia seculari, -quæ semper plurimum potuit apud Grecos, in plebe sibi authoritatem -quærere, simulque opinionem apostolorum, maxime Pauli, derogare; cujus -tamen adhuc apud Corinthios (ut debuit) nomen plurimum valuit. At illi -nescio qui invidi et impatientes laudis Pauli, et suam laudem ac gloriam -amantes, attentaverunt aliquid institutionis in ecclesia, ut eis venerat -in mentem, utque sua sapientia et opibus probare potuerint, volueruntque -in populo videri multa scire et posse ac quid exposcit christiana religio -nihil ignorare, facileque quid venerat in dubium posse solvere et -sententiam ferre. Qua insolentia nimirum in molli adhuc et nascente -ecclesia molliti sunt multa, multa passi eciam sunt quæ ab institutis -Pauli abhorruere. Item magna pars populi jamdudum et vix a mundo tracti in -eam religionem quæ mundi contemptum edocet et imperat, facile retrospexit -ad mundanos mores: et oculos in opes, potentiam, et sapientiam secularem -conjecit. Unde nihil reluctati sunt, quin qui opibus valuerunt apud eos -iidem authoritate valeant. Immo ab illis illecti prompti illorum nomina -sectati sunt, quo factum fuit ut partes nascerentur et factiones ac -constitutiones sibi diversorum capitum: ut quæque conventicula suum caput -sequeretur. Ex quo dissidio contentiosæ altercationes proruperunt et omnia -simul misere corruerunt in deterius. Quam calamitatem Corinthiensis -ecclesiæ quorundam improbitate inductam, illius primus parens Paulus -molestissime tulit, non tam quod conati sunt infringere suam authoritatem, -quam quod sub malis suasoribus qui bene ceperint navigare in christi archa -periclitarentur. Itaque quantum est ausus et licuit insectatur eos qui -volunt videri sapientes, quique in christiana republica plus suis ingeniis -quam ex deo moliuntur. Quod tamen facit ubique modestissime, homo -piissimus, magis querens reformationem malorum quam aliquorum -reprehensionem. Itaque docet omnem et sapientiam et potentiam a deo esse -hominibus per Jesum christum, qui dei sui patris eterni virtus et -sapientia est, cujus virtute sapiat oportet et possit quisque qui vere -sapiat aliquid et recte possit; hominum autem sapientiam inanem et falsam -affirmat: Item potentiam vel quanquumque quandam enervationem et -infirmitatem: atque hec utraque deo odiosa et detestabilis, ut nihil -possit fieri nec stultius nec impotentius, neque vero quod magis deo -displiceat, quam quempiam suis ipsius viribus conari aliquid in ecclesia -christiana: quam totam suum solius opus esse vult deus; atque quenquam in -eo ex se solo suoque spiritu sapere, ut nulla sit in hominibus prorsus -neque quod possunt bonitate, neque quod sapiunt fide, neque denique quod -sunt quidem spe, nisi ex deo in christo gloriatio, per quem sumus in ipso, -et in deo, a quo sane solo possumus et sapimus, et sumus denique quicquid -sumus. Hoc in tota hac epistola contendit Paulus asserere: verum maxime et -apertissime in prima parte: in qua nititur eradicare et funditus tollere -falsam illam opinionem, qua homines suis viribus se aliquid posse -arbitrantur, qua sibi confisi, tum deo diffidunt, turn deum negligunt. Quæ -hominum arrogantia et opinio de seipsis, fons est malorum et pestis, ut -impossible sit eam societatem sanam et incolumem esse, in qua possunt -aliquid, qui suis se viribus aliquid posse arbitrantur. Secundum vero -Pauli doctrinam, quæ est christi doctrina et evangeliis consona (siquidem -unus est author et idem spiritus) nihil quisquam ad se ipsum, sed duntaxat -ad deum spectare debet, ei se subjicere totum, illi soli servire, postremo -ab illo expectare omnia et ex illo solo pendere: ut quicquid in christiana -republica (quæ dei est civitas) vel vere sentiat, vel recte agat ab illo -id totum credat proficisci, et acceptum deum referat.'--_Leaf_ a 4, _et -seq._ - -(_b_) 'Quod si quando voluerit quempiam preditum sapientia seculari, -cujusmodi Paulus et ejus discipulus Dionysius Areopagita ac nonnulli alii -veritates sapientiæ suæ, et accipere et ad alios deferre: profecto hi -nunciaturi aliis quod a deo didicerint, dedita opera nihil magis -curaverunt quam ut ex seculo nihil sapere viderentur; existimantes -indignum esse ut cum divinis revelatis humana racio commisceatur: nolentes -eciam id committere quo putetur veritati credi magis suasione hominum quam -virtute dei. - -'Hinc Paulus in docta et erudita Grecia nihil veritus est, ex se videri -stultus et impotens, ac profiteri se nihil scire nisi Jesum christum et -eundem crucifixum: nec posse quicquam nisi per eundem ut per stulticiam -predicationis salvos faciat credentes et ratiocinantes confundet.'--_Leaf_ -3, 4. - -(_c_) 'Idem etiam potentes non sua quidem potentia et virtute, sed solius -dei per Jesum christum dominum nostrum, in quo illud venerandum et -adorandum miraculum, quod deus ipse coierit cum humana natura; quod -quiddam compositum ex deo et homine (quod Greci vocant "Theantropon") hic -vixit in terris, et pro hominum salute versatus est cum hominibus, ut eos -deo patri suo revocatos reconciliaret: quod idem præstitit in probatione -et ostensione virtutis defensioneque justiciæ usque ad mortem, mortem -autem crucis: quod deinde victa morte, fugato diabolo, redempto humano -genere, ut liberam habeat potestatem, omnino sine adversarii querela, -eligendi ad se quos velit, ut quos velit vocet, quos vocet justificet. -Quod (inquam) sic victa et prostrata morte, mortisque authore, ex morte -idem resurrexit vivens, ac vivum se multis ostendit, multisque argumentis -comprobavit. Quod tum postremo cernentibus discipulis sursum ut erat deus -et homo ascendit ad patrem, illic ex celo progressum sui inchoati operis -in terris, et perfectionem despecturus, ac quantum sibi videbitur continuo -adjuturus. Quod deinde post hæc tandem opportuno tempore, rebus maturis, -contrariis deo rationibus discussis, longe et a creaturis suis -exterminatis injusticia videlicet et ignorantia, in quarum profligatione -nunc quotidie dei et sapientia et virtus in suis ministris operatur, -operabiturque usque in finem. Quod tum (inquam) post satis longum -conflictum et utrinque pugnam inter lucem et tenebras, deo et angelis -spectantibus, tandem ille idem dux et dominus exercituum, qui, hic primus, -bellum induxit adversariis et cum hostibus manum ipse conseruit, patientia -et morte vincens, in subsidium suorum prelucens et prepotens, rediet, ut -fugata malitia et stultitia, illustret et bona faciet omnia: utque -postremo, resuscitans mortuos, ipsam mortem superet sua immortalitate, et -absorbeat, ac victuros secum rapiat in celum, morituros a se longe in -sempiternam mortem discutiat in tenebras illas exteriores, ut per ipsum in -reformato mundo sola vita deinceps in perpetuum sapientia et justitia -regnet.'--_Leaf_ b. 5. - -(_d_) 'Quamobrem non ab re quidem videtur factum fuisse a deo, ut illo -vulgo hominum et quasi fæce in fundo residente longe a claritate -posthabita, qui in tam altam obscuritatem non fuerint delapsi, prius et -facilius a divine lumine attingerentur, qui fuerunt qui minus in vallem -mundi miserique descenderunt, qui altius multo extantes quam alii, merito -priores exorto justiciæ sole illuminati fuerunt; qui supra multitudinem -varietatem et pugnam hujus humilis mundi, simplices, sui similes, et -quieti, extiterunt, tanto propiores deo quanto remotius a deo distaverint. -Quod si deus ipse est ipsa nobilitas, sapientia, et potentia; quis non -videt Petrum, Joannem, Jacobum, et id genus reliquos, etiam antequam -veritas dei illuxerat in terras, tanto aliis sapientia et viribus -præstitisse, quanto magis abfuerint ab illorum stultitia et impotentia, ut -nihil sit mirum, si deus, cujus est bonis suis, meliores eligere et -accommodare, eos habitos stultos et impotentes delegerit, quando quidem -revera universi mundi nobiliores fuerunt, a vilitateque mundi magis -sejuncti, altiusque extantes: ut quemadmodum id terræ quod altius eminet, -exorto sole facilius et citius radiis tangitur; ita similiter fuit necesse -prodeunte luce quæ illuminaret omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum, -prius irradiaret eos qui magis in hominibus eminuerint et quasi montes ad -hominum valles extiterint. Ad alios autem qui sunt in imo in regione -frigoris, nebulosa sapientia obducti, et tardius penetrant divini radii, -et illic difficilius illuminant et citius destituunt, nisi forte -vehementius incumbentes rarifecerint nubem et lenifecerint hominem ut -abjectis omnibus quæ habet, evolet in christum. Quod si fecerit, tum -emergit in conditionem et statum Petri ac talium parvulorum quos dudum -contempserit, ut per eam viam ascendat ad veritatem qui ipse est christus -qui dixit, "Nisi conversi fueritis et efficiamini sicut parvuli non -intrabitis in regnum cælorum." Qui parvuli, sine dubio, sunt majores illis -qui magni in mundo reputantur, ac ideo jure a deo ad sua mysteria -antepositi.'--_Leaf_ b. 8. - -(_e_) 'Angustis sane et minutis sunt animis qui hoc non vident, quique -sentiunt de secularibus rebus contendendum esse, et in hisce jus quærendum -suum; qui ignorant quæ sit divina justitia, quæ injustitia; quique etiam -homunciones, quorum stultitia haud scio ridenda ne sit magis quam -deflenda, sed certe deflenda; quoniam ex ea ecclesia calamitatem sentit, -ac pæne eversionem. Sed illi homunciones perditi (quibus hoc nostrum -seculum plenum est) in quibusque sunt etiam qui minime debent esse -ecclesiastici viri, et qui habentur in ecclesia primarii. Illi (inquam) -ignari penitus evangelicæ et apostolicæ doctrinæ, ignari divinæ justitiæ, -ignari christianæ veritatis, soliti sunt dicere causam dei, jus ecclesiæ, -patrimonium christi, bona sacerdotii, defendi a se oportere et sine -peccato non posse non defendi. O angustia! O cæcitas! O miseria istorum, -qui quum ineunt rationem perdendi omnia, non solum hæc secularia, sed illa -quoque etiam sempiterna; quumque ipsa perdunt, putant se tamen eadem -acquirere, defendere et conservare; qui ipso rerum exitu ubique in -ecclesia homines, ipsis piscibus oculis durioribus, non cernunt quæ -contentionibus judiciisque dispendia religionis, diminutio auctoritatis, -negligentia christi, blasphemia dei, sequitur. Ea etiam ipsa denique, quæ -ipsi vocant "bona ecclesiæ," quæque putant se suis litigationibus vel -tenere vel recuperare; quæ quotidie paulatim et latenter tum amittunt, tum -ægre custodiunt, siquidem magis vi quam hominum liberalitate et charitate, -quo nihil ecclesia indignius esse potest. In qua procul dubio eadem debet -esse ratio conservandi quæ data fuerint quondam, quæ fuerit comparandi. -Amor dei et proximi, desiderium celestium, contemptus mundanorum, vera -pietas, religio, charitas, benignitas erga homines, simplicitas, -patientia, tolerantia malorum, studium semper bene faciendi vel omnibus -hominibus ut [in constanti] bono malum vincant, hominum animos conscitavit -ubique tandem ut de ecclesia christi bene opinarentur, ei faveant, eam -ament, in eam benefici et liberales sint, darentque incessanter, datisque -etiam data accumulent, quum viderant in ecclesiasticis viris nullam -avaritiam, nullum abusum liberalitatis suæ. Quod si qui supremam partem -teneant in christiana ecclesia (id est sacerdotes) virtutem (quæ -acquisivit omnia) perpetuo tenuissent adhucve tenerent; profecto si staret -causa, effectus sequeretur, vel auctus vel conservatus, hominesque -ecclesiastici non solum quieti possiderent sua; sed plura etiam acciperent -possidenda. Sed quum aquæ (ut ait David) intraverant usque animos nostros, -quumque cupiditatis et avaritiæ fluctibus obruimur, nec illud audimus, -Divitiæ si affluant, nolite cor apponere, quumque neglecta illa virtute et -justitia et studio conservandi amplificandique regni dei in terris, quod -sacerdotio nec exposcenti nec expectanti ejusmodi acquisivit omnia, animos -suos (proh nephas!) in illos appendices et pendulas divitias converterint, -quod onus est potius ecclesiæ quam ornamentum, tunc ita illo retrospectu -canes illi et sues ad vomitum, et ad volutabrum luti, infirmaverunt se -amissa pulchra et placida conservatrice rerum virtute; ut quum vident -recidere a se quotidie quod virtus comparavit, impotentes dimicant et -turpiter sane confligunt inter se et cum laicis cum sui nominis infamia et -ignominia religionis, et ejus rei etiam quam maxime quærunt indies majore -dispendio ac perditione non videntes cæci, si qui [ ] acquisierit -aliquid necessario ejus contrarium idem auferre oportere. Contemptus mundi -mundanarumque rerum quem docuit christus comparavit omnia; contra earundem -amor amittet et perdet omnia. Quis non videt quum virtute præstitimus, nos -tunc bona mundi jure exigere non potuisse nisi quatenus tenuiter ad victum -vestitumque pertineat quo jubet Paulus contenti simus. Quis (inquam) non -videt multo minus nunc nos exigere debere, quum omnis virtutis expertes -sumus, quumque ab ipsis laicis nihil fere nisi tonsa coma, et corona, -capitio, et demissa toga, differimus, nisi hoc dicat quispiam (deridens -nos), quum nunc sumus relapsi in mundum, quæ sunt mundi et partem nostram -in mundo nos expostulare posse; ut non amplius dicamus, Dominus pars -hæreditatis nostræ; sed nobis dicatur, Mercedem vestram recepistis. O bone -deus, quam puderet nos hujus descensus in mundum, si essemus memores -amoris dei erga nos, exempli christi, dignitatis religionis christianæ, -professionis et nominis nostri.'--_Leaf_ d. 3-5. - -(_f_) 'Hic obstupesco et exclamo illud Pauli mei, "O altitudo divitiarum -sapientiæ et scientiæ dei." O sapientia admirabiliter bona hominibus et -misericors, ut jure tua pia benignitas altitudo divitiarum potest -appellari, qui commendans charitatem tuam in nobis voluisti in nos tam -esse liberalis ut temetipsum dares pro nobis, ut tibe et deo nos -redderemur. O pia, O benigna, O benefica sapientia, O os, verbum, et -veritas dei in homine, verbum veridicum et verificans, qui voluisti nos -docere humanitus ut nos divinitus sapiamus, qui voluisti esse in homine ut -nos in deo essemus. Qui denique voluisti in homine humiliari usque ad -mortem, mortem autem crucis, ut nos exaltaremur usque ad vitam, vitam -autem dei.' - - - - -APPENDIX C. - - -ON THE DATE OF MORE'S BIRTH. - -The following correspondence in 'Notes and Queries' (Oct. 1868) may be -considered, I think, to set at rest the date of Sir Thomas More's birth. - - -No. 1 (Oct. 17, 1868). - -'Some months ago I found the following entries, relating to a family of -the name of More, on two blank leaves of a MS. in the Gale collection, in -the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. The class mark of the volume is -"O. 2. 21." Its contents are very miscellaneous. Among other things is a -copy of the poem of Walter de Biblesworth, printed by Mr. Thomas Wright in -his volume of _Vocabularies_ from the Arundel MS. The date of this is -early fourteenth century. The names of former possessors of the volume are -"Le: Fludd" and "G. Carew;" the latter being probably Sir George Carew, -afterwards Earl of Totness. The entries which I have copied are on the -last leaf and the last leaf but one of the volume. I have added the dates -in square brackets, and expanded the contractions: - -'"M{d} quod die dominica in vigilia Sancti Marce Evangeliste Anno Regni -Regis Edwardi quarti post conquestum Anglie quartodecimo Johannes More -Gent. maritatus fuit Agneti filie Thome Graunger in parochia sancti Egidij -extra Crepylgate london. [24 April, 1474.] - -'"M{ed} quod die sabbati in vigilia sancti gregorij pape inter horam -primam & horam secundam post Meridiem eiusdem diei Anno Regni Regis -Edwardi quarti post conquestum Anglie xv{o} nata fuit Johanna More filia -Johannis More Gent. [11 March, 1474-5.] - -'"M{d} quod die veneris proximo post Festum purificacionis beate Marie -virginis videlicet septimo die Februarij inter horam secundam et horam -terciam in Mane natus fuit Thomas More filius Johannis More Gent. Anno -Regni Regis Edwardi quarti post conquestum Anglie decimo septimo. [7 Feb. -1477-8.] - -'"M{d} quod die dominica videlicet vltimo die Januarij inter horam -septimam et horam octauam ante Meridiem Anno regni Regis Edwardi quarti -decimo octauo nata fuit Agatha filia Johannis More Gentilman. [31 Jan. -1478-9.] - -'"M{d} quod die Martis videlicet vj{to} die Junij inter horam decimam & -horam vndecimam ante Meridiem natus fuit Johannes More filius Johannis -More Gent. Anno regni Regis Edwardi quarti vicesimo. [6 June, 1480.] - -'"Me{d} quod die lune viz. tercio die Septembris inter horam secundam & -horam terciam in Mane natus fuit Edwardus Moore filius Johannis More Gent. -Anno regni regis Edwardi iiij{ti} post conquestum xxj{o}. [3 Sept. 1481.] - -'"M{d} quod die dominica videlicet xxij{o} die Septembris anno regni regis -Edwardi iiij{ti} xxij{o} inter horam quartam & quintam in Mane nata fuit -Elizabeth More filia Johannis More Gent." [22 Sept. 1482.] - -'It will be seen that these entries record the marriage of a John More, -gent., in the parish church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and the births of -his six children, Johanna, Thomas, Agatha, John, Edward, and Elizabeth. - -'Now it is known that Sir Thomas More was born, his biographers vaguely -say, _about_ 1480 in Milk Street, Cheapside, which is in the parish of St. -Giles, Cripplegate; that he was the son of Sir John More, afterwards Lord -Chief Justice, who, at the time of his son's birth, was a barrister, and -would be described as "John More, gent."; and that he had two sisters, -Jane or Joane (Wordsworth's _Eccl. Biog._ ii. 49), married to Richard -Stafferton, and Elizabeth, wife to John Rastall the printer, and mother of -Sir William Rastall (born 1508), afterwards Lord Chief Justice of the -Queen's Bench. - -'The third entry above given records the birth of Thomas, son of John -More, who had been married in the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and -may be presumed to have lived in the parish. The date of his birth is -Feb. 7, 1477-8; that is, according to modern reckoning, 1478, and -therefore "_about_ 1480." Oddly enough, the day of the week in this entry -is wrong. It is Friday, which in 1477-8 was Feb. 6. But Thomas was born -between two and three in the morning of Saturday, Feb. 7. The confusion is -obvious and natural. - -'The second and last entries record the births of his sisters Johanna and -Elizabeth. The former of these names appears to have been a favourite in -the family of Sir John More, and was the name of his grandmother, the -daughter of John Leycester. - -'I may add, that the entries are all in a contemporary hand, and their -formal character favours the supposition that they were made by some one -familiar with legal documents, and probably by a lawyer. - -'This remarkable series of coincidences led me at first to believe that I -had discovered the entry of the birth of Sir Thomas More. But, upon -investigation, I was met by a difficulty which at present I have been -unable to solve. In the life of the Chancellor by Cresacre More, his -great-grandson, the name of Sir Thomas More's mother is said to have been -"Handcombe of Holliwell in Bedfordshire." This fact is not mentioned by -Roper, who lived many years in his house, and married his favourite -daughter, or by any other of his biographers. The question, therefore, is -whether the authority of Cresacre More on this point is to be admitted as -absolute. He was not born till nearly forty years after Sir Thomas More's -death, and his book was not written till between eighty and ninety years -after it. We must take into consideration these facts in estimating the -amount of weight to be attached to his evidence as to the name of his -great-great-grandmother. - -'Were there then two John Mores of the rank of gentlemen, both apparently -lawyers, living at the same time, in the same parish, and both having -three children bearing the same names; or was John More, who married Agnes -Graunger, the future Chief Justice and father of the future Chancellor? To -these questions, in the absence of Cresacre More's statement, the -accumulation of coincidences would have made it easy to give a very -positive answer. Is his authority to be weighed against them? - -'Stapylton's assertion that Sir Thomas More had no brothers presents no -difficulty, as they may have died in infancy. The entries which I have -quoted would explain why he was called Thomas, after his maternal -grandfather. - -'If any heraldic readers of "Notes and Queries" could find what are the -arms quartered with those of More upon the Chancellor's tomb at Chelsea, -they would probably throw some light upon the question. Mr. Hunter -describes them as "three bezants on a chevron between three unicorns' -heads." - -'WILLIAM ALDIS WRIGHT. - -'Trinity College, Cambridge.' - - -No. 2 (Oct. 31, 1868). - -'There can, I think, be no reasonable doubt that Mr. Wright's discovery -has set at rest the perplexing question of the true date of Sir Thomas -More's birth. In the note in the Appendix to my "Oxford Reformers" I was -obliged to leave the question undecided, whilst inclined to believe that -the weight of evidence preponderated in favour of the received date--1480. -What appeared almost incontrovertible evidence in favour of 1480 was the -evidence of the pictures of Sir Thomas More's family by Holbein. The most -certainly authentic of these is the original pen-and-ink sketch in the -Basle Museum. Upon Mechel's engraving of this (dated 1787), Sir Thomas's -age is marked "50," and at the bottom of the picture is the inscription, -"Johannes Holbein ad Vivum delin.: Londini: 1530." This seemed to be -almost conclusive evidence that he was born in 1480. If Sir Thomas was -born in Feb. 1478, according to the newly discovered entries, and was -fifty when the picture was sketched by Holbein, the sketch obviously -cannot have been made in 1530, but two or three years earlier. - -'Now if it may be supposed that the sketch was made during the summer or -autumn of 1527, I think it will be found that all other chronological -difficulties will vanish before the newly discovered date. - -'1. More himself would be in his fiftieth year in 1527. - -'2. Ann Cresacre, marked on the sketch as "15," would have only recently -completed her fifteenth year, as, according to her tombstone, she was in -her sixty-sixth year in Dec. 1577; and according to the inscription on the -Burford picture she was born in 3 Henry VIII. - -'3. Margaret Roper, marked on the sketch "22," would be born in 1505 or -1506, and this would allow of More's marriage having taken place in 20 -Henry VII. 1505, as stated on the Burford picture. - -'4. Sir Thomas would be forty-one in July, 1519, and this accords with -Erasmus's statement in his letter to Hutten of that date (_Epist._ -ccccxlvii.)--"ipse novi hominem, non majorem annis _viginti tribus_, nam -_nunc non multum excessit quadragesimum_." He would be only one year past -forty. Erasmus first became acquainted with More probably in the course of -1498, when (being born in February) he was in his twentieth year. The -"viginti tribus" must in any case be an error. - -'5. John More, jun., marked "19" in the sketch, would be "more or less -than thirteen" as reported by Erasmus in 1521. (_Epist._ dcv.) - -'6. More's epigram, which speaks of "quinque lustra" (_i.e._ twenty-five -years), having passed since he was "quater quatuor" (sixteen), and thus -makes him forty-one when he wrote it, would (if he was born in 1478) give -1519 as the date of the epigram; and this corresponds with the fact, that -the Basle edition of 1518 (_Mori Epigrammata_, Froben) did not contain it, -while it was inserted in the second edition of 1520. - -'7. There is a passage in More's "History of Richard III.," in which the -writer speaks of having himself overheard a conversation which took place -in 1483. - -'Mr. Gairdner, in his "Letters, &c. of Richard III. and Henry VII." (vol. -ii. preface, p. xxi), rightly points out that, if born in 1480, More, -being then only three years old, could not have remembered overhearing a -conversation. But if born in Feb. 1478, he would be in his sixth year, and -could easily do so. - -'On the whole, therefore, the newly discovered date dispels all the -apparent difficulties with which the received date is beset, if only it -may be assumed that the true date of the Basle sketch was 1527, and not -(as inscribed upon Mechel's engraving and upon the English pictures of the -family of Sir Thomas More) 1530. - -'Since I published my "Oxford Reformers" I have obtained a photograph of -the Basle sketch itself, which dispels this difficulty also, as it bears -upon it _no date at all_. - -'The date, 1530, on the pictures appears to rest upon no good authority. -Holbein, in fact, had left England the year before. I therefore have -little doubt that the remarkable document discovered by Mr. Wright is -perfectly genuine. - -'Should the arms quartered with those of More upon the Chancellor's tomb -at Chelsea prove to be the arms of "Graunger," the evidence would indeed -be complete. - -'FREDERIC SEEBOHM. - -'Hitchin.' - - -No. 3 (Oct. 31, 1868). - -'Mr. Wright will find the lineage of Sir Thomas More and his father -discussed at some length in my "Judges of England," vol. v. pp. 190-206; -and I have very little doubt that the John More whose marriage is recorded -in the first entry was the person who afterwards became a Judge (not Chief -Justice, as Mr. Wright by mistake calls him), and that Thomas More, whose -birth is recorded in the third entry, was the illustrious Lord Chancellor. -The only difficulty arises from John More's wife being named "Agnes -daughter of Thomas Graunger;" but this difficulty is easily discarded, -since Cresacre More, who wrote between eighty and ninety years after the -Chancellor's death, is the only author who gives another name, and his -other biographer, who wrote immediately after his death, gives the lady no -name at all. - -'John More married three times; and he must have been a very young man on -his first marriage with Agnes Graunger (supposing that to be the name of -his first wife), by whom only he had children. - -'I have stated in my account that there were two John Mores who were -contemporaries at a period considerably earlier, one of Lincoln's Inn and -the other of the Middle Temple. Of the lineage of the latter there is no -account; but of the former I have stated my conviction that he was the -father of the John More whose marriage is here recorded, and consequently -the grandfather of Sir Thomas More; and thus, as both the John Mores had -originally filled dependent employment in Lincoln's Inn, the modest -description of his origin given by Sir Thomas in his epitaph, "familiâ non -celebri, sed honestâ natus," is at once accounted for. - -'EDWARD FOSS.' - - -No. 4 (Oct. 31, 1868). - -'Permit me to set your correspondent right in a minor particular, which he -looks to as confirming his theory, though I trust he may be able to -substantiate it otherwise. Mr. Wright says--"Milk Street, Cheapside ... is -in the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate:" it is not so, as several -parishes intervene; Milk Street is _within_ the walls, whereas St. Giles's -is _without_. Mr. Wright might have seen this by the wording of his first -quotation:--"in parochia Egidij extra Crepylgate;" the word "extra" -implies beyond the walls. Milk Street is in the _ward_ of Cripplegate -Within, not in the _parish_ of St. Giles Without, Cripplegate--a -distinction not obvious to strangers. - -'A great part of the district now called Cripplegate _Without_ was -originally moor or fen: we have a Moorfields, now fields no more; and a -"More" or Moor Lane. I cannot suppose the latter to have been named after -the author of "Utopia;" but as he really emanated from this locality, -possibly his family was named from the neighbouring moor. The Chancellor -bore for his crest "a Moor's head affrontée sable." I would not wish to -affront his memory by adding more, but your readers will find something on -this subject _antè_, 3rd S. xii. 199, 238. - -'A. H.' - - -No. 5 (Nov. 5, 1868). - -'I am indebted to your correspondents, Mr. Foss and A. H., for their -corrections of two inaccuracies in my paper on Sir Thomas More. -Fortunately, neither of these affects the strength of my case. It is -sufficient that Milk Street and the church of St. Giles', Cripplegate, are -so near as to render it probable that a resident in the one might be -married at the other. If, therefore, for "the same parish" I substitute -"the same ward," my case remains substantially as strong as before. My -mistake arose from not observing that the map in Strype's edition of -Stow's _Survey_, which I consulted, was a map of Cripplegate Ward, and not -of the parish of St. Giles'. - -'Before writing to you, I had, of course, consulted Mr. Foss's _Judges of -England_, but found nothing there bearing upon the point on which I wanted -assistance, viz., the name and arms of Sir Thomas More's mother. - -'WILLIAM ALDIS WRIGHT. - -'Trinity College, Cambridge.' - - - - -APPENDIX D. - - -ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES AND PREFERMENTS OF DEAN COLET, IN ORDER OF -TIME.[791] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Date of| Description of | Authority | Date of - Appointment Preferment, &c. | | Avoidance - ---------|-----------------------|------------------------|-------------- - Aug. 6, |Rectory of St. Mary, |Reg. Norw. xii. f. 116, |Sept. 16, 1519 - 1485 | Denington, Suffolk | quoted by Kennett | per mortem - | | | - (?) |Prebend of Goodeaster, |Wharton, _de Decanis_, |Jan. 26, 1503 - | in Collegiate Church | p. 234 | per resign. - | of St. | | - | Martin-le-Grand | | - | | | - (?) |Vicarage of St. Dunstan|Reg. Hill, Lond., quoted|Sept, 21, 1505 - | and All Saints, | by Kennett | per resign. - | Stepney | | - | | | - Sept. 30,|Rectory of St. |Reg. Episcop. apud ædes |End of 1493 - 1490 | Nicholas, Thyrning, | Bucdenæ, quoted by | - | Hunts and Northampton| Kennett | - | | | - March 5, |Prebend of Botevant, in|Le Neve's _Fasti_ | - 1493-4 | Cathedral Church of | (1854), vol. iii. p. | - | York | 176 | - | | | - |[During this interval, | | - | Colet was apparently | | - | on the Continent] | | - | | | - Dec. 17, |Deacon |Reg. Savage, Lond., | - 1497 | | quoted by Kennett | - | | | - March 25,|Priest (by Knight said |Memorand. a Willi. | - 1497-8 | to be on Feast of | Smyth, Lincoln, quoted| - | '_St. Ann_,' i.e. | by Kennett | - | July 26, in error | | - | probably for | | - | '_Ann_unciation,' | | - | i.e. March 25) | | - | | | - 1501(?) |S.T.B. (Bachelor of |Anthony à Wood (sub anno| - | Divinity) | 1501, on mere | - | | conjecture, apparently| - | | dating back from the | - | | assumed date of the | - | | D.D.), quoted by | - | | Kennett | - | | | - 1502 |Prebend of Durnesford, |Wharton, _de Decanis_, | - | in Cathedral Church | p. 234. | - | of Salisbury | | - | | | - 1504 |S.T.P. (Doctor of |Ant. à Wood, sub anno | - | Divinity) | 1504 (probably only | - | | conjectured by Wood, | - | | as there appears to be| - | | no record at Oxford), | - | | quoted by Kennett | - | | | - May 5, |Prebend of Mora, in |Reg. Hill. f. 51, quoted|Sept. 16, 1519 - 1505 | Cathedral Church of | by Le Neve, _Fasti_, | per mortem - | St. Paul, London | ii. 411 | - | | | - 1505 (?) |Deanery of St. Paul's, |Le Neve, ib. p. 411. |Ditto ditto - | London | | - | | | - 1516 |Treasurership of |Reg. Cicestrense, quoted| - | Chichester Cathedral | by Le Neve, i. 268 | - | (Dean Colet?) | | - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - -APPENDIX E. - -CATALOGUE OF EARLY EDITIONS OF THE WORKS OF ERASMUS IN MY POSSESSION. - - -A.D. - -1506. D. Erasmi &c. Adagiorum Collectanea, Rursus ab eodem recognita atque -aucta ... [also] Erasmi varia epigrammata. - - In ædibus Joannis Barbier xviii. Martij M.DVI. - -1506. D. Erasmi &c. Adagiorum Collectanea, Rursus ab eodem recognita atque -aucta ... [but without the epigrams]. - - Ex ædibus Ascensianis pridie natalis dominici M.DVI. - -1508. Erasmi Rot. Adagiorum chiliades tres, ac centuriæ fere todidem. - - Venetiis in ædibus Aldi, mense Sept. MDVIII. - -1511. Moriæ Encomium Erasmi Roterodami Declamatio. - - Argentorati in ædibus M. Schurerii, mense augusto anno M.D.XI. - -1512. Collectanea Adagiorum &c. Erasmi. Ex Tertia Recognitione. (With -prefatory letter of Schurerius dated xiiii. Calendas Julii MDIX.) - - Argentorati [Strasburg] stanneis calamis denuo exscripta in officina - Matthiæ Schurerii, mense Junio anno M.D.XII. - -1512. De ratione studii, &c. - -Officium discipulorum ex Quintiliano. - -Concio de puero Jesu, &c. - -Expostulatio Jesu ad mortales. - -Carmina scholaria. - - Argentorati, Ex ædibus Schurerianis mense Julio M.D.XII. - -1513. De Duplici Copia rerum ac verborum Commentarii duo. [A reprint of -the first edition of Paris.] - - Argentorat. M. Schurerius exscripsit, mense Januario M.D.XIII. - -1514. De ratione studii, &c. - -Officium discipulorum ex Quintiliano. - -Concio de puero Jesu ad mortales. - -Carmina scholaria. - - Argentorati ex ædibus M. Schurerii, mense Augusto, anno M.D.XIIII. - -1514. Parabolarum sive Similium liber. (Prefatory letter of Erasmus to -Ægidius dated MDXIIII. Idibus Octobreis.) - - Argentorati ex ædibus Schurerianis, mense Decembri MD.XIIII. (First - edition?) - -1514. Opuscula aliquot, Erasmo Rot. castigatore et interprete. Cato ... -amplectens præcepta Mimi Publiani, Septem Sapientum celebria dicta, -Institutum Christiani hominis, &c. - - Colonie in edibus Martini Werdenensis, XII. Kalendas Decembres. - -1514(?). De duplici Copia Verborum ac rerum commentarii duo. Ab Authore -ipso diligentissime recogniti et emaculati atque in plerisque locis aucti. - -Item Epistola Erasmi ad Jacobum Vuymphelingium Selestatinum. - -Item Parabolæ, &c. - - Argentorat. Schurerius. - -1515. Enchiridion Militis Christiani. (Without the letter to Volzius.) - - Lypsi in ædibus Valentini Schumans.. Sexto Calendae Septembris, - M.D.XV. - -1515. Enchiridion Militis Christiani. (Without the letter to Volzius.) - -Disputatio de Tedio et Pavore Christi. - -Exhortatio ad virtutem, &c. - -Precatio ad Virginis filium Jesum. - -Pæan virgini Matri, &c. - -Obsecratio ad Mariam ... - -Oratio in laudem pueri Jesu. - -Enarratio allegorica in Primum Psalmum. - -Carmen de casa natalitia pueri Jesu. - -Carmina complura de puero Jesu. - -Carmina de angelis. - -Carmen Græcanicum Virgini sacrum Mariæ. - - Argentorati apud M. Schurerium, mense Septembri, M.D.XV. - -1515. Erasmi Roterodami Ennarratio in Primum Psalmum Davidicum. - -Martini Dorpii ad eundem Epistola, de Moriæ Encomio, &c. - -Erasmi ad Dorpium Apologia. - - Louanii Theodoricus Martinus excudebat, Mense Octobr, MDXV. - -1515. Cato Erasmi. Opuscula aliquot: Precepta Mimi Publiani; Septem -sapientum celebria dicta; Institutum christiani hominis, &c. - - Colonie in edibus Quentell. M.CCCCC.XV. - -1516. Novum Instrumentum. - - Basileæ in ædibus Joannis Frobenii Hammelburgensis, Mense Februario - Anno M.D.XVI. - -1516. Collectanea Adagiorum, &c. - - Argentorati M. Schurerius ... exscripsit, Mense Maio M.D.XVI. - -1516. Enchiridion, &c. (containing the same matter as the Strasburg -edition of 1515). - - Argentorati apud M. Schurerium, Mense Junio, M.D.XVI. - -1516. Institutio Principis Christiani ... cum aliis nonnullis, -viz.:--Precepta Isocratis, &c.; Panegyricum gratulatorium, &c. ad -Principem Philippum; Libellus Plutarchi de discrimine adulatoris et amici. - - Louanii apud Theodoricum Martinum Alustensem, Mense Augusto, MDXVI. - -1516. Erasmi Roterodami Epistolæ; ad Leonem X, ad Cardinalem Grimannum, ad -Cardinalem S. Georgii, ad Martinum Dorpium. Ejusdem in laudem urbis -Selestadii Panegyricum Carmen. - - Lypsiæ impressit Valentinus Schuman. A.D. M.CCCCC.XVI. - -1517. Aliquot Epistole saneque elegantes Erasmi Roterodami, et ad hunc -aliorum eruditissimorum hominum, antehac nunquam excusæ præter unam et -alteram. (Containing 39 letters.) - - Lovanii apud Theodoricum Martinum, anno M.D.XVII. mense Aprili. - -1517. Scarabeus, cum scholiis. - - Basileæ apud Joannem Frobenium, Mense Maio, M.D.XVII. - -1517. Bellum. - - Basileæ apud Joannem Frobenium, Mense Aprili, M.D.XVII. - -1517. De Octo Orationis Partium constructione Libellus ... Erasmo autore. - - Basileæ; In officina Adæ Petri, mense Augusto, M.D.XVII. - -1517. Enchiridion, etc. (containing the same matter as the Strasburg -edition of 1515). - - Argentorati apud M. Schurerium mense Novembri, M.D.XVII. - -1517. In epistolam Pauli ad Romanos Paraphrasis. (First edition.) - - Louanii Ex officina Theodo. Martin. Mense Novembri, M.D.XVII. - -1518. Aliquot Epistolæ saneque elegantes Erasmi Roterodami, et ad hunc -aliorum eruditissimorum hominum. (Containing 56 letters.) - - In Aedibus Frobenianis apud inclytam Germaniae Basiliam; mense - Januario, Anno M.D.XVIII. - -1518. De Optimo Reip. Statu deque nova insula Vtopia libellus vere aureus -... Thomæ Mori. - -Epigrammata ... Thomæ Mori. - -Epigrammata Des. Erasmi Rot. - - Basiliæ apud Joannem Frobenium, mense Martio M.D.XVIII. - -1518. Enchiridion militis Christiani. (With prefatory letter to Volzius.) - -Disputatiuncula de Pavore, &c. Jesu. - -Jo: Coleti Responsio. - -Basilius in Esaiam e Græco versus. - -Epistola exhortatoria, &c. - -Precatio ... ad Jesum. - -Pæan ... virgini matri, &c. - -Concio de puero Jesu. - -Enarratio primi Psalmi. - -Ode de casa natalitia pueri Jesu. - -Expostulatio Jesu. - -Hymni de Michaele, &c. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frobenium, M.D.XVIII. Quintili mense. - -1518. Auctarium selectarum aliquot Epistolarum Erasmi Roterodami ad -Eruditos, et horum ad illum. - - Apud inclytam Basileam (Prefatory letter of Beatus Rhenanus dated XI. - Calendas Septembreis M.D.XVIII.) - -1518. Institutio boni et Christiani principis, &c. - -Præcepta Isocratis, &c. - -Panegyricus &c. ad Principem Philippum. - -Libellus Plutarchi, &c. - - Basileæ apud J. Frobenium, mense Julio MDXVIII. - -Also, Plutarchi opuscula quædam D. Erasmo Rot. ... Philippo Melanchthone -&c. interpretibus. - - Basileæ apud J. Frobenium, mense Septembri M.D.XVIII. - -1518. Querela Pacis undique gentium ejectæ ... also:-- - -In genere Consolatorio de Morte declamatio. - - Lipsiæ ex ædibus Valentini Schumann, 1518. - -1519. Ratio seu Compendium veræ Theologiæ. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frobenium, mense Januario M.D.XIX. - -1519. Paraclesis. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frobenium, mense Februario M.D.XIX. - -1519. Novum Testamentum omne, multo quam antehac diligentius ab Erasmo -Rot. recognitum, &c. (Second edition.) - - Basileæ in ædibus Joannis Frebenii, M.D.XIX. mense Martio. - -1519. D. Erasmi Rot. in Novum Testamentum ab eodem denuo recognitum -Annotationes. - - Basileæ apud Joannem Frobenium, mense Martio M.D.XIX. - -1519. Collectanea Adagiorum, &c. - - Argentorati M. Schurerius ... exscripsit mense Martio 1519. - -1519. In Hymnum Aviæ Christi Annæ dictum ab Erasmo Roteradamo Scholia -Jacobi Spiegel Selestadiensis. - - In officina excusoria Segismundi Grim. Medici et Marci Vuyrsung, - Augustæ Vindelicorum [Augsburg] M.D.XIX. quarto Non. Mar. - -1519. D. Erasmi Rot. Apologia pro declamatione de laude matrimonii. - - Apud Joannem Frobenium, mense Maio M.D.XIX. - -1519. De ratione studii, &c. (Containing the same pieces as the edition of -1512.) - - Argentorati Ex ædibus M. Schurerii, mense Junio M.D.XIX. - -1519. In Epistolam Pauli ad Galatas Paraphrasis per Erasmum Rot. recens ab -illo conscripta et nunc primum typis excusa.... - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frobenium, mense Augusto M.D.XIX. - -1519. Ex Novo Testamento Quatuor Evangelia jam denuo ab Erasmo Roter. -recognita, emendata ac liberius versa, &c. - - Lipsi ex officina industrii Valentini Schumanni. 1519. 15 Kalendas - Novembris. - -1519. Moriæ encomium iterum, pro castigatissimo castigatius, una cum -Listrii commentariis, &c. - - Basileæ in ædibus Jo. Frobenii, mense Novembri, M.D.IX. - -1519(?). Erasmi Rot. Apologia, refellens suspiciones quorundam -dictitantium dialogum D. Jacobi Latomi.... (To which is added, but in -different type, the 'Dialogus' of Latomus.) - - Basle. Froben. (The woodcut on the title-page has the inscription, - HANS HOLB.) - -1519. Enchiridion, &c. (Containing the same matter as the Basle edition of -1518.) - - Coloniæ, apud Eucharium Cervicornum, MDXIX. - -1519. D. Erasmi Rot. Opuscula, containing Paraclesis, Ratio seu Compendium -veræ theologiæ, and Argumenta in omneis Apostolorum epistolas. - - Lipsiæ apud Melchiorem Lottheaum. 1519. - -1519. In Epistolam Pauli ad Galatas Paraphrasis per Erasmum Roterodamum, -recens ab illo conscripta, et nunc primum typis excusa. - - Lypsiæ ex officina Schumanniana. 1519. - -1520. Enchiridion Militis Christiani (with letter to Volzius). (At the end -is added the Letter of Erasmus to John Colet, from Oxford, Eras. _Op._ v. -p. 1263, and referred to supra, p. 133.) - - Moguntiæ, apud Joannem Schoeffer, M.D.XX. mense Januario. - -1520. Paraphrases D. Erasmi in Epistolas Pauli Apostoli ad Rhomanos, -Corinthios, et Galatas.... - - Basileæ, in æd. Frob. per Hieronymum Frob. Joan. Filium. Mense - Januario MDXX. - -1520. Paraphrases in Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Philippenses et -Colossenses et in duas ad Thessalonicenses.... - - Basileæ in ædibus Joannis Frobenii, mense Martio MDXX. - -1520. Paraphrases in Epistolas Pauli ad Timotheum duas, ad Titum unam et -ad Philemonem unam. - - Basileæ in ædibus Joannis Frobenii, mense Martio MDXX. - -1520. Annotationes Edovardi Leei in Annotationes Novi Testamenti D. -Erasmi. (With the replies of Erasmus.) - - Basileæ ex ædibus Joannis Frobenii, mense Maio M.D.XX. - -1520. Annotationes Edovardi Leei in Annotationes Novi Testamenti D. -Erasmi. - - Basileæ ex ædibus Joannis Frob. xii. Calendas Augustas M.D.XX. - -1520. De Ratione Studii, &c. - -Officium Discipulorum ex Quintiliano. - -Concio de puero Jesu, &c. - -Expostulatio Jesu ad Mortales. - -Carmina Scholaria. - - Selestadii in ædibus Lazari Schurerii, mense Augusto, anno M.D.XX. - -1520. Apologia Erasmi ... de 'In principio erat Sermo.' - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frobenium, M.D.XX. - -And also, with continuous paging, - -Epistolæ aliquot eruditorum virorum ex quibus perspicuum quanti sit -Eduardi Leei virulentia - - Basileæ ex ædibus Joannis Frobenii, MDXX. mense Augusto. - -1520. Parabolarum sive Similium Liber. Ex secunda recognitione. - - Selestadii in ædibus Lazari Schurerii, mense Augusto M.D.XX. - -1520. Adagia. Ex quarta Autoris recognitione. - - Basileæ in ædibus Joannis Frobenii, mense Octobri M.D.XX. - -1520. Antibarbarorum D. Erasmi Rot. Liber unus. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frobenium, M.D.XX. - -1520. D. Erasmi Rot. Epistola ad Cardinalem Moguntinum, qua commonefacit -illius celsitudinem de causa Doctoris Martini Lutheri. - - Selestadii in officina Schueriana, sumptu Nicolai Cuferii bibliopolæ - Selestadiensis, M.D.XX. - -1521. De duplici copia verborum ac rerum Commentarii duo. - -De ratione studii. - -De laudibus literariæ societatis, reipublicæ ac magistratuum urbis -Argentinæ. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frobenium, mense Februario, M.D.XXI. - -1521. Parabolæ sive similia. - - Basileæ apud Joannem Frobenium, mense Julio M.D.XXI. - -1521. De duplici Copia verborum ac rerum commentarii duo. - -De laudibus literariæ societatis, &c. - -Epistola ad Wimphelingum. - - Moguntiæ ex ædibus Joannis Schoeffer, mense Augusto MD.XXI. - -1521. Epistolæ D. Erasmi Roterodami ad diversos, et aliquot aliorum ad -illum per amicos eruditos, ex ingentibus fasciculis schedarum collectæ. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frobenium, M.D.XXI. Pridie Cal. Septembris. - -1522. Collectanea Adagiorum, &c. - - Moguntiæ in ædibus Joannis Schoeffer, Anno supra sesquimillesimum - XXII. mense Februario. - -1522. Enchiridion militis Christiani. - - Argentinæ apud Joannem Knoblochium mense Februario MDXXII. - -1522. Novum testamentum omne tertio jam recognitum. - - Anno MDXXII. (Basle). - -1522. D. Erasmi Rot. in novum testamentum ab eodem tertio recognitum -Annotationes. - - Basileæ M.D.XXII. mense Februario. - -1522. Paraphrasis in Evangelium Matthæi, nunc primum nata et ædita, &c. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frob. mense Martio MDXXII. - -1522. Querela Pacis. - - Argentinæ apud Joannem Knoblouchum, mense Martio M.D.XXII. - -1522. Ratio seu Methodus Compendio perveniendi ad veram Theologiam, -postremum ab ipso autore castigata et locupletata. Paraclesis. (Also -Letter from Hutten to Erasmus.) - - Basileæ in ædibus Joannis Frobenii, MDXXII. mense Junio. - -1522. Moriæ Encomium, &c. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frob. mense Julio MDXXII. - -1522. De Conscribendis Epistolis, recognitum ab autore et locupletatum. - -Parabolarum sive similium liber ab autore recognitus. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frob. M.D.XXII. mense Augusto. - -1522. Familiarium Colloquiorum Formulæ. (The Prefatory Letter to Froben's -Son is dated 'pridie Calendas Martias, MDXXII.') - - (A reprint of the first edition of Basle.) - - Argentorati expensis Joannis Knoblouchii et Pauli Getz. MDXXII. mense - Octobri. - -1522. De Conscribendis Epistolis Opus ... recognitum ab autore et -locupletatum. - - Argentorati ex ædibus Joannis Knoblouchii, MDXXII. mense Octobri. - -1522. Ad Christophorum Episc. Basil. Epistola Apologetica de interdicto -esu carnium, &c. cum aliis nonnullis novis, &c. (Containing Apologia -contra Stunicam.) - - Argentorati ædibus Joannis Knoblouchii MDXXII. octavo calendas decemb. - -1522. Ad R. Christophorum Episcopum Basiliensem, epistola apologetica de -interdicto esu carnium, &c. - - In officina excusoria Sigismundi, Augustæ Vindelicorum [Augsburg], - M.D.XXII. - -1522. Paraclesis. - - Augustæ Vindelicorum, MDXXII. - -1522. Enchiridion Militis Christiani, which may be called in Englische the -Hansom Weapon of a Christen Knight replenished with many Goodly and Godly -Preceptes: made by the famous Clerke Erasmus of Roterdame, and newly -corrected and imprinted. - - Imprinted at London by Johan Byddell, dwellynge at the sygne of the - Sonne, against the Cundyte in Fletestrete, where they be for to sell. - Newly corrected in the yere of our Lorde god, M.CCCCC[X]*XII. - - * This letter has evidently dropped out of its place in the printing. - -1523. Enchiridion Militis Christiani. - - Apud Sanctam Ubiorum Agrippinam, M.D.XXIII. In ædibus Eucharii - Cervicorni, impensa et ære integerrimi bibliopolæ Godefridi Hittorpii - civis Coloniensis, mense Martio. - -1523. Paraphrasis in Evangelium Joannis Apostoli. (First edition.) - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frobenium, mense Martio MDXXIII. - -1523. Catalogus omnium Erasmi Lucubrationum, ipso autore, cum aliis -nonnullis. (Containing Letters of Erasmus to Botzhem, and to Marcus -Laurinus.) - - Basileæ in ædibus Joannis Frobenii, mense Aprili M.D.XXIII. - -1523. Enchiridion Militis Christiani. - - Parisiis in ædibus Simonis Colinæi, Pridie Calendas Maii MD.XXIII. - -1523. Enchiridion Militis Christiani. (With Letter to Volzius.) - - Argentorati excudebat Joan. Knob. mense Octobri M.D.XXIII. - -1523. Querela Pacis, &c. - - Argent. J. Cnoblochus excudebat apud Turturem, mense Novembri - MD.XXIII. - -1523. Virginis Matris apud Lauretum Cultæ Liturgia, per Erasmum -Roterodamum. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frobenium, Anno M.D.XXIII. mense Novembri. - -1523. Ratio seu methodus compendio perveniendi ad veram Theologiam, -postremum ab ipso autore castigata et locupletata. - -Paraclesis, and letter from Hutten to Erasmus. - - Basle. Froben. MDXXIII. - -1523. Ad Christophorum episcopum Basiliensem epistola apologetica Erasmi -Roterodami de interdicto esu carnium, &c. - - Apud Sanctam Coloniam MD.XX.III. - -1523(?). Spongia Erasmi adversus aspergines Hutteni. - - Without date or printer's name. - -1523 or 4. Precatio dominica ... opus recens ac modo natum et mox excusum. -(Prefatory letter dated nono calend. Novemb. MDXXIII.) - - Froben. Basle. - -1524. De Octo orationis partium constructione libellus. - - Parisiis in ædibus Simonis Colinæi, mense Januario MDXXIV. - -1524. De libero Arbitrio [Greek: DIATRIBÊ]. (Bound with this copy is the -De servo Arbitrio Mar. Lutheri, ad D. Erasmum Roterodamum. Wittembergæ, -1526.) - - Basileæ apud Joan. Frob. mense Septemb. M.D.XXIIII. - -1524. De Libero Arbitrio [Greek: DIATRIBÊ], sive Collatio, D. Erasmi -Roterod. - - Antwerpiæ apud Michaelem Hillenium Hoochstratanum, mense Septemb. - MD.XX.IIII. - -1524. De immensa dei misericordia D. Erasmi Rot. Concio. - -Virginis et Martyris comparatio per eundem. Nunc primum et condita et -edita. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frob. mense Septemb. MD.XXIV. - -1524. Tomus Primus Paraphraseon D. Erasmi Rot. in novum testamentum. -(Containing the Paraphrases on the Four Gospels and the 'Acts.') - - Basileæ apud Joannem Frobenium MDXXIV. - -1524. 1. Exomologesis sive modus Confitendi, opus nunc primum et natum et -excusum. - -2. Paraphrasis in tertium Psalmum. - -3. Duo diplomata Papæ Adriani sexti cum responsionibus. - -4. Epistola de morte. - -5. Apologia ad Stunicæ conclusiones. - - Basileæ apud Joannem Frob. MD.XXIIII. - -1524. D. Eras. Rot. Breviores aliquot Epistolæ, studiosis juvenibus -admodum utiles. (Apparently a selection of Letters from the Basle -collection of 1521.) - - Parisiis. Apud Simonem Colinæum. - -1526. Familiarium Colloquiorum opus ... recognitum, magnaque accessione -auctum. (From p. 246 to p. 750 is all additional matter not included in -the first edition. This edition is the first which contained the -Vindication of the Colloquies, 'D. Erasmus Roterodamus De utilitate -colloquiorum, ad lectorem.') - - Basileæ apud Joan. Frob. mense Junio, M.D.XXVI. - -1526. Erasmi Rot. Detectio præstigiarum cujusdam libelli germanice -scripti, ficto authoris titulo, cum hac inscriptione, Erasmi et Lutheri -opiniones de Coena domini. - - Norembergæ apud Joan. Petreium M.D.XXVI. mense Junio. - -1526. Hyperaspistes Diatribæ ad versus servum Arbitrium Martini Lutheri. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frob. M.D.XXVI. - -1526. Moriæ encomium, nunc postremum ab ipso religiose recognitum, -doctissimique Gerardi Listrii commentariis illustratum. - - Eucharius Cervicornus excudebat M.D.XXVI. - -1526. Lingua, opus novum et hisce temporibus aptissimum. (Prefatory Letter -of Erasmus dated Postridie Idus Augusti 1525.) - - [Cologne.] Anno M.D.XXVI. - -1527. Novum Testamentum. (Fourth edition.) - - Basileæ in ædibus Jo. Frobenii. M.D.XXVII. mense martio. - -1527. Hyperaspistæ liber secundus. - - Anno M.D.XXVII. mense Novembri. (No name of printer or place where - printed.) - -1527. Hyperaspistæ liber secundus, opus nunc primum excusum. - - Basileæ apud Joannem Frobenium, MD.XXVII. - -1530. Utilissima consultatio de bello Turcis inferendo et obiter enarratus -Psalmum XXVIII. per Des. Erasmum Roterodamum. Opus recens et natum et -æditum. - - Lutetiæ Parisiorum, mense Junio MDXXX. - -1530. De Civilitate morum Puerilium per Des. Erasmum Rot. Libellus nunc -primum et conditus et æditus. - - Parisiis Expensis Christiani Wechel, MDXXX. mense Octobri. - -1530. Lingua. - - Apud sanctam Coloniam quarto Idus Novembris M.D.XXX. - -1532. D. Erasmi Rot. Dilutio eorum quæ Judocus Clithoveus scripsit -adversus declamationem suasoriam matrimonii. - -Epistola de delectu ciborum, &c. In elenchum Alberti Pii brevissima -scholia. - - Froben, MDXXXII. - -1533. De sarcienda Ecclesiæ concordia, &c. (nunc primum typis excusa). - - Basileæ ex officina Frobeniana, M.D.XXXIII. - -1534. De preparatione ad mortem, nunc primum et conscriptus et æditus. - -Accedunt aliquot epistolæ seriis de rebus, in quibus item nihil est non -novum ac recens. (Containing, inter alia, Sir Thos. More's Letter to -Erasmus on resigning the chancellorship, and appended thereto his -epitaph.) - - Basileæ in officina Frobeniana per Hieronymum Frobenium et Nicolaum - Episcopium, MDXXXIIII. - -1536. Ecclesiastæ sive de ratione concionandi libri quatuor, opus recens, -denuo ab autore recognitum. - - Basileæ in officina Frobeniana per Hieronymum Frobenium et Nicolaum - Episcopium, mense Augusto MDXXXVI. - -1542. D. Erasmi Rot. in Novum Testamentum Annotationes ab ipso autore jam -postremum sic recognitæ ac locupietatæ ut propemodum novum opus videri -possit. (Reprint of the fifth and last edition.) - - Basileæ in officina Frobeniana M.D.XLII. - - - - -APPENDIX F. - -EDITIONS OF WORKS OF SIR THOMAS MORE IN MY POSSESSION. - - -A.D. - -1516. (Dec.) Utopia (First edition).--'Libellus vere aureus nec minus -salutaris quam festivus de optimo reip. statu, deque nova Insula Vtopia -authore clarissimo viro Thoma Moro inclytæ Civitatis Londinensis cive et -Vicecomite, cura M. Petri Aegidii Antuerpiensis, et arte Theodorici -Martini Alustensis, Typographi almæ Louaniensium Academiæ, nunc primum -accuratissime editus.' - - Without date, but containing a Prefatory Letter from Petrus Aegidius - to Hier. Buslidius, dated MDXVI. cal. Novembris; and a Letter from - Joannes Paludanus to Petrus Aegidius, dated calen. Decemb. - -1518. Utopia (Second edition).--'De Optimo Reip. statu deque nova Insula -Vtopia, libellus vere aureus,' &c. Also, - -Epigrammata clarissimi disertissimique viri Thomæ Mori. Also, - -Epigrammata Des. Erasmi Rot. - - Basileæ apud Jo. Frobenium, mense Martio MDXVIII. - -1518. Ditto ditto. - - Basileæ apud Joannem Frobenium, mense Novembri MDXVIII. (HANS HOLB. - inscribed in the woodcut on the title-page). - -1520. Epigrammata clarissimi disertissimique viri Thomæ Mori, Britanni, ad -emendatum exemplar ipsius autoris excusa. (With some additional Epigrams, -including More's Letter to his Children.) - - Basileæ apud Joannem Frobenium, mense Decembri M.D.XX. - -1557. The Workes of Sir Thomas More, Knyght, sometime Lorde Chauncellorr -of England, wrytten by him in the Englysh tongve. - - Printed at London, at the costes and charges of John Cawod, John Waly, - and Richarde Tottell. Anno 1557. - -1563. Thomæ Mori Angliæ ornamenti eximii Lucubrationes, ab innumeris -mendis repurgatæ. - - Basil, apud Episcopium F. 1563. - -1566. Thomæ Mori Angli ... Omnia, quæ hucusque ad manus nostras -peruenerunt, Latina opera.... - - Lovanii, apud Joannem Bogardum sub Bibliis Aureis. Anno 1566. - -1568. Doctissima D. Thomæ Mori clarissimi ac disertiss. viri Epistola, in -qua non minus facetè quàm piè, respondet Literis Joannis Pomerani, hominis -inter Protestantes nominis non obscuri. - -Opusculum ... ex Authoris quidem autographo emendato, dum viveret, -exemplari desumptum, nunquam vero ante hac in lucem editum. - - Lovanii, ex officina Joannis Fouleri. MD.LXVIII. (Not included in any - of the above collections of More's works.) - -1588. Tres Thomæ ... D. Thomæ Mori ... Vita, authore Thoma Stapletono -Anglo. - - Dvaci, Ex officina Joannis Bogardi. M.D.LXXXVIII. - -1612. Ditto ditto. - - Coloniæ Agrippinæ, Sumptibus Bernardi Gualteri. MDC.XII. - - (Stapleton had access to a collection of More's papers, made by - Harris, his private secretary, and has preserved Latin translations of - his letters to his children, &c., not in the collected works.) - - - - -INDEX. - - - _Alcor, Alfonso Fernandez_, Archdeacon of, on the circulation of the - 'Enchiridion' in Spain, 174 - - _Amerbach_, printer at Basle, 302. - His sons, _id._ - - _Ammonius_, 223, 256, 270, 283, 284. - Death of, 458. - Describes More's family, 256 - - _Aquinas_, the 'Summa' of, 108-110, 440. - On Scripture inspiration, 33, 123. - Erasmus and Colet on, 107 _et seq._ - - _Augustine_, Colet prefers Origen and Jerome to, 16, 41. - Colet differs from, 36, 82. - Luther's adherence to, 404, 472. - Eck charges Erasmus with not having read his works, 435 _et seq._ - The power of his dogmatic theology, 494. - Difference between the Augustinian standpoint and that of the Oxford - Reformers, 494-497 - - - _Baptista, Dr._, Erasmus takes his sons to Italy, 186 - - _Battus_, tutor to the Marchioness de Vere. - Kindness to Erasmus, 164-167 - - _Bembo_, secretary to Leo X., 322 - - _Bishops_, promotion of, 226-230. - Ignorance of some, 227 - - _Boville_, at Cambridge, Erasmus writes to, 399 - - - _Cain_, conversation on sacrifice of, 97 _et seq._ - Erasmus tells a story about, 99 - - _Chalcondyles_, 14 - - _Charles, Prince_ (Charles V.), invites Erasmus to Flanders, 279. - Henry VIII. breaks faith with, 308. - 'Institutio Principis Christiani' written for, 368. - Connives at Indulgences, 422. - Erasmus loses his faith in, 430. - Election to the Empire, 482 - - _Charnock_, the Prior, head of the College of St. Mary the Virgin at - Oxford, 94. - His reception of Erasmus, 96. - Dines with Colet, Erasmus, &c., 97. - Mention of, 102, 118, 165, 171 - - _Colet, Sir Henry_, 14, 113 - - _Colet, John_, ordained deacon, 2, _n._ - His father, 14. - His family, 15. - His mother, 15, _n._, 251, 397. - Graduates at Oxford in Arts, 15. - Enters the Church, _id._ - His preferments, _id._ - Visits France and Italy, and what he studies there, _id._ - At Florence (?), 17. - Whether influenced by Savonarola, 18, 37, _n._, 158. - Studies Pico and Ficino's works, 21, 22. - Returns to Oxford, 22. - Lectures on St. Paul's Epistles, 1, 32. - His mode of interpretation not textarian, 33. - Acknowledges human element in Scriptures, 34. - Differs from St. Augustine, 36, 82. - MS. on the 'Romans,' 33-42. - Rejects theory of uniform inspiration of Scripture, _id._ - Acquaintance with Thomas More, 24. - First hears of Erasmus, 27. - Conversation with a priest on St. Paul's writings, 42. - Letter to Abbot of Winchcombe, 45. - On the Mosaic account of the Creation--theory of accommodation-- - letters to Radulphus on, 43-58. - Pico's 'Heptaplus,' 59. - Abstracts of the Dionysian writings, 60-77. - On the object of Christ's death, 67. - On priests, 68. - On the sacraments, 70. - On sponsors, 71. - On self-sacrifice, 74. - On the Pope and ecclesiastical scandals, 75. - Lectures on I. Corinthians, 78-89. - Whether convinced that the Pseudo-Dionysian writings were spurious, 91. - His warm reception of Erasmus, 95. - His view of Cain and Abel's sacrifices, 98. - Erasmus's admiration of his earnestness, 98. - His position at Oxford, 101. - His appreciation of Erasmus, _id._ - Conversation with Erasmus on the Schoolmen, 102-112. - Advice to theological students, 106. - Discussion with Erasmus on Christ's agony in the garden, 116-118. - His love of truth, 121. - On the theory of 'manifold senses' of Scripture, 122. - On Scripture inspiration, _id._ - Disappointed at Erasmus leaving Oxford, 126. - Urges him to expound Moses or Isaiah, 128, 131. - Left alone at Oxford, 133. - Dean of St. Paul's, 137, 138. - His work in London, habits, preaching, &c., 139-142. - More on his preaching, 148. - He advises More to marry, 160. - Preaches and practises self-sacrifice, 206-207. - Succeeds to his father's property, 206. - Resigns living of Stepney, 208. - Founds St. Paul's School, 208-210. - Colet's gentleness and love of children, 211-215. - Preface to his Grammar, 213. - Advice to his masters, 214. - Rejects Linacre's Grammar, 216. - Writes a Grammar, _id._ - On the true method of education, 216-219. - Letter to Erasmus, 218. - Wants an under-schoolmaster, 220. - Sermons liked by the Lollards, 222. - Colet's preaching, 225. - Sermon to Convocation of 1512, 230 _et seq._ - Completes his school, 250. - Letter to Erasmus, 251. - Erasmus in praise of Colet's preaching and school, 253. - Persecuted by Fitzjames, 254. - Defended by Warham, _id._ - Returns to his preaching, 255. - Preaches against Henry VIII.'s wars, 261. - Defended against Fitzjames by the King, 262. - Ditto, ditto, again, Good Friday sermon, 264. - His troubles about property--quarrel with his uncle, &c., 285. - Visits St. Thomas's shrine with Erasmus, 287 _et seq._ - Letter to Erasmus--harassed by Fitzjames, 305. - Sermon on installation of Cardinal Wolsey, 343. - Procures release of a prisoner, 393. - Letter to Erasmus on 'Novum Instrumentum,' &c., 394; ditto on - Reuchlin's speculations, 412. - Attacked by sweating sickness, 461. - Fixes statutes of his school, 462. - His views on marriage, 464. - Makes his will and prepares his tomb, 466. - Interest in passing events, _id._ - Letter from Marquard von Hatstein, 468. - Colet's retirement from public life, 482. - Death of Colet, 503. - Character of, 504. - Colet's MS. on Romans, extracts from, App. A; MS. on I. Corinthians, - extracts from, App. B. - Colet's preferments, App. D. - - _Colt, Jane_, More's first wife, 160, 180, 193, 256, 498. - Dies, 256. - Epitaph, 498 - - _Convocation_ of 1512, 223 _et seq._ - Colet's sermon to, 230 _et seq._ - - _Coventry_, description of, 414. - Mariolatry there, 416 - - _Croke, Richard_, at Paris gets first edition of the 'Praise of Folly' - printed there, 204, _n._ - - - _Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagit_, his writings, Colet studies, 16. - Translated by Ficino, 21. - Abstracts of his 'Hierarchies' made by Colet, 60-73. - Influence of, on Colet, 41, 58, _n._, 82, 84, 91, 345. - Grocyn rejects as spurious, 91 - - _Dorpius, Martin_, attacks Erasmus, 313. - Reply of Erasmus, 316. - Mention of, by Colet, 395 - - - _Eck, Dr._, controversy with Erasmus, 434-437. - Ditto with Luther, 484 - - _Education_, satire on prevalent modes of, 194, 211 _et seq._ - Colet's views on, 208, 214. - Erasmus on the true method of, 217. - Schoolmasters looked down upon, 220. - In Utopia, universal, 353. - Four-tenths of English people cannot read, 353 - - _Eobanus_, 480 - - '_Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum_,' 407-411 - - _Erasmus_ at Paris, 28. - Comes to Oxford, 94. - Character and previous history, 94-96. - Object in coming to Oxford, 96. - His reception by Charnock and Colet, _id._ - Converses on sacrifices of Cain and Abel, and tells a story about - Cain, 99. - Admires Colet, 101, 102. - Delight with Oxford circle, 102. - Conversation with Colet on the Schoolmen, 106-108. - Studies Aquinas, 108. - Falls in love with Thomas More, 113. - Letter to More, 114. - Delighted with England, 115. - Conversation with Colet on the agony of Christ, 117-120. - Theory of 'manifold senses' of Scripture, 121-125. - Correspondence with Colet on leaving Oxford, 126-133. - At Court, 126. - Promises to join Colet someday, 133. - Leaves Oxford, 133. - With More visits the royal nursery, 134. - Leaves England for Italy, 135. - Robbed at Dover by the Custom House officers, 161. - Cannot go to Italy on account of his poverty, 162. - His troubles from poverty and ill-health, 163-165. - Friendship with Battus and Marchioness de Vere, 164-166. - 'Adagia,' 163. - 'Enchiridion,' 165. - Remembers his promise to Colet, 167-172. - Letter to Colet, his works, poverty, study of Greek, admiration for - Origen, 168. - His 'Enchiridion,' 173. - Its popularity, 174. - Views expressed in it on free-will Anti-Augustinian, 175. - Report of discussion on the 'agony of Christ,' 176. - His 'Adagia,' 177. - Preface to Valla's 'Annotations,' 177-179. - In England, a second time visits More, 180. - Again starts for Italy, 183. - Is to instruct the sons of Dr. Baptista, &c., 184. - Letter to Colet and Linacre from Paris, 185. - Visits Italy, 186-188. - Description of German inns, 186. - Quarrel with the tutor of his pupils, 187. - Disappointed with Italy, 187. - Returns to England to More's home on the accession of Henry VIII., 188. - The 'Praise of Folly,' 193-204. - When first edition published, 204, _n._ - Goes to Cambridge, 205. - His views on schools, 210-212. - His 'De Copiâ Verborum,' 216, 251. - 'On the true method of education,' 217. - Skirmishes with the Scotists, 219. - Defends Colet's school, 251. - Epigram on battle of Spurs, 271. - At Walsingham, 273. - Work at Cambridge, 276. - Leaves Cambridge, 279. - Invited to the court of Prince Charles, 279. - Letter to Abbot of St. Bertin against war, 280. - Brush with Cardinal Canossa, 282. - Intercourse with Colet, 284 _et seq._ - Letter to Colet, 286. - With Colet visits St. Thomas's shrine, 288 _et seq._ - Goes to Basle, 294. - Letter to Servatius, 296 _et seq._ - Accident at Ghent, 300. - Reaches Maintz, 301. - Strasburg, _id._ - Reaches Basle, _incog._, 302. - At Froben's office, 234. - Writes to England, 305. - Returns to England, 306. - Letters to Rome, 307. - Supports Reuchlin, _id._ - Satire upon kings, 309. - Edition of 1,800 of 'Praise of Folly' sold, 312. - On his way to Basle again, 312. - Replies to attack from Dorpius, 316. - Reaches Basle, 318. - The 'Novum Instrumentum' and its prefaces--the 'Paraclesis,' &c., - 321-335. - St. Jerome, 335. - 'Institutio Principis Christiani,' 365-377. - 'Paraphrases' and other works, 392. - Colet reads the 'Novum Instrumentum' and encourages him to go on, - 394-397. - Reception of the 'Novum Instrumentum' in other quarters, 398. - By Luther, 402. - Erasmus mentioned in 'Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum,' 408. - Denounces international scandals and Indulgences, 420 and 425-426 and - 433. - Journey to Basle, 433. - Arrival, 434. - Attack from the plague, _id._ - Correspondence with Eck, _id._ - His labours at Basle, 438. - Letter to Volzius, 438-440. - Second edition of 'New Testament' and 'Ratio Veræ Theologiæ,' 442-454. - His health gives way--ill at Louvain, 455. - Does not die--letter to Rhenanus, 457. - His opinion of Luther and Melanchthon, 477-481. - Correspondence on the Hussites of Bohemia, 484 _et seq._ - On 'The Church' and Toleration, 488-491. - Grieves on the death of Colet, 503-504. - His opinion of Colet's character, _id._ - Early editions of works of, App. E - - - _Ferdinand of Spain_, 260, 308, 361 - - _Ficino, Marsilio_, 9, 11-14, 19, 20, _n._, 39. - His 'De Religione Christiana,' 11-12 - - _Fisher, Bishop_, Erasmus visits, 399. - Erasmus writes to, 412, 431, 503 - - _Fisher, Christopher_, More's host at Paris, 171, 177 - - _Fisher, Robert_, 116 - - _Fitzjames, Bishop of London_, zeal against heresy, 222-223, 230, 247. - Promotions, 228. - Mention of, 179. - Hatred of Colet and his school, 241, 253. - Tries to convict Colet of heresy, 254. - Never ceases to harass him, 249, 306, 467 - - _Flodden_, Battle of, 272 - - _Florence_, Grocyn and Linacre at, 14. - _See_ 'Platonic Academy' - - _Fox, Bishop of Winchester_, 147. - Praises the 'Novum Instrumentum,' 398 - - _Froben, John_, his printing-press and circle of learned men at Basle, - 302. - Reception of Erasmus, 303, 304, 318, _n._ - Mention of, in 'Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum,' 410 - - - _Gerson_, ends the schism, 6. - Persecutes Huss, &c. - - _Giles', Peter_, connection with the 'Utopia,' 381-382, 389 - - _Grocyn_, at Florence, 14. - At Oxford, _id._ - More studies under, 25. - Opinion of Erasmus of, 115. - Rejects Pseudo-Dionysian writings as spurious, 90, 91. - Writes preface to Linacre's translation of Proclus, 85. - In London, 142, 149, 170. - Patronises More's lectures, 143. - Goes with Erasmus to Lambeth, 183 - - _Grotius, Hugo_, rejects the Machiavellian theory of politics, 369 - - - _Hatstein's, Marquard von_, letter to Colet, 468 - - _Henry VII._, zeal for reform, and against dissent, 8. - Presents Colet to the deanery of St. Paul's, 138. - Avaricious, 144, 161, 189, 190. - More offends him by opposing a subsidy, 145, 147 - - _Henry VIII._, More and Erasmus visit, when a boy, 134. - Accession of, 190. - More's verses on, _id._ - His continental wars, 223. - His ambition, 259. - His first campaign, 223, 260. - Colet preaches against it, but without offending Henry VIII., 261. - Ditto, ditto, against second campaign, 262-272. - Invades France, 270. - Peace with France, 308. - Evil results of his wars, 338. - Connives at the Pope's Indulgences, 422. - Change in policy, 428. - Draws More into his service, 429 - - _Heresy_, on the increase, 222, 223. - Convocation for extirpation of, 223 _et seq._ - Colet on, 238. - Discussion on burning of heretics, 248. - Colet accused of, 254 - - _Holbein, Hans_, woodcut by, in 'Utopia,' 389. - Picture of More's family, 500, and Appendix C - - _Howard, Admiral_, 263. - Death of, 269 - - _Hussites_ of Bohemia. - Luther discovers that he is one, 485. - Their opinions and sects, and Erasmus's views on the same, 485-491 - - _Hutten, Ulrich_, 480, 497 - - - _Indulgences_, sale of, 419. - Erasmus denounces, 420, 426, 441. - Luther denounces, 421. - Princes bribed to allow of, 422 - - _Isabella_ of Spain, zeal for reform, 8. - Persecutes, _id._ - - - _Jerome_, Colet prefers to Augustine, 16, 41. - Erasmus also, 435, 437. - Follows his opinion on the cause of the agony of Christ, 118. - Erasmus opposes it, 120. - Colet adheres to it, 120. - Erasmus quotes, against inspiration of the Vulgate translation, 317. - Erasmus edits works of, 317, 319. - Erasmus in praise of, 437 - - _Jonas, Justus_, Erasmus writes to, 504 - - _Julius II._, satire on, by Erasmus, 202, 203. - His ambition, 258. - Holy Alliance, 263. - _Julius de coelo exclusus_, 426, 427 - - - _Kings_, satire of Erasmus on, 200, 309-311 - - - _Latimer, William_, on the 'Novum Instrumentum,' 398 - - _Lee, Edward_, 470, 504 - - _Leo X._, a friend of Erasmus, and inclined to peace, 268. - His intellectual sensualism, 321. - Patronises the 'Novum Instrumentum,' 336. - His Indulgences, &c., 418 _et seq._ - Censure of Erasmus on, 433 - - _Lilly, William_, in companionship with More, 146, 149, 152, 181. - His grammar, 148. - Master of St. Paul's School, 215, 250, 466. - Had travelled in the East, 150, 250. - Had a large family, 464, _n._ - - _Linacre_ at Florence, 14. - At Oxford, _id._ - Erasmus admires him, 116. - Translation of Proclus' 'De Spherâ,' 85. - His Latin Grammar, 216. - Letter of Erasmus to, 185 - - _Lollards_ attend Colet's sermons, 222. - Many abjure, _id._ - Some burned, 223 - - _Lorenzo de' Medici_, 9, 11, 14, 17, 18, 20, _n._, 59 - - _Louis XII._ of France, 259. - At war with Henry VIII.; loses Tournay, &c., 272. - Alliance with England. - Dies, 308 - - _Lupset_, disciple of Colet's, 504 - - _Luther_ reads the 'Novum Instrumentum,' 402, 407. - His early history and rigid Augustinian standpoint, 404, 472. - Erasmus's opinion of, 478, 479. - Finds out he is a Hussite, 484, 485. - The Reform of, contrasted with that of the Oxford Reformers, 492, 497 - - _Lystrius, Gerard_, 303. - Adds notes to the 'Praise of Folly,' 312, 313, 420 - - - _Machiavelli_, his School of Politics. - 'The Prince' and its maxims, 323, 324, 368, 369 - - _Mahometanism._ - _See_ Turks - - _Macrobius_, quoted by Colet, 57. - Mentioned, 10, 58, 59 - - _Martins, Thierry_, printer at Antwerp, 167, _n._ - At Louvain, 366, 379, 389, 419, _n._, 455, 458, 481 - - _Maximilian_, 259, 482 - - _Melanchthon_, Ode on Erasmus, 401, 402. - Erasmus's appreciation of, 476-478 - - _More, Thomas_, his early history, 23. - Fascinating character, 25. - Comes to Oxford, 25. - His father's strictness, 26. - Erasmus meets him in London, 113. - Erasmus falls in love with him, 114, 116. - Visits royal nursery with Erasmus and Arnold, 134. - His legal studies, 27, 142. - Oxford friends join him in London, _id._ - Lectures on St. Augustine's 'De Civitate Dei,' 143. - Reader at Furnival's Inn--enters Parliament, 143, 144. - Procures the rejection of part of a subsidy, 145. - Offends Henry VII., 145, 146. - Seeks retirement, _id._ - In lodgings near the Charterhouse, 147. - Colet's influence on him, 148. - He studies Pico's Life and Works, 151-158. - Erasmus visits him, 181. - His satire upon monks and confession, _id._ - Unrelenting hatred of the King's avarice and tyranny--his epigrams, - 182. - Leaves the Charterhouse--marries, 159, 160. - His home in Bucklersbury and three daughters, 193. - Connection with Henry VIII., 190-192. - His practice at the bar, and appointment as undersheriff, _id._ - Erasmus visits him and writes the 'Praise of Folly' at his house, 193. - More on Colet's school, 251. - Epigrams against French criticisms on the war, 260. - Public duties, 256, 338. - Writes History of Richard III., _id._ - His first wife dies, _id._ - His practice at the bar--second marriage, 337. - Sent on an embassy, 343. - Second book of 'Utopia,' 346-365. - Introductory book to, 378-390. - Attempt of Henry VIII. to make him a courtier, 380. - Visit to Coventry--strange frenzy there, 414-418. - Second embassy, 427. - Enters Henry VIII.'s service, 429. - At the court of Henry VIII., 458. - Letter to the University of Oxford, 459. - A monk attempts his conversion--More's reply, 470-475. - His character and domestic life, 497-502. - Opinion of character of Colet, 504. - Date of More's birth, note on, Appendix C. - Works of, App. F - - _Morton, Cardinal_, zeal for reform, and against heretics, 8. - More's connection with, 24, 256, 386 - - _Moses_, Colet's views on; his account of the Creation, 46 _et seq._ - Colet urges Erasmus to lecture on Moses or Isaiah, 128, 131 - - _Mountjoy, Lord_, 94, 115, 134, 165, 170, 205, 295, 469, 471 - - - _Neo-platonists_, 9-13, 39, 41, 61, 77, 158, 159 - - - _Origen_, the works of, Colet studies, and prefers to those of - Augustine, 16. - Erasmus studies, 169. - His method of allegorical interpretation, 174, 445 - - _Original sin_, allusion to, 403, 492 - - _Oxford Reformers of 1498._ - (_See_ 'Colet,' 'Erasmus,' and 'More.') - Difference between their standpoint and that of Luther and all - Augustinian Reformers, 492-497. - Nature of the Reform urged by, 506. - Result of its rejection, 507-509 - - - _Parliament_ of 1503-4. - Subsidy opposed by More in, 145. - Of 1514, 279. - Of 1515, complaints of results of Henry VIII.'s extravagance and the - wars, 338. - Levy taxes on labourers, 268; and interfere with wages, 340-341. - Statute on pasture-farming, 341. - Rigid punishment of crimes, _id._ - Eight years without a Parliament, 346 - - _Pico della Mirandola_, influenced by Savonarola, 19. - Death of, 18-20. - His 'Heptaplus,' 19, _n._, 59. - More translates his life and works, 152-158. - His faith in Christianity, and in the laws of nature, 154. - On prayer, 154. - On the Scriptures, 155. - Study of Eastern languages, 156. - His verses, 157. - On the love of Christ, 152-157 - - _Platonic Academy_, 9, 13, 17, 19 - - _Plotinus_, 10, 14, 16, 41 - - _Pole, De la_, 133 - - _Politian_, 14, 18 - - _Pomponatius_, sceptical tendencies of, 323 - - _Popes_, satire of Erasmus on, 201, 426. - Colet on, 74, 75 - - _Proclus_, 10 - - _Pyghards_, of Bohemia. - _See_ Hussites - - - _Radulphus_ (who?), Colet's letters to, 41-57 - - _Reuchlin_, mention of, 301. - Erasmus supports, 307. - His 'Pythagorica,' &c. Colet's opinion of, 411, 413 - - _Rhenanus, Beatus_, 303, 304, 311, 312, 392, 432, 457 - - - _Sacrifice_, Colet's views on, 39, 206. - Of Cain and Abel, conversation on, 97 _et seq._ - - _Sadolet_, secretary to Leo X., 321 - - _Sapidus, John_, escorts Erasmus to Basle, 302 - - _Savonarola_, influence of, 17-22. - Do. on Colet (?) _id._ and 37, _n._ - Whether any connection between his views and Colet's, _id._ - Indirect connection with the Oxford Reformers through More's - translation of Pico's life and works, 158, 159 - - _Saxony, Frederic_, Elector of, protects Luther, 477-483. - His noble conduct on election of Charles V., _id._ - - _Schlechta's, Johannes_, of Bohemia, correspondence with Erasmus, 485-491 - - _Scriptures_, position of study of, at Oxford, 2. - Do. plenary inspiration, 29. - Interpretation textarian, _id._ - Theory of 'manifold senses,' 31, 121-124. - Aquinas on do., 30, 122. - Tyndale's account of, 30, 31. - Scriptures practically ignored, 14. - Colet's mode of interpretation (_see_ Colet). - The theory of accommodation, 52-57. - 'Manifold senses,' Colet on inspiration, 124. - Valla's 'Annotations,' preface of Erasmus, 177. - Pico on the Scriptures, 155. - Colet translates portions of, 155. - Dorpius maintains verbal inspiration of Vulgate version, 315. - Eck also, 435. - Erasmus rejects it, 317, 331, 436, 443. - Advocates translation of, into all languages, 327. - Method of study of, 329, 445. - Difference between the Oxford and the Wittemberg Reformers on the - inspiration of, 492-497 - - _Servatius_, prior of Stein monastery, Holland, correspondence with - Erasmus, 295, 299 - - _Sherborn, Robert_, Bishop of St. David's, 138 - - _Spalatin, George_, writes to Erasmus, 402 - - _St. Andrews_, Archbishop of, under Erasmus's tuition, 184. - Killed in battle of Flodden, 272 - - _St. Bertin_, Abbot of, 165. - Letters of Erasmus to, 280. - Erasmus visits, 299 - - _St. Paul's School_, founded by Colet, 209. - Salaries of masters, 209. - Cost of, to Colet, 210. - Completion of, 250. - Jealousy against, 251. - Statutes of, 463-466 - - _Sweating sickness_, 458, 461 - - - _Taxation_, of clergy, for Henry VIII.'s wars, 247. - Amount of a 'tenth,' _id._ _n._ - Of labourers, 340. - War taxes, 339. - Erasmus on, 374-376. - Amount of a 'fifteenth,' 145 - - _Tunstal_, More on an embassy with, 343. - Erasmus writes to, 503 - - _Turks_, five times as numerous as Christians, 6, _n._ - Threaten to overwhelm Christianity, 6. - Defeat of the Moors in Spain, 7 - - _Tyndale_, describes position of Scripture study at Oxford, 3, _n._ - Estimate of number of Mahometans and Christians, 6, _n._ - On the scholastic modes of Scripture interpretation and the theory of - 'manifold senses,' 31. - At Oxford before Colet leaves, 136. - Studies Scriptures there, _id._ - Translates the 'Enchiridion,' 174 - - - _United brethren_, of Bohemia. - _See_ Hussites - - _Utopia_, contents of second book of, 347-365. - Introductory book of, 378-390 - - - _Valla, Laurentius_, Erasmus studies the works of, and writes the - preface to his Annotations of, 177 - - _Vere_, Marchioness de, aids Erasmus, 164-167 - - _Volzius_, abbot of monastery at Schelestadt, Erasmus's letter to, 439 - - - _Walsingham_, pilgrimage to, 269-272. - Erasmus visits, 273-275 - - _Warham_, Erasmus visits, 184, 205. - Gives Erasmus a pension, 205. - Defends Erasmus against Fitzjames, 254 - - _Wars_, Colet's sermons against Henry VIII.'s, 261, 264, 468. - Erasmus against, 203, 280, 311. - More's 'Utopian' opinions on, 351 - - _Winchcombe_, Kidderminster, Abbot of, Colet's letter to, 45 - - _Wolsey_, begins continental wars, 223. - His rapid promotion, 229. - Archbishop of York, 306. - Installed Cardinal, 343. - Lord Chancellor, 346 - - - _Ximenes_, zeal for reform, and against dissent, 7 - - - _Zisca, John_, 486 - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Mr. Lupton's volume (_Bell and Daldy_, 1869) has a double interest. -Apart from the interest it derives from its connection with Colet, it is -also interesting as placing, I believe, for the first time, before the -English reader, a full abstract of two of the Pseudo-Dionysian writings, -to which attention has recently been called by Mr. Westcott's valuable -article in the _Contemporary Review_. - -[2] To avoid any charge of plagiarism I may also state, that a portion of -the materials comprised in this volume has been made use of in articles -contributed by me to the North British Review, in the years 1859 and 1860. - -[3] Where not otherwise stated, all references to these letters and to the -collected works of Erasmus (Eras. _Op._), refer to the Leyden edition. - -[4] See note on the date of More's birth in Appendix C. - -[5] Of the First Edition. This has since been published by Mr. Lupton. - -[6] In a letter written in the winter of 1499-1500, Colet is spoken of as -'_Jam triennium enarranti_,' &c. See _Erasmus to Colet_, prefixed to -_Disputatio de Tædio et Pavore Christi_, Eras. _Op._ v. p. 1264, A. Colet -was in Paris, apparently on his way home from his continental tour, soon -after the publication of the work of the French historian Gaguinus, _De -Orig. et Gest. Francorum_. (See Eras. Epist. xi.) The first edition, -according to Panzer and Brunet, of this work, was that of _Paris_. Prid. -Kal. Oct. 1495. Colet may thus have returned home in the spring of 1496, -and proceeded to Oxford after the long vacation. Erasmus states, 'Reversus -ex Italia, mox relictis parentum ædibus, Oxoniæ maluit agere. Illic -publice et gratis Paulinas Epistolas omnes enarravit.'--_Op._ iii. p. 456, -B. - -[7] He was ordained deacon December 17, 1497. Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. -22 (Lond. 1724), on the authority, doubtless, of Kennett, who refers to -_Reg. Savage, Lond._ - -[8] Erasmus Jodoco Jonæ: Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, C. 'In theologica -professione nullum omnino gradum nec assequutus erat, nec ambierat.' - -[9] 'The degree of Master in Arts conferred also, and this was practically -its chief value, the right of lecturing, and therefore of receiving money -for lectures, at Oxford.'--_Monumenta Academica_; Rev. II. Anstey's -_Introduction_, p. lxxxix. - -[10] One of the statutes decreed as follows:--'Item statutum est, quod non -liceat alicui præterquam Bachilaris Theologiæ, legere bibliam -biblice.'--_Ibid._ p. 394. That the word 'legere,' in these statutes, -means practically to 'lecture,' see Mr. Anstey's _Introduction_, p. -lxxxix. - -[11] It is possible also that Colet's mode of lecturing did not come -within the meaning of the technical phrase, 'legere bibliam _biblice_,' -which is said to have meant 'reading chapter by chapter, with the -accustomed glosses, and such explanations as the reader could -add.'--_Observations on the Statutes of the University of Cambridge_: by -George Peacock, D.D., Dean of Ely. Lond. 1841, p. xlvi. n. See also Mr. -Anstey's _Introduction_, p. lxxi, on the doubtful meaning of 'legere -_cursorie_.' - -[12] See the remarkable letter of Bishop Grosseteste to the 'Regents in -Theology' at Oxford--date 1240 or 1246--_Roberti Grosseteste Epistolæ_, -pp. 346-7, of which the following is Mr. Luard's summary:--'Skilful -builders are always careful that foundation stones should be really -capable of supporting the building. The best time is the morning. Their -lectures, therefore, especially in the morning, should be from the Old and -New Testaments, _in accordance with their ancient custom_ and the example -of Paris. Other lectures are more suitable at other times.'--P. cxxix. - -[13] It would not be likely that statutes, framed in some points specially -to guard against Lollard views, and probably early in the fifteenth -century, should ignore the Scriptures altogether. Thus, before inception -in theology, by Masters in Theology (see Mr. Anstey's _Introduction_, p. -xciv), three years' attendance on biblical lectures was required, and the -inceptor must have lectured on some canonical book of the Bible -(_Monumenta Academica_, p. 391), according to the statutes. They also -contained the following provision:--'Ne autem lecturæ variæ confundantur, -_et ut expeditius_ in lectura bibliæ procedatur, statutum est, ut bibliam -biblice seu cursorie legentes quæstiones non dicant nisi tantummodo -literales.'--_Ibid._ p. 392. The regular course of theological training at -Oxford may be further illustrated by the following passage from Tindale's -'Practice of Prelates.' Tindale, when a youth, was at Oxford during a -portion of the time that Colet was lecturing on St. Paul's Epistles. - -'In the universities they have ordained that no man shall look on the -Scripture until he be noselled in heathen learning eight or nine years, -and armed with false principles with which he is clean shut out of the -understanding of the Scripture.... And when he taketh his first degree, he -is sworn that he shall hold none opinion condemned by the Church.... And -then when they be admitted to study divinity, because the Scripture is -locked up with such false expositions and with false principles of natural -philosophy that they cannot enter in, they go about the outside and -dispute all their lives about words and vain opinions, pertaining as much -unto the healing of a man's heel as health of his soul. Provided yet ... -that none may preach except he be admitted of the Bishops.'--_Practice of -Prelates_, p. 291. Parker Society. - -What the biblical lectures were it is difficult to understand, for Erasmus -wrote (Eras. Epist. cxlviii.): 'Compertum est hactenus quosdam fuisse -theologos, qui adeo nunquam legerant divinas literas, ut nec ipsos -Sententiarum libros evolverent, neque quicquam omnino attingerent præter -quæstionum gryphos.'--P. 130, C. - -[14] Ellis's _Letters_, 2nd series, vol. ii. pp. 61, 62. Letter of Richard -Layton and his Associates to Lord Cromwell, upon his Visitation of the -University of Oxford, Sept. 12, 1535. - -[15] 'Provinciam sumsisti ... (ne quid mentiar) et negotii et invidiæ -plenam.'--Eras. Coleto: Eras. _Op._ v. p. 1264, A. - -[16] 'The Turks being in number five times more than we Christians.' And -again, 'Which multitude is not the fifth part so many as they that consent -to the law of Mahomet.'--_Works of Tyndale and Frith_, ii. pp. 55 and 74. - -[17] See British Museum Library, under the head 'Garcilaso,' No. 1445, _g_ -23, being the draft of private instructions from Ferdinand and Isabella to -the special English Ambassador, and headed, 'Year 1498. The King and Queen -concerning the correction of Alexander VI.' The original Spanish MS. was -in the hands of the late B. B. Wiffen, Esq., of Mount Pleasant, near -Woburn, and an English translation of this important document was -reprinted by him in the Life of Valdes, prefixed to a translation of his -_CX Considerations_. Lond. Quaritch, 1865, p. 24. - -[18] Chap. v. - -[19] Chap. vi. - -[20] Chap. vii. - -[21] Chap. viii. - -[22] Chap. ix. - -[23] Chap. x. - -[24] Chap. xix. - -[25] Chap. xx. - -[26] Chap. xxii. - -[27] Chap. xxiii. - -[28] Chaps. xxiv. and xxv. - -[29] Chaps. xxvi.-xxxiv. - -[30] Chap. xxxvi. - -[31] Chap. xxxvii. - -[32] _Villari_, in his 'Life and Times of Savonarola,' book i. chap. iv., -does not seem to me to give, by any means, a fair abstract of the '_De -Religione Christianâ_,' though his chapter on Ficino is valuable in other -respects. I have used the edition of Paris, 1510. - -[33] 'Chartism,' chap. x. 'Impossible.' - -[34] _Pauli Jovii Elogia Doctorum Virorum_: Basileæ, 1556, p. 145. The -period of the stay of Grocyn and Linacre in Italy was probably between -1485 and 1491. They therefore probably returned to England before the -notorious Alexander VI. succeeded, in 1492, to Innocent VIII. See -Johnson's _Life of Linacre_, pp. 103-150. And Wood's _Athen. Oxon._ vol. -i. p. 30. Also _Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon._ ii. 134. - -[35] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 455, F. - -[36] Erasmus Jodoco Jonæ: _Op._ iii. p. 455, F. Also Sir Henry Colet's -Epitaph, quoted in Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 7. - -[37] 'Et libros Ciceronis avidissime devorarat et Platonis Plotinique -libros non oscitanter excusserat.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, A. - -[38] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 455, F. 'Mater, quæ adhuc superest [in 1520], -insigni probitate mulier, marito suo undecim filios peperit, ac totidem -filias ..., sed ex omnibus ille [Colet] superfuit solus, cum illum nosse -coepissem' [in 1498]. - -[39] See list of Colet's preferments in the Appendix. - -[40] 'Adiit Galliam, mox Italiam.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, A. - -[41] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 459, A. - -[42] _Ibid._ p. 456, B. The words of Erasmus are the following:--'Ibi se -totum evolvendis sacris auctoribus dedit, sed prius per omnium literarum -genera magno studio peregrinatus, priscis illis potissimum delectabatur -Dionysio, Origene, Cypriano, Ambrosio, Hieronymo. Atque inter veteres -nulli erat iniquior quam Augustino. Neque tamen non legit Scotum, ac -Thomam aliosque hujus farinæ, si quando locus postulabat. In utriusque -juris libris erat non indiligenter versatus. Denique nullus erat liber -historiam aut constitutiones continens majorum, quem ille non evolverat. -Habet gens Britannica qui hoc præstiterunt apud suos, quod Dantes ac -Petrarcha apud Italos. Et horum evolvendis scriptis linguam expolivit, jam -tum se præparans ad præconium sermones Evangelici.' - -[43] Savonarola's first sermon in the Duomo at Florence was preached in -1491.--Villari, i. p. 122. - -[44] See Villari, i. 232. Anno 1494. - -[45] Lorenzo de' Medici died in 1492; Pico and Politian in 1494. Colet -left England early in 1494 probably, but as he visited France on his way -to Italy, the exact time of his reaching Italy cannot be determined. - -[46] The influence of Savonarola on the religious history of Pico was very -remarkable. - -In a sermon preached after Pico's death, Savonarola said of Pico, 'He was -wont to be conversant with me, and to break with me the secrets of his -heart, in which I perceived that he was by privy inspiration called of God -unto religion:' i.e. to become a monk. And he goes on to say that, for -_two years_, he had threatened him with Divine judgment 'if he -fore-sloathed that purpose which our Lord had put in his mind.'--More's -_English Works_, p. 9. - -Pico died in November, 1494. The intimacy of which Savonarola speaks dated -back therefore to 1492 or earlier. - -According to the statement of his nephew, J. F. Pico, the change in Pico's -life was the result of the disappointment and the troubles consequent upon -his 'vainglorious disputations' at Rome in 1486 (when Pico was -twenty-three). By this he was 'wakened,' so that he 'drew back his mind -flowing in riot, and turned it to Christ!' Pico waited a whole year in -Rome after giving his challenge, and the disappointment and troubles were -not of short duration. They may be said to have commenced perhaps after -the year of waiting, i.e. in 1487, when he left Rome. He was present at -the disputations at Reggio in 1487, and this does not look as though as -yet he had altogether lost his love of fame and distinction. There he met -Savonarola; and there that intimacy commenced which resulted in -Savonarola's return, _at the suggestion of Pico_, to Florence. (J. F. -Pico's _Vita Savonarolæ_, chap. vi.; Harford's _Life of Michael Angelo_, -i. p. 128; and Villari, i. pp. 82, 83.) In 1490, as the result of his -first studies of Holy Scripture, according to J. F. Pico (being -twenty-eight), he published his _Heptaplus_, which is full of his -cabalistic and mystic lore, and betokens a mind still entangled in -intellectual speculations rather than imbued with practical piety. He had, -however, already burnt his early love songs, &c.; and it is evident the -change had for some time been going on. - -About the time when Savonarola commenced preaching in Florence, in 1491 -(three years before his death, according to J. F. Pico), Pico disposed of -his patrimony and dominions to his nephew, and distributed a large part of -the produce amongst the poor, consulting Savonarola about its disposal (J. -F. Pico's _Life of Savonarola_, chap. xi. '_De mira Hieronymi lenitate et -amore paupertatis_'), and appointing as his almoner _Girolamo Benivieni_, -a devout and avowed believer in Savonarola's prophetic gifts. This was -doubtless the time when Pico was wont to break to Savonarola 'the secrets -of his heart;' the time also to which J. F. Pico alludes when he speaks of -him as 'talking of the love of Christ;' and adding, 'the substance I have -left, after certain books of mine finished, I intend to give out to poor -folk, and fencing myself with the crucifix, barefoot, walking about the -world, in every town and castle, I purpose to preach of Christ.'--Vide -infra, p. 153. In 1492, a few weeks after Lorenzo's death, he wrote three -beautiful letters to his nephew (Pici _Op._ pp. 231-236. Vide infra, pp. -153-156)--letters as glowing with earnest Christian piety as the -_Heptaplus_ was overflowing with cabalistic subtleties. His religion now, -at all events, had the true ring about it. It belonged to his heart, not -his head only. Then follow the remaining two years of his life when -Savonarola exerted his influence (but without success) to induce him to -enter a religious order. On Sept. 21, 1494, he was present at Savonarola's -famous sermon, in which he predicted the calamities which were coming upon -Italy and the approach of the French army, listening to which Pico himself -said that he 'was filled with horror, and that his hair stood on end' -(narrated by Savonarola in his _Compendium Revelationum_); and lastly in -November, as Charles entered Florence, Pico was peacefully dying. He was -buried in the robes of Savonarola's order and within the precincts of -Savonarola's church of St. Mark. In the light of Savonarola's sermon, and -the facts above stated, it can hardly be doubted that whilst, in one -sense, brought about by the disappointment of his worldly ambitions, the -change of life in Pico was at least, _in measure_, the result of his -contact with the great Florentine reformer. - -With regard to the history of Savonarola's influence on _Ficino's_ -religious character, the facts are not so easily traced. In early years he -is said to have been more of a Pagan than a Christian. Before writing his -_De Religione Christianâ_, he seems to have become fully persuaded of the -truth of Christianity. The book itself shows this. And there is a letter -of his (Ficini Op. i. p. 640, Basle ed.), written while he was composing -it, during an illness, in which he says that the words of Christ give him -more comfort than philosophy, and his vows paid to the Virgin more bodily -good than medicine. He also says that his father, a doctor, was once -warned in a dream, while sleeping under an oak tree, to go to a patient -who was praying to the Virgin for aid. - -But the religion of a man resting on dreams, and visions, and vows made to -the Virgin, was not necessarily of a very deep and practical character. -Superstition and philosophy were easily united without the heart taking -fire. Schelhorn (in his _Amoenitates Literariæ_, i. p. 73) quotes from -Wharton's appendix to Cave, the following statement, 'Rei philosophicæ -nimium deditus, religionis et pietatis curam posthabuisse dicitur, donec -Savonarolæ Florentiam advenientis eloquentiam admiratus, concionibus ejus -audiendis animum adjecit, dumque flosculis Rhetorices inhiavit, pietatis -igniculos recepit: reliquamque dein vitam religionis officiis impendit.' -Wharton does not give his authority. Fleury (vol. xxiv. p. 363) makes a -similar statement; also Brucker (_Historia critica Philosophiæ_, iv. p. -52); also Du Pin; also Harford in his _Life of Michael Angelo_ (i. p. 72) -on the authority of Spondanus, who himself gives no contemporary -authority. See also Mr. Lupton's _Introduction_ to Colet's _Celestial and -Ecclesiastical Hierarchies of Dionysius_, where the subject is discussed. -I am informed, through the kindness of Count P. Guicciardini, of Florence, -that in Ficino's _Apologia_, which exists in the MSS. _Stroziani_ of -_Libr. Magliabecchiana_, class viii. cod. 315, he says of himself that -'for five years he was one of the many who were deceived by the Hypocrite -of Ferrara,' whom he calls 'Antichrist.' The truth therefore seems to be -that he was profoundly influenced by Savonarola's enthusiasm, but only for -a time. - -[47] Ficino's editions of his translations of the Dionysian treatises on -the 'Divine Names' and the 'Mystic Theology' seem to have been published -at Florence in 1492 and 1496.--Fabricii _Bibliotheca Græca_, vii. pp. 10, -11. - -[48] Herzog's _Encyclopædia_, article on 'Marsilius Ficinus.' - -[49] Mr. Harford, in his _Life of Michael Angelo_, vol. i. p. 57, mentions -Colet, among others, as studying at Florence, and cites '_Tiraboschi_, vi. -pt. 2, p. 382, edit. Roma, 4to. 1784.' But I cannot find any mention of -Colet in Tiraboschi, after careful search. - -In opposition to the likelihood of his having been at Florence it may be -asked, why Colet never alludes to it in his letters or elsewhere? In -reply, it may be said that we have nothing of Colet's own writing relating -to his early life. All we know of it is derived from Erasmus, and the only -allusion by Colet to his Italian journey which Erasmus has preserved is -the passing remark that he (Colet) had there become acquainted with -certain _monks_ of true wisdom and piety.--Eras. _Op._ iii. 459, A. -'Narrans sese apud Italos comperisse quosdam monachos vere prudentes ac -pios.' Whether Savonarola's monks were amongst these is a matter of mere -speculation. - -[50] See marginal note on his 'Romans,' in the Cambridge University -Library, MS. Gg. 4, 26, leaf 3_a_, in which he refers to him--'_Hec -Mirandula_,' and cites a passage from Pico's _Apologia_, Basle edition of -_Pici Opera_, p. 117. There is also a long and almost literal extract from -Pico in the MS. on the 'Ecclesiastical Hierarchy,' in the St. Paul's -School Library. See Mr. Lupton's translation, p. 161. - -[51] See an extract from Ficino in Colet's MS. on 'Romans,' leaf 13_b_. -Another is pointed out by Mr. Lupton, p. 36, _n._ - -[52] 'Quem ego sermonem ab eo memini, qui colloquentes audiverat, jam tum -patri meo renunciatum, cum adhuc nulla proditionis ejus suspicio -haberetur.'--Thomæ Mori '_Latina Opera_,' Lovanii, 1566, fol. 46. As to -the authorship of the history of Richard III. see Mr. Gairdner's preface -to _Letters of Richard III. and Henry VII._ vol. ii. p. xxi. As More was -born in February, 1478, there is no difficulty in accepting the -authenticity of this incident, which, when 1480 was assumed as the date of -More's birth, seemed quite impossible, as More would only have been three -years old when it occurred, and could not have remembered the -conversation. - -[53] Roper, Singer's ed. p. 3. Morton was not made a cardinal till 1493. - -[54] Roper, p. 4. - -[55] Ibid. - -[56] Colet probably left Oxford for the Continent about 1494. The most -probable date of More's stay at Oxford was 1492 and 1493. This leaves 1494 -and 1495 for his studies at New Inn, previous to his entry at Lincoln's -Inn, in February, 1496. - -[57] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 477, A. Speaking of More, Erasmus writes: -'Joannes Coletus, vir acris exactique judicii, in familiaribus colloquiis -subinde dicere solet, Britanniæ non nisi unicum esse ingenium.' - -[58] Stapleton's _Tres Thomæ_, Colon. 1612 ed. chap. i. pp. 155-6. 'Hanc -ob causam sic ei necessaria subministravit ut ne quidem teruncium in sua -potestate eum habere permitteret, præter id quod ipsa necessitas -postulabat. Quod adeò strictè observavit, ut nec ad reficiendos attritos -calceos, nisi à patre peteret, pecuniam haberet.' See also Eras. _Op._ -iii. p. 475, A, respecting his father's motive. - -[59] Stapleton's _Tres Thomæ_, Colon. 1612, p. 156. - -[60] 'Juvenis ad Græcas literas ac philosophiæ studium sese applicuit adeo -non opitulante patre ... ut ea conantem omni subsidio destitueret ac pene -pro abdicato haberet, quod a patriis studiis desciscere videretur, nam is -Britannicarum legum peritiam profitetur.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 475, A. - -[61] 'Sic voluit pater qui eum ad Græcarum literarum et philosophiæ -studium omni subsidio destituit, ut ad istud (i.e. English Law) -induceret.'--Stapleton's _Tres Thomæ_, p. 168. - -[62] XII. February,--11 Henry VII. Foss's _Judges of England_, v. p. 207. - -[63] Vide supra, p. 1, _n._ - -[64] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, B. 'Nullus erat liber, _historiam_ aut -constitutiones continens majorum, quod non evolverat.' - -[65] Eras. Epist. App. ccccxxxvii. - -[66] Eras. Epist. xi. - -[67] 'Ut tribuatur lapsui memoriæ in evangelista gravatim audio. Qui si -spiritu sancto inspiratus scripsit, memoria falli non potuit, nisi et ille -etiam falli potuerit, quo ductore scripsit. Dicit mihi Ezechiel: Quocunque -ibat spiritus, illuc pariter et rotæ elevabantur sequentes -eum.'--_Annotationes Ed. Leei in annotationes Novi Testamenti Desiderii -Erasmi._ Basil. 1520, pp. 25, 26. Lee studied at Oxford during a portion -of the time of Colet's residence there. Knight states that he was sent to -St. Mary Magd. College (the college where Colet is supposed to have taken -his degree of M.A.) in 1499.--_Knight's Erasmus_, p. 286. - -[68] 'Quod dicis (non est nostrum definire, quomodo spiritus ille suum -temperârit organum) verum quidem est, sed spiritus ipse in Ezechiele -definivit: Rotæ non elevabantur nisi sequentes spiritum.'--_Annotationes -Edvardi Leei_, p. 26. - -[69] Aquinas, _Summa_, pt. 1, quest. i. article x. - -[70] Tyndale's _Obedience of a Christian Man_, chap. 'On the Four Senses -of the Scriptures.' - -[71] Preface to the Five Books of Moses. - -[72] Tyndale's _Obedience of a Christian Man_, chap. 'On the Four Senses -of Scripture.' That Tyndale was at Oxford during Colet's stay there (i.e. -before 1506), see the evidence given by his biographers. It appears that -he was born about 1484. Fox says '_he was brought up from a child in the -University of Oxford_,' and there is no reason to suppose that he removed -to Cambridge before 1509. See Tyndale's _Doctrinal Treatises_, xiv. xv. -and authorities there cited. - -[73] Sir Thomas More in a letter to the University of Oxford (Jortin's -_Erasmus_, ii. App. p. 664, 4to ed.) complains of a Scotist preacher -because '_neque integrum ullum Scripturæ caput tractavit, quæ res in usu -fuit veteribus_ [this was the old method revived by Colet]; neque dictum -aliquod brevius e Sacris literis, qui mos apud nuperos inolevit [the -scholastic method]; sed thematum loco delegit Britannica quædam anilia -proverbia.' [The practical result of the textarian method when pushed to -its ultimate results.] - -[74] Eras. Jodoco Jonæ: Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, C. 'Nullus erat illic -doctor vel theologiæ vel juris, nullus abbas, aut alioqui dignitate -præditus, quin illum audiret, etiam allatis codicibus.' - -[75] Eras. Coleto: Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 40, F. Epist. xli. - -[76] 'Tamen certe multum ac diu rogatus a quibusdam amicis, et eisdem -interpretantibus nobis Paulum fidis auditoribus, quibuscum pro amicicia -quod in superiorem epistolæ partem scriptum est a nobis communicavi, -adductus fui tandem ut promitterem, quod est ceptum modo me perrecturum, -et in reliquam epistolam quod reliquum est enarrationis -adhibiturum.'--Cambridge University Library MS. Gg. 4, 26, fol. 27_b_. - -[77] A copy of Colet's exposition of 'Romans,' with corrections apparently -in Colet's handwriting, is in the Cambridge University Library; MS. Gg. 4, -26. A fair copy, apparently by Peter Meghen, is in the Library of Corpus -Christi College Cambridge, MS. No. 355. - -Amongst the 'Gale MSS.' in Trinity Library, Cambridge, is a MS. (O. 4, 44) -said to be Colet's, containing short notes or abstracts of the Apostolic -Epistles. Through the kindness of Mr. Wright I had a copy taken of this -MS., but on close comparison of passages with the _Annotationes_ of -Erasmus, I was obliged to conclude that the writer had before him an -edition of the latter not earlier than that of 1522. This MS. cannot, -therefore, have been written by Colet. Possibly it may have been written -by Lupset, Colet's disciple. The copy in the Trinity Library is in a later -hand. - -[78] This appears to have been the character also of the Expositions of -Marsilio Ficino. See Fragment on 'Romans.'--Ficini _Opera_, ed. 1696, pp. -426-472. - -[79] The _names_ of Origen, Jerome, Chrysostom, and Augustine are -mentioned, but incidentally, and without any quotations of any length -being given from them. - -[80] '--est ex vehementia loquendi imperfecta et suspensa -sententia.'--MSS. Gg. 4, 26, fol. 23, _in loco_. Rom. ix. 22. - -[81] 'Ita Paulus mira prudentia et arte temperat orationem suam in hac -epistola, et eam quasi librat tam pari lance, et Judeos et Gentes simul, -etc.'--Ibid. fol. 26. - -[82] MSS. Gg. 4, 26, fols. 59_b_, 61_a_. - -[83] Ibid. fol. 60. 'Sed ille homo magno animo, fide, et amore Christi, -fuit paratus non solum ligari,' &c. - -[84] Ibid. fols. 42-45 (_in loco_, Rom. xiii.). In these pages Colet -compares with great care the information to be collected from passages in -the Epistle to the Romans and in the Acts of the Apostles with what is -recorded by Suetonius, and admires St. Paul's 'sapientissima admonitio -opportune sane adhibita.'--Ibid. fols. 42_b_ and 43_a_. Again, at fol. -44_a_, Colet says, 'Hæc autem refero ut magna Pauli consideratio et -prudentia animadvertatur; qui cum non ignoravit Claudium Cesarem tenuisse -rempublicam, qui fuit homo vario ingenio et improbis moribus, &c.'... - -[85] In his exposition of Romans (chap. iv.) he says:--'Sed caute -circumspicienda sunt omnia Pauli, antequam de ejus mente aliqua feratur -sentencia. Nunquam enim censuisset revocandum ad ecclesiam fornicatorem -illum, quem tradidit Sathanæ in prima Epistola ad Corinthios, si -peccatoribus post baptismum nullum penitendi locum reliquisset.'--Ibid. -fol. 6_b_. - -[86] It would be difficult in short quotations to give a correct -impression of the doctrinal standpoint assumed by Colet in his exposition -of the Epistle to the Romans. But it may be interesting to enquire, -whether any connection can be traced between his views and those of -Savonarola, on this point. - -Now _Villari_ states that a 'fundamental point' in Savonarola's doctrine -was his '_conception of love_, which he sometimes says is the _same as -grace_,' and that it was through this conception of love that Savonarola, -'to a certain extent,' explained the 'mystery of human liberty and Divine -omnipotence.'--Villari's _Savonarola and his Times_, bk. i. c. vii. p. -110. - -Whether there be any real connection between Savonarola's teaching and the -following passages from Colet's exposition, I leave the reader to judge. - -'Wherefore St. Paul concludes, men are justified by faith, and trusting in -God alone by Jesus Christ, are reconciled to God and restored into grace; -so that with God they stand, and remain themselves sons of God.... If He -loved us when alienated from Him, how much more will He love us when we -are reconciled; and preserve those whom He loves. Wherefore we ought to be -firm and stable in our hope and joy, and, nothing doubting, trust in God -through Jesus Christ, by whom alone men are reconciled to God.'--MS. fol. -5. After speaking of that _grace_ which where sin had abounded did much -more abound unto eternal life, Colet proceeds:--'But here it is to be -noted that this _grace_ is nothing else than the _love_ of God towards -men--towards those, i.e. whom He wills to love, and, in loving, to inspire -with His Holy Spirit; which itself is love and the love of God; which (as -the Saviour said, according to St. John's Gospel) _blows where it lists_. -But, loved and inspired by God, they are also _called_; so that accepting -this love, they may love in return their loving God, and long for and wait -for the same love. This waiting and hope springs from _love_. _This love -truly is ours because He loves us_: not (as St. John writes in his 2nd -Epistle) as though we had first loved God, but because He first loved us, -even when we were worthy of no love at all; but indeed impious and wicked, -destined by right to eternal death. But some, i.e. those whom He knew and -chose, He also loved, and in loving called them, and in calling them -justified them, and in justifying them glorified them. This gracious love -and charity in God towards men is _in itself_ the calling and -justification and glorification.... And when we speak of men as drawn, -called, justified, and glorified by _grace_, we mean nothing else than -that men _love in return God who loves them_.'--MS. Gg. 4, 26, fol. 6. - -Again: 'Thus you see that things are brought about by a providing and -directing God, and that they happen as He wills in the affairs of men, not -from any force from without (_illata_)--since nothing is more remote from -force than the Divine action--but by the natural desire and will of man, -the Divine will and providence secretly and silently, and, as it were, -naturally accompanying (_comitante_) it, and going along with it so -wonderfully, that whatever you do and choose was known by God, and what -God knew and decreed to be, of necessity comes to pass.'--MS. fol. 18. - -The following passage is from Colet's exposition of the Epistle to the -Corinthians (MS. 4, 26, p. 80). 'The mind of man consists of _intellect_ -and _will_. By the _intellect_ we know: by the _will_ we have power to act -(_possumus_). From the knowledge of the intellect comes faith: from the -power of the will charity. But Christ, the power of God, is also the -wisdom of God. Our minds are illuminated to faith by Christ, "_who -illumines every man coming into this world_, and He gives power to become -the sons of God to those who believe in His name." By Christ also our -wills are kindled in charity to love God and our neighbour; in which is -the fulfilment of the law. From God alone therefore, through Christ, we -have both knowledge and power; for by Him we are in Christ. Men, however, -have in themselves a blind intellect, and a depraved will, and walk in -darkness, not knowing what they do.... Those who by the warm rays of his -divinity are so drawn that they keep close in communion with Him, are -indeed they whom Paul speaks of as called and elected to His glory,' &c. - -For the Latin of these extracts see Appendix (A). - -In further proof that Colet's views (like Savonarola's) were not -Augustinian upon the question of the 'freedom of the will,' may be cited -the following words of Colet (see _infra_, chap, iv.): 'But in especial is -it necessary for thee to know that God of his great grace hath made thee -his image, having regard to thy memory, understanding, and _free-will_.' -Probably both Colet and Savonarola, in common with other mystic -theologians, had imbibed their views directly or indirectly from the works -of the Pseudo-Dionysius and the Neo-Platonists. - -[87] 'Ex quodam nostro studio et pietate in homines ... non tam verentes -legentium fastidium, quam cupientes confirmacionem infirmorum et -vacillantium.'--Fol. 22_b_. - -[88] MS. Gg. 4, 26, fols. 13_b_ to 15_a_. - -[89] Ibid. fol. 3_b_. - -[90] Ibid. fols. 28_b_ and 29. - -[91] Ibid. fol. 29. - -[92] MS. Gg. 4, 26, fol. 30_b_. - -[93] Ibid. fol. 59_b_. 'Elicienda est dulci doctrina prompta voluntas non -acerba exaccione extorquenda pecunia nomine decimarum et oblacionum.' - -[94] Ibid. fol. 60_a_. - -[95] See particularly fol. 27 and 61_b_. - -[96] MS. Gg. 4, 26, fol. 3_a_. - -[97] Ibid. fol. 7_b_. - -[98] Ibid. fol. 15_b_. _Ioannes Baptista Mantuanus_, general of the -Carmelites, an admirer of Pico.--See Pici _Opera_, p. 262. - -[99] 'Ibi se totum evolvendis sacris auctoribus dedit.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. -p. 456 B. - -[100] '... conatique sumus quoad potuimus divina gratia adjuti veros -illius sensus exprimere. Quod quam fecimus haud scimus sane, voluntatem -tamen habuimus maximam faciendi.'--_ffinis argumenti in Epistolam Pauli ad -Romanos._ Oxonie. - -[101] Cambridge University Library, MSS. Gg. 4, 26, p. 62, _et seq._, and -printed in Knight's _Life of Colet_, App. p. 311. - -[102] In the volume of manuscripts marked 355. - -[103] 'In quibus mihi videtur tanta caligo ut totus ille sermo contentus -in ipsis tribus capitulis appareat esse ille abyssus super cujus faciem -dicit Moises tenebras fuisse.' - -[104] 'Non me latet plures esse sensus, sed unum persequar cursim.' - -[105] '... universa simul creasse sua eternitate.' - -[106] 'In principio (i.e. eternitate) creavit Deus coelum (formam) et -terram (materiam).' - -[107] '... inanis et vacua.' - -[108] 'Terra (materia) erat inanis et vacua (hoc est sine solida et -substantiali entitate) et tenebræ, &c. (i.e. tenebrosa fuit materia, -&c.).' - -[109] 'Vide quam bellè pergit ordine, significans summariam creacionem -copulationemque formæ cum materia.' - -[110] '... forma et terminacio rerum.' - -[111] 'Quæ sequuntur in Moyse est repetitio et latior explicacio -superiorum, ac _speciatim_ distinctio earum rerum quas primum _generatim_ -complexus est. Tu aliud si sentis fac nos te queso participes. Vale.' - -[112] ... 'Particulatim res aggreditur, et mundi digestionem ante oculos -ponit, quod sic facit _meo judicio_, ut sensus vulgi et rudis multitudinis -quam docuit racionem habuisse videatur.' - -[113] See quotation from Chrysostom to a similar effect: _Summa_, prima -pars, lxvii. art. iv. conclusio. After speaking of the views of Augustine -and Basil, Aquinas says:-- - -'Chrysostomus (Homil. 2 in Gen. circa medium illius tom. i.) autem -assignat aliam rationem quia Moyses loquebatur rudi populo qui nihil nisi -corporalia poterat capere, quem etiam ab idololatria revocare volebat,' -&c. - -[114] '... Et hoc more poetæ alicujus popularis, quo magis consulat -spiritui simplicis rusticitatis, fingens successionem rerum operum et -temporum cujusmodi apud tantum Opificem certè nulla esse potest.' - -[115] 'Crassiter et pingue docenda fuit stulta illa et macra multitudo.' - -[116] '(1) Moysen digna Deo loqui voluisse. (2) In rebus vulgo cognitis -vulgo satisfacere. (3) Ordinem rerum servare. In primis populum ad -religionem et cultum unius Dei traducere.' - -[117] 'Partim quia sex numero facile in rebus homini in mentem venire -possunt.' - -[118] 'Maxime ... ut imitacio divina (quem, more poetæ, finxit sex dies -operatum esse, septimo quievisse) populum septimo quoque die ad quietem et -contemplacionem Dei et cultum adduceret.' - -[119] 'Nunquam dierum numerum statuisset, nisi ut illo utilissimo et -sapientissimo figmento, quasi quodam proposito exemplari populum ad -imitandum provocaret, ut sexto quoque die diurnis actibus fine imposito, -septimo in summa Dei contemplatione persisterent.' - -[120] 'Salve Radulphe, ac cum salute puto te rediisse quod tibi opto. -Quatuor ut arbitror dies transiisti: ego interea vix unum Moysaicum diem -transii. Immo tu elaborâsti in die sub sole; ego hoc tempore in nocte et -tenebris vagatus sum, nec vidi quo eundum esset: nec quo perveni -intelligo. Sed incepto pergendum erat, ac tandem inveni exitum ut poteram. -In quo difficili errore, videor mihi apud Moysen magnum errorem -deprehendisse. Nam quum cujusque diei opus concluserat hiis verbis, _Et -factum est vespere et mane dies unus, secundus, tercius_, non addidisset -dies sed _nox_ pocius _una_, _secunda_, et _tercia_, propterea quod -inchoante vespere deinde mane sequente, est necesse quod intercedat inter -antecedens vesper et subsequens mane nox sit. Dies enim incipit mane, -vesperi terminatur. Sed maxime profecto quæ Moyses scribens in dies -distinxerat, noctes appellâsset magis, propterea quod offuse sint tantis -tenebris ut nihil possit nocti videri similius quam dies Moysaicus. Quas -nocturnas tenebras cum opinione aliqua lucis conati sumus discutere, -fortasse nos quoque tenebrosi tenebras auximus, noctesque produximus. -Attamen prestat nos recte facere voluisse, ac quicquid est quod egimus, si -tibi obscurum videatur infunde tum aliquid luminis tui, ut et nos videas, -utque nos eciam simul tecum Moysen videre possimus.' - -[121] 'More boni piique poetæ.' - -[122] 'Homunculorum cordi consuleret.' - -[123] ... 'A sua sublimitate degenerent.' - -[124] 'Honestissimo et piissimo figmento simul inescare et trahere eos ut -Deo inserviant.' - -[125] For the above abstracts of these interesting letters I am mainly -indebted to the kind assistance of my friend Henry Bradshaw, Esq., of -King's College, Cambridge, who has also furnished me with the following -description of the manuscript. - - _Letters to Radulphus._ - - 1. Beginning (p. 195): 'Miror sane te optime Radulphe quum voluisti - ...;' ending (p. 199): '... fac nos te queso participes. Vale.' - - 2. Beginning (p. 199): 'Parumper de reliquis diebus uti petis in calce - Epistole. Facta mentione de materia et forma ...;' ending (p. 207); - '... scribendi paululum levaverim. Vale.' - - 3. Beginning (p. 207): 'Tercium nunc deinceps diem aggrediamur, - memores semper ...;' ending (p. 222): '... leviter nos in hiis rebus - lucubrasse. Vale.' - - 4. Beginning (p. 222): 'Salve Radulphe, ac cum salute puto te rediisse - quod tibi opto ...' breaking off at the end of the quire (p. 226): - '... id licere facere docet Macrobius in Comen[tario edito]....' - -These letters follow Colet's Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, in -the volume marked 355, in Corpus Christi College Library. - -The _Exposition_ is written in the handwriting of Colet's scribe, Peter -Meghen, the 'monoculus Brabantinus,' and there are corrections and -alterations throughout, evidently by Colet himself. - -The _letters to Radulphus_ are merely _bound with_ the other. Only two -quires are now remaining: the handwriting is not the same, but similar. - -[126] The following appears to be the passage Colet was about to quote: -'Aut sacrarum rerum notio, sub _figmentorum_ velamine, _honestis_ et tecta -rebus et vestita nominibus enuntiatur; et hoc est solum figmenti genus, -quod cautio de divinis rebus admittit.'--_In Somnium Scipionis_, lib. i. -c. 2. The 'aut' with which the sentence begins refers to its being an -alternative of two kinds of mythical writing, about which Macrobius has -been speaking. I am indebted to Mr. Lupton for this reference. - -[127] The following passage from Mr. Lupton's translation of Colet's -abstract of Dionysius's _De celesti Hierarchiâ_ (pp. 12, 13) will show -that he may have derived some of his thoughts from that source. 'Thus led -he forth those uninstructed Hebrews, like boys, to school; in order that -like children, playing with dolls and toys, they might represent in shadow -what they were one day to do in reality as men: herein imitating little -girls, who in early age play with dolls, the images of sons, being -destined afterwards in riper years to bring forth real sons: ... "When I -was a child," says St. Paul, "I understood as a child; but when I became a -man, I put away childish things." From childishness and images and -imitations Christ has drawn us, who has shone upon our darkness, and has -taught us the truth, and has made us that believe to be men, in order that -we, "with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, may be -changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of -the Lord."'... - -'In these foreshadowings and signs, metaphors are borrowed from all -quarters by Moses--a theologian and observer of nature of the deepest -insight--inasmuch as there are not words proper to express the Divine -attributes. For nothing is fitted to denote God Himself, who is not only -unutterable but even inconceivable. Wherefore he is most truly expressed -by negations; since you may state what He is not, but not what He is; for -whatever positive statement you make concerning Him, you err, seeing that -He is none of those things which you can say. Still because a hidden -principle of the Deity resides in all things, on account of that faint -resemblance, the sacred writers have endeavoured to indicate Him by the -names of all objects, not only of the better but of the worse kind, lest -the duller sort of people, attracted by the beauty of the fairer objects, -should think God to be that very thing which He is called.' - -The above is _Colet's amplification_ of the passage in Dionysius (chap. -ii.). The latter part of it is a pretty close rendering of the original. - -[128] 'Heptaplus Johannis Pici Mirandulæ de Septiformi sex dierum Geneseos -Enarratione.' - -[129] The first edition is without date, but the publisher's letter at the -commencement, to Lorenzo de' Medici, shows that it was published during -the lifetime of the latter, i.e. before 1492--probably in 1490. - -[130] The letter preceding the abstract of the 'Celestial Hierarchy,' in -the Cambridge MS. Gg. 4, 26, is evidently a copy by the same hand as the -letter to the Abbot of Winchcombe. Possibly the Abbot may be the person to -whom it was addressed. - -[131] These treatises were:--1. 'De Compositione Sancti Corporis Christi -mistici.'--Camb. MS. Gg. 4, 26. - -2. 'On the Sacraments of the Church,' printed with a very valuable -introduction and notes, by the Rev. J. H. Lupton, M.A., from the MS. in -the St. Paul's School Library. (Bell and Daldy, 1867.) - -3. A short essay in the Camb. MS. Gg. 4, 26, commencing 'Deus immensum -bonum,' &c. - -Mr. Lupton is publishing Colet's abstracts of the 'Celestial' and -'Ecclesiastical' Hierarchy of Dionysius, from the MSS. at St. Paul's -School; and it will be seen how much use I have made in this chapter of -his admirable translation. I have expressed in the preface to this edition -the obligations I am under to Mr. Lupton for bringing to light these -interesting MSS., and thus materially assisting in restoring some lost -links in the history of Colet's inner life and opinions. - -[132] Balthasar Corderius, in his prefatory observations to his edition of -the works of St. Dionysius (Paris 1644), speaks of Dionysius as being the -originator of the Scholastic Theology, and proves it by giving four folio -pages of references to passages in the 'Summa' of Aquinas, where the -authority of Dionysius is quoted. - -[133] Mr. Lupton's translation, pp. 135, 136. - -[134] 'God, who is one, beautiful and good--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: -the Trinity which created all things--is at once the purification of -things to unity, their illumination to what is beautiful, and their -perfection to what is good.'--Mr. Lupton's translation, pp. 15, 24. - -[135] 'God created all things because He is good (p. 16); and because He -is good, He also recalls to himself all things according to their -capacity, that He may bountifully communicate himself to them.' - -[136] All after this is Colet's own addition to what is said in Dionysius. - -[137] Mr. Lupton's translation of Colet's Abstract of the _Eccl. Hier._ p. -92. In a short essay contained in the MSS. Gg. 4, 26, of the Cambridge -University Library, entitled 'De compositione sancti corporis Christi -mistici, quæ est ecclesia, quæ sine anima ejus, Spiritu scilicet, -dispergitur et dissipatur.' Colet, after showing how men, if left to -themselves, would wander apart and become scattered; and that the purpose -of God is, that they should be united in one body the church by the -Spirit, as by a magnet, goes on to say, 'Predestinatum fuit hominem qui -decidit a Deo retrahi ad Deum non posse quidem nisi per Deum factum -hominem.... Mortuus est ut liberos faceret homines ad talem vitam, ut -debita cujusque hominum in illius morte soluta, nunc desinentes peccare -deinceps liberi sint justiciæ, ut non amplius maneamus in peccato,' -&c.--Ff. 70_b_, 71_a_. - -[138] Wilberforce, in his _Doctrine of the Incarnation_, third edition, -1850, thus expressed the modern sacerdotal theory. In the word _Priest_, -in primitive languages, 'the notion of the setting apart those who should -act _on man's behalf towards God_ is everywhere visible.'--P. 229. - -'Now if Christ is still maintaining a real intercession (if He still -pleads that sacrifice) then is there ample place for that sacerdotal -system, by which some actual _thing_ is still to be effected, and in which -some agents must still be employed.'--P. 381. 'We put the Priestly office -under the law in a line with the ministerial office under the Gospel; we -assert, that if the title of Priest could be given fitly to the first, it -belongs also to the second.'--P. 383. 'Any persons who discharge an office -which has reference to God, and who present to Him what is offered by men, -may be called Priests.'--P. 384. - -[139] See the same views expressed by Colet in his exposition of -'Corinthians.'--Emmanuel Col. MS. 3, 3, 12, leaf g, 2. - -[140] Colet's Abstract of the _Ecc. Hier._ ch. ii. s. 2. Mr. Lupton's -translation, pp. 61, 62. Colet writes a little further on:--'The office of -the bishop is, like Christ, to preach constantly and diligently the truth -he has received. For he is, as it were, a messenger midway between God and -men, to announce to men heavenly things, as Christ did.'--Pp. 63, 64. - -[141] 'Through this bread and this cup, that which is offered as a true -sacrifice in heaven is present as a real though immaterial agent in the -church's ministrations. So that what is done by Christ's ministers below -is a constituent part of that general work which the one great High Priest -performs in heaven: through the intervention of his heavenly Head, the -earthly sacrificer truly exhibits to the Father that body of Christ which -is the one only sacrifice for sins; each visible act has its efficacy -through those invisible acts of which it is the earthly expression, and -things done on earth are one with those done in heaven.'--Wilberforce's -_Doctrine of the Incarnation_, pp. 372, 373. - -[142] Colet's abstract of the _Eccl. Hier._ ch. iii. Mr. Lupton's -translation, pp. 78-94. Whilst not disapproving in _others_ daily -attendance 'ad mensam Dominicam,' Erasmus tells us that Colet did not make -a _daily_ habit of it _himself_.--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 459, E. - -[143] _Eccl. Hier._ ch. ii. Colet speaks in his abstract (Mr. Lupton's -translation, p. 65) of the Christian being 'brought to the captain of the -army, the bishop,' that by the soldier's oath, &c. '_he may own himself a -soldier of Christ_.' He concludes this section as follows:-- - -'Such was the custom and ceremony of baptism and the washing of -regeneration in the primitive church, instituted by the holy apostles, -_whereby the more excellent baptism of the inner man is signified_. And -this form differs very greatly from the one we make use of in this age. -And herein I own that I marvel!... The apostles being fully taught by -Jesus Christ, knew well what are convenient symbols and appropriate signs -for the mysteries. So that one may suspect either rashness or neglect on -the part of their successors in what has been added to or taken from their -ordinances.' - -Then follows a section on the 'spiritual contemplation of baptism,' in -which occurs the passage beginning 'Gracious God!' &c.--_Infra_, p. 73. -_Eccl. Hier._ ch. ii. s. 3, pp. 76, 77 of Mr. Lupton's translation. - -[144] 'Meanwhile the foster father who has undertaken the rearing of the -child in Christ, gives a pledge and sacred promise, on behalf of the -infant, of all things that true Christianity demands, viz. a renouncing of -all sin, &c.... And this he says, _not in the child's stead_, since it -would be a fond thing for another to speak in place of one that was in -ignorance; but when, in his own person, he speaks of renouncing, he -professes that _he will bring it to pass, so far as he can_, that the -little infant, as soon as ever it is capable of instruction, shall in -reality and in his life utterly renounce, &c.... - -'When the bishop, I say, hears him saying, "I renounce," _which means, as -Dionysius explains it_, "_I will take care that the infant_ renounce," -&c.... Thus we see how in the primitive church, by the ordinance of the -apostles, infants were not admitted unreservedly to the sacred rights, but -on condition only that some one would be surety for them, that when they -came to years of discretion they should thenceforward set before them in -reality the pattern of Christ. - -'Mark thus how great a burden he takes upon himself who promises to be a -godfather,' &c.--Mr. Lupton's translation of Colet's abstract of the -_Eccl. Hier._ ch. viii. pp. 158, 159. - -[145] 'Men execute the previous decisions of God, and by the ministry of -men that is at length disclosed on earth,' &c.--Mr. Lupton's translation, -p. 149. 'It must be heedfully marked, lest bishops should be presumptuous, -that it is not the part of men to loose the bonds of sins: nor does the -power pertain to them of loosing or binding anything.'... 'And if they do -not proceed according to revelation, moved by the Spirit of God ... they -abuse the power given to them, both to the blaspheming of God and the -destruction of the Church.'--_Ibid._ 150. - -[146] See Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 459, C and D. - -[147] Mr. Lupton's translation of Colet's abstract of the _Eccl. Hier._ p. -83. This was a strictly Dionysian thought and one shared also by Pico. -'The little affection of an old man or an old woman to Godward (were it -never so small), he set more by than all his own knowledge as well of -natural things as godly.'... He writeth thiswise [to Politian], 'Love God -(while we be in this body), we rather may than either know Him, or by -speech utter Him.'--Life of Picus, E. of Mirandula, _Sir Thomas More's -Works_, p. 7. - -To the same purport is the passage from Ficino, quoted by Colet in his MS. -on the 'Romans.'--Vide supra, p. 37. - -[148] Mr. Lupton's translation, pp. 76, 77. - -[149] Ibid. p. 73. - -[150] Mr. Lupton's translation, pp. 150, 151. - -[151] Mr. Lupton's translation, pp. 90, 91. See also pp. 123-126, where -Colet inveighs warmly against the nomination by secular princes of worldly -bishops. - -[152] Camb. University Library, MS. Gg. 4, 26. There is a beautiful copy -embodying these corrections in the hand of Peter Meghen, in the Library of -Emmanuel College, Cambridge, MS. 3, 3, 12. - -[153] Emmanuel Col. MS. leaf e, 5: 'Homo unus omnium divinissimus et -consideratissimus.' See also leaf k, 6. - -[154] Leaf a, 5. 'Quod tamen facit ubique modestissime homo piissimus.' - -[155] 'Velit ergo prudentissimus Paulus.'--Leaf k, 3. - -[156] Leaf k, 6, and p. 8. - -[157] In another place Colet writes, 'Fuit illa græca natio illis argutiis -versatilibus humani ingenii semper prompta ad arguendum et -redarguendum.'--Leaf c, 2. - -[158] Emmanuel Col. MS. 3, 3, 12, leaf a, 4, and Appendix (B, a). - -[159] Abridged quotation. Leaf a, 5, and Appendix (B, a). - -[160] Emmanuel Col. MS. leaf a, 5, 6, and Appendix (B, a). - -[161] Leaf b, 4, and Appendix (B, b). See a very similar remark with -reference to St. Paul and Dionysius in _Joan. Fran. Pici Mirand. De Studio -Div. et Hum. Philosophiæ_ lib. i. ch. iii. J. F. Pico was living when -Colet was in Italy. - -[162] Appendix (B, c). - -[163] Appendix (B, d). Emmanuel Coll. MS. leaf b, 6, and b, 8. - -[164] 'In these matters regard must be had to condition and strength.... -It was thus that Moses taught the truth and justice of God, as it was -brought down to the level of sensible things, and diluted for the ancient -Hebrews. It was thus that Christ taught to the disciples what they were -able to bear. It was thus, lastly, that Paul, both gently and sparingly -gave to the Corinthians, as it were, milk instead of meat.... He spoke -wisdom to the perfect, to the imperfect he accommodated as it were -foolish, more humble and more homely things. With this design, also, he -tolerated indulgently less perfect and less absolute morals for a time, -dealing gently with them as far as was lawful, not thinking how much was -lawful to himself, but what was expedient to others; not how much he -himself could bear, but what was adapted to the Corinthians.'...--Leaf c, -7. See also leaf e, 6. - -[165] 1 See Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 1263, and Ibid. p. 184, E. '1499 was the -date of the 1st edition, which is comprised in eight pages, and forms the -last treatise in a volume of ancient writers on astronomy, edited by -Aldus. It is intituled, "Procli Diadochi Sphæra, Astronomiam discere -Incipientibus Vtilissima, Thomâ Linacro Britanno Interprete."'--Johnson's -_Life of Linacre_, p. 152. - -[166] In a letter from Politian to Franciscus Casa, there is a description -of an 'orrery' made at Florence. The letter was written 1484.--_Illustrium -Virorum Epistolæ ab Angelo Politiano_, n. 1523, fol. lxxxiii. - -[167] Luther's _Table Talk_, 'Of Astronomy and Astrology.' - -[168] So also in Pico's _Heptaplus_ the same kind of speculation is much -indulged in. - -[169] Emmanuel Col. MS. 3, 3, 12, leaves d, 3 to d, 5, and Appendix (B, -e). See also leaf n, 2. - -[170] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 459, A. - -[171] Leaf g, 4. - -[172] Emmanuel Col. MS. Leaf i, 1 to leaf i, 3. - -[173] Leaf k, 7 and 8. - -[174] Leaves g, 5 to g, 7. - -[175] Emmanuel MS. Leaf f, 6, and Appendix (B, f). - -[176] 'Plurimum tribuebat Epistolis Apostolicis, sed ita suspiciebat -admirabilem illam Christi majestatem ut ad hanc quodammodo sordescerent -Apostolorum scripta.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 459, F. See also this view -supported by Erasmus in his _Ratio Veræ Theologiæ_. 'Nec fortassis -absurdum fuerit, in sacris quoque voluminibus ordinem auctoritatis aliquem -constituere,' &c.--Eras. _Op._ v. p. 92, C; and _Ibid._ p. 132, C. - -[177] Eras. _Op._ vi. p. 503, F; _Annotationes in loco_, Acts xvii. v. 34. -The edition of 1516 does not mention the anecdote at all. Those of 1519 -and 1522 mention it as having occurred 'ante complures annos.' Also see -'Declamatio adversus Censuram Facultatis Theol. Parisien.' Eras. _Op._ ix. -p. 917 and Epist. mccv. The former was written in 1530 or 1531, and in it -he says:--'Is ante annos triginta, Londini in æde Divi Pauli,' &c.: which -gives the date of Grocyn's lectures as some time before 1500 or 1501. The -publication of the Paris edition of Dionysius, in 1498, may have called -forth these lectures. - -[178] Jewell, however, mentions John Colet as believing that the -Areopagite was not the author of these ancient writings.--_Of Private -Masse_, ed. 1611, p. 8. - -[179] Vide supra, p. 82. - -[180] 'Apostoli sermo ... (qui in hoc loco _artificiosissimus_ -est)....'--MS. on _1 Corinthians_, Emmanuel Coll. leaf a, 6. - -[181] The date of Erasmus's coming to England may be approximately fixed -as follows. Epist. xxix. dated 12th April, and evidently written in 1500, -after his visit to England, mentions a fever which nearly killed Erasmus -_two years before_. Comparing this with what is said in the 'Life' -prefixed to vol i. of Eras. _Op._, Epist. vi. vii. and viii., dated 3 -Feb., 4 Feb., and 12 Feb., seem to belong to Feb. 1498. Epist. vi. ix. and -v. seem to place his studies with Mountjoy, at Paris, in the spring of -that year. Epist. xxii. seems to mention the projected visit to England. -Epist. xiv. 'Londini tumultuarie,' 5 Dec., is evidently written after he -had been to Oxford and seen Colet, Grocyn, and Linacre, and yet, -comparatively soon after his arrival in England. It alludes to his coming -to England, but gives no hint that he is going to leave England. In the -winter of 1499-1500 he was at Oxford, intending to leave, but delayed by -political reasons. He really did leave England 27 Jan. 1500. Whilst, -therefore, it is just possible that Epist. xiv. may have been written in -Dec. 1499, it is more probable that it was written in Dec. 1498, and that -the first experience of Erasmus at Oxford had been during the previous -summer and autumn. This seems to comport best both with Epist. vi. ix. v. -and xxii., and also with the circumstances connected with his stay in -England, mentioned in this chapter. See also the next note. The years -attached to the early letters of Erasmus are not in the least to be relied -on. - -[182] Coletus Erasmo: Eras. Epist. xi. - -[183] 'Hic (at Oxford) hominem nosse coepi, nam eodem tum me Deus nescio -quis adegerat; natus tum erat annos ferme triginta, me minor duobus aut -tribus mensibus.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, B. Erasmus, according to his -monument at Rotterdam (Eras. _Op._ i. (7)) was born 28 Oct. 1467. Colet -would be born, say, Jan. 1467-8, if three months younger, and would be -'annos ferme triginta, in the spring of 1498.' According to Colet's -monument he would be 31 at that date, as he died 16 Sept. 1519, and the -inscription states 'vixit annos 53.'--Knight's _Colet_, p. 261. - -[184] Epist. xii. Sixtinus Erasmo. - -[185] Else how could Erasmus describe Colet's style of speaking so clearly -in his first letter to him?--Epist. xli. - -[186] 'Virum optimum et bonitate præditum singulari.'--Eras. Epist. xi. - -[187] Coletus Erasmo: Epist. xi. - -[188] Eras. Epist. xli. _Op._ iii. p. 40, D. - -[189] 'Dicebat Coletus, Caym ea primum culpa Deum offendisse, quod tanquam -conditoris benignitate diffisus, suæque nimium confisus industriæ, terram -primus prosciderit, quum Abel, sponte nascentibus contentus, oves -paverit.'--Eras. Epist. xliv. _Op._ iii. p. 42, F. Compare MS. G. g. 4, -26, fols. 4-6 and 29, 30, and Erasmus's Paraphrases, _in loco_, Hebrews -xi. 4. - -[190] 'At ille unus vincebat omnes; visus est sacro quodam furore -debacchari, ac nescio quid homine sublimius augustiusque præferre. Aliud -sonabat vox, aliud tuebantur oculi, alius vultus, alius adspectus, -majorque videri, afflatus est numine quando.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. 42, F. - -[191] Eras. Epist. xliv. - -[192] Erasmus Sixtino, Epist. xliv. _Op._ iii. p. 42, C. - -[193] See his colloquy, _Ichthyophagia_, in which he describes his college -experience at Paris, especially his physical hardships. The latter are -probably caricatured, and perhaps too much magnified for the description -to be taken literally. - -[194] Erasmus to Lord Mountjoy: Epist. xlii. Oxoniæ, 1498. - -[195] 'Beatus Rhenanus Cæsari Carolo.'--Eras. _Op._ i. leaf * * * 1. - -[196] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 458, D and E. - -[197] Eras. _Op._ iii. pt. 1, p. 459, F. - -[198] 'Siquidem magnum erat, Coletum, in ea fortuna, constanter sequutum -esse, non quo vocabat natura, sed quo Christus,' &c.--_Ibid._ p. 461, E. - -[199] See the following extract from the colloquy of Erasmus, '_Pietas -puerilis_,' edition Argent. 1522, leaf e, 4, and Basileæ, 1526, p. 92, and -Eras. _Op._ i. p. 653. - -'_Erasmus._ Many abstain from divinity because they are afraid lest they -should waver in the catholic faith, when they see there is nothing which -is not called in question. - -'_Gaspar._ I believe firmly what I read in the Holy Scriptures, and the -creed called the Apostles', and I don't trouble my head any further. I -leave the rest to be disputed and defined by the clergy, if they please. - -'_Erasmus._ What _Thales_ taught you that philosophy? - -'_Gaspar._ I was for some time in domestic service' [as More was in the -house of Cardinal Morton before he was sent to Oxford], 'with that -honestest of men, _John Colet_. _He imbued me with these precepts._' See -Argent. 1522, leaf c, 4. - -[200] 'Illic in collegio Montis Acuti ex putribus ovis et cubiculo infecto -concepit morbum, h.e. malam corporis, antea purissimi, affectionem.'-- -_Vita_, prefixed to Eras. _Op._ i. written by himself. See the letter to -Conrad Goclenius. - -[201] 'A studio theologiæ abhorrebat, quod sentiret animum non propensum, -ut omnia illorum fundamenta subverteret; deinde futurum, ut hæretici nomen -inureretur.'--_Vita_, prefixed to Eras. _Op._ i. - -[202] See for this anecdote, Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 458, E and F. - -[203] 'Tanquam afflatus spiritu quodam, "Quid tu, inquit, mihi prædicas -istum, qui nisi habuisset multum arrogantiæ, non tanta temeritate tantoque -supercilio definisset omnia; et nisi habuisset aliquid spiritus mundani, -non ita totam Christi doctrinam sua profana philosophia -contaminasset."'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 458, F. - -[204] _Summa_, i. quest. 52, 53. - -[205] 'Omnino decessit aliquid meæ de illo existimationi.'--Eras. _Op._ -iii. pt. 1, 458, F. - -[206] See _The Praise of Folly_, Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 462, where the -dogmatic science of the age is as severely satirised by Erasmus as the -dogmatic theology of the Schoolmen. Thus Folly is made to say:--'With what -ease, truly, do they indulge in day-dreams (_delirant_), when they invent -innumerable worlds, and measure the sun, moon, and stars, and the earth, -as though by thumb and thread; and render a reason for thunder, winds, -eclipses, and other inexplicable things, without the least hesitation, as -though they had been the secret architects of all the works of nature, or -as though they had come down to us from the council of the gods. _At whom -and whose conjectures nature is mightily amused!_' - -[207] Cresacre More's _Life of Sir Thomas More_, p. 93. - -[208] Erasmi aliquot Epistolæ: Paris, 1524, p. 33. Eras. _Op._ iii. Epist. -lxiii. 1521 ed. p. 291. Whether written in 1498 or 1499 is doubtful. - -[209] Erasmus Roberto Piscatori: Epist. xiv. - -[210] The incidents related in this section are taken from -_Disputatiuncula de Tædio, Pavore, Tristitiâ Jesu, instante Supplicio -Crucis, deque Verbis, quibus visus est Mortem deprecari, 'Pater, si fieri -potest, transeat a me calix iste.'_--Eras. _Op._ v, pp. 1265-1294. - -[211] Eras. _Op._ v. pp. 1291 and 1292. - -[212] 'From this order, any one may perceive the reason of the _four -senses_ in the old law which are customary in the church. The _literal_ -is, when the actions of the men of old time are related. When you think of -the image, even of the Christian church which the law foreshadows, then -you catch the _allegorical_ sense. When you are raised aloft, so as from -the shadow to conceive of the reality which both represent, then there -dawns upon you the _anagogic_ sense. And when from signs you observe the -instruction of individual man, then all has a _moral_ tone for you.... In -the writings of the New Testament, saving when it pleased the Lord Jesus -and his Apostles to speak in parables, as Christ often does in the -Gospels, and St. John throughout in the Revelation, all the rest of the -discourse, in which either the Saviour teaches his disciples more plainly, -or the disciples instruct the churches, has the sense that appears on the -surface. Nor is one thing said and another meant, but the very thing is -meant which is said, and the sense is wholly literal. Still, inasmuch as -the church of God is figurative, conceive always an _anagoge_ in what you -hear in the doctrines of the church, the meaning of which will not cease -till the figure has become the truth. From this moreover conclude, that -where the literal sense is, then the allegorical sense is _not_ always -along with it; but, on the other hand, that where there is the allegorical -sense, the literal sense is always underlying it.'--Colet's abstract of -the _Eccl. Hier._, Mr. Lupton's translation, pp. 105-107; and see Mr. -Lupton's note on this passage. - -[213] Summa, pt. i. quest. 1, article x. Conclusio. - -[214] Eras. _Op._ v. pp. 1291 to 1294. This reply of Colet to the long -letter of Erasmus does not seem to have been published in the early -editions of the latter. Thus I do not find it in the editions of -Schurerius, Argent. 1516, and again 1517. The earliest print of it that I -have seen is that appended to the _Enchiridion_, &c. Basle, 1518. - -[215] Eras. _Op._ iii. Epist. lxv. Erasmus Fausto Andrelino, 1521 ed. p. -260. - -[216] 'Torquatis istis aulicis.'--Eras. _Op._ v. p. 126, E. - -[217] Colet's letter to Erasmus has been lost, but the above may be -gathered from the reply of Erasmus. - -[218] Eras. _Op._ v. p. 1263. - -[219] It is possible that Colet himself had, at one time, thought of -expounding the book of Genesis, but the manuscript letters to Radulphus -appended to the copy of the MS. on the 'Romans,' in the library of Corpus -Christi College, Cambridge, contain no allusion to any such intention. - -[220] Probably De la Pole. See Mr. Gairdner's _Letters and Papers, &c. of -Richard III. and Henry VII._ vol. i. p. 129, and vol. ii. preface, p. xl; -and appendix, p. 377; where Mr. Gairdner mentions under date, 20th Aug. 14 -Henry VII. (1499) a 'Proclamation, against leaving the kingdom without -license,' and adds 'N.B. clearly in consequence of the flight of Edmund De -la Pole.' If this prohibition extended through December, it fixes the date -of this letter as written in the winter of 1499-1500. - -[221] Eras. _Op._ v. p. 1263. This letter is generally found prefixed to -the various editions of the _Disputatiuncula de Tædio Christi_. And this -is often appended to editions of the _Enchiridion_. - -[222] Epist. lxiv. Erasmus to Mountjoy, and also see Epist. xlii. - -[223] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 26, E. Epist. xxix. - -[224] The fact that Erasmus saw Prince _Edmund_ fixes the date of his -departure from England to 1500, instead of 1499. He left England 27th -Jan., and it could not be in 1499, for Prince Edmund was not born till -Feb. 21, 1499. - -[225] See the mention of this incident in Erasmus's letter to Botzhem, -printed as _Catalogus Omnium Erasmi Roterdami Lucubrationum, ipso Autore_, -1523, Basil, fol. a. 6, and reprinted by Jortin, app. 418, 419. - -[226] For the verses see Eras. _Op._ i. p. 1215. - -[227] See Ep. xcii. and lxxxi. - -[228] 'He [Tyndale] was born (about 1484) about the borders of Wales, and -brought up from a child in the University of Oxford, where he, by long -continuance, grew and increased as well in the knowledge of tongues and -other liberal arts, as specially in the knowledge of the Scriptures, -whereunto his mind was singularly addicted; insomuch that he, lying there -in Magdalen Hall, read privily to certain students and fellows of Magdalen -College, some parcel of divinity, instructing them in the knowledge and -truth of the Scriptures.'--Quoted from Foxe in the biographical notice of -William Tyndale, prefixed to his Doctrinal Treatises, p. xiv, Parker -Society, 1848. Magdalen College is supposed to have been the college in -which Colet resided at Oxford; as, according to Wood, some of the name of -Colet are mentioned in the records, though not John Colet himself. - -[229] 'How many years did he (Colet) following the example of St. Paul, -teach the people _without reward_!'--Eras. Epist. cccclxxxi. Eras. _Op._ -iii. p. 532, E. - -[230] In Colet's epitaph it is stated 'administravit 16;' as he died in -1519, this will bring the commencement of his administration to 1504, at -latest. See also the note in the Appendix on Colet's preferments. - -[231] Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, p. 184. - -[232] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, C. - -[233] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, D. - -[234] Ibid. E. and F. - -[235] Walter Stone, LL.D., was admitted to the vicarage of Stepney, void -by the resignation of D. Colet, Sept. 21, 1505.--Kennett's MSS. vol. xliv. -f. 234 b (Lansdowne, 978). He seems to have retained his rectory of -Denyngton. - -[236] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 465, E. - -[237] Ibid. E. and F. - -[238] Grocyn and Linacre had also removed to London. More was already -there. - -[239] 'Impense delectabatur amicorum colloquiis quæ sæpe differebat in -multam noctem. Sed omnisillius sermo, aut de literis erat, aut de -Christo.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 457. A. - -[240] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 459, F. - -[241] Ibid. p. 457, A. - -[242] Ibid. p. 459, F. - -[243] Ibid. p. 456, E. - -[244] 'Porro in suo templo non sumebat sibi carptim argumentum ex -Evangelio aut ex epistolis Apostolicis sed unum aliquod argumentum -proponebat, quod diversis concionibus ad finem usque prosequebatur: puta -Evangelium Matthæi, Symbolum Fidei, Precationem Dominicam.'--Eras. _Op._ -iii. p. 456, D, E. - -[245] Grocyn was apparently rector of this parish up to 1517, when he -vacated it.--Wood's _Ath. Oxon._ p. 32. - -[246] Stapleton, p. 160. - -[247] Roper, Singer's ed. 1822, p. 5. - -[248] Rot. Parl. vi. 521, B. - -[249] 12 Henry VII. c. 12, also Rot. Parl. vi. p. 514. - -[250] 12 Henry VII. c. 13. - -[251] See 3 Edward I. c. 36, and 25 Edward III. s. 5, c. 11. - -[252] Roper, p. 7. - -[253] Possibly, '_our trusty and right well-beloved knight and -counseller_,' _Sir William Tyler_, who had so often partaken of the royal -bounty, being made 'Controller of Works,' 'Messenger of Exchequer,' -'Receiver of certain Lordships,' &c. &c. (see Rot. Parl. vi. 341, 378 b, -404 b, 497 b), and who was remembered for good in chap. 35 of this very -Parliament. - -[254] A fifteenth of the three estates was estimated by the Venetian -ambassador, in 1500, to produce 37,930_l._--See _Italian Relation of -England_, Camden Soc. p. 52. The amount of a 'fifteenth' was fixed in -1334, by 8 Ed. III. Blackstone (vol. i. p. 310) states that the amount was -fixed at about 29,000_l._ This was probably the amount, exclusive of the -quota derived from the estates of the clergy, which latter was estimated -at 12,000_l._ by the Venetian ambassador in 1500. This being added would -raise Blackstone's estimate to 41,000_l._ in all. From this, however, -about 4,000_l._ was always excused to 'poor towns, cities, &c.,' so that -the nett actual amount would be about 37,000_l._ according to Blackstone, -which agrees well with the Venetian estimate. - -[255] 19 Henry VII. c. 32, Jan. 25, 1503, Rot. Parl. vi. 532-542. In lieu -of two reasonable aids, one for making a knight of Prince Arthur deceased, -and the other of marriage of Princess Margaret to the King of Scots, and -also great expenses in wars, the Commons grant 40,000_l._ less 10,000_l._ -remitted, '_of his more ample grace and pity, for that the poraill of his -comens should not in anywise be contributory or chargeable to any part of -the said sum of 40,000l._' The 30,000_l._ to be paid by the shires in the -sums stated, and to the payment every person to be liable having lands, -&c. to the yearly value of 20_s._ of free charter lands, or of 26_s._ -8_d._ of lands held at will, or any person having goods or cattalls to the -value of x marks or above, not accounting their cattle for their plough -nor stuff or implement of household. - -[256] John More was one of the commissioners for Herts. - -[257] This story is told in substantially the same form in the manuscript -life of More by Harpsfield, written in the time of Queen Mary, and -dedicated to William Roper.--_Harleian MSS._ No. 6253, fol. 4. - -[258] 'Meditabatur adolescens sacerdotium cum suo Lilio.'--Stapleton, -_Tres Thomæ_, ed. 1588, p. 18, ed. 1612, p. 161. See also Roper, pp. 5, 6. - -[259] Stapleton and Roper, _ubi supra_. - -[260] Richard Whitford himself, retiring soon after from public life, -entered the monastery called 'Sion,' near Brentford in Middlesex, and -wrote books, in which he styled himself '_the_ wretch of Sion.' See Roper, -p. 8, and Knight's _Life of Erasmus_, p. 64. - -[261] Stapleton, ed. 1588, p. 20, ed. 1612, p. 163. - -[262] That this letter was written in 1504 is evident. First, it cannot -well have been written before Colet had commenced his labours at St. -Paul's; secondly, it cannot have been written in Oct. 1505, because it -speaks of Colet as still holding the living of Stepney, which he resigned -Sept. 21, 1505. Also the whole drift of it leads to the conclusion that -More was unmarried when he wrote it. And he married in 1505, according to -the register on the Burford picture, which, the correct date of More's -birth having been found and from it the true date of Holbein's sketch, -seems to be amply confirmed by the age there given of More's eldest -daughter, Margaret Roper. She is stated to be twenty-two on the sketch -made in 1528, and so was probably born in 1506. - -[263] _Mori Epigrammata_: Basle, 1518, p. 6. See the prefatory letter by -Beatus Rhenanus. - -[264] Ibid. - -[265] See Epigram entitled '_Gratulatur quod eam repererit Incolumem quam -olim ferme Puer amaverat_.'--_Epigrammata_: Basle, 1520, p. 108, and -_Philomorus_, pp. 37-39. - -[266] 'From whence [the Tower], the day before he suffered, he sent his -shirt of hair, not willing to have it seen, to my wife, his dearly beloved -daughter.'--Roper, p. 91. - -[267] Walter's _Life of More_, London, 1840, pp. 7, 8. Cresacre More's -_Life of More_, pp. 24-26. - -[268] 'Maluit igitur maritus esse castus quam sacerdos impurus.'--_Erasmus -to Hutten_: Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 75, c. Stapelton, 1612 ed. pp. 161, 162. -Cresacre More's _Life of More_, pp. 25, 26. Even Walter allows that his -'finding that at that time religious orders in England had somewhat -degenerated from their ancient strictness and fervour of spirit,' was the -cause of his 'altering his mind.'--Walter's _Life of More_, p. 8. - -[269] Sir Thomas More's _Works_, pp. 1-34; and see the note on Pico's -religious history, and his connection with Savonarola, above, p. 19. - -[270] Compare this with the line of argument pursued by Marsilio Ficino in -his _De Religione Christianâ_. Vide supra, p. 11. - -[271] This remarkable letter was written, 'Ferrariæ, 15 May, 1492' (Pici -_Op._ p. 233), scarcely six weeks after Pico's visit to the deathbed of -Lorenzo de Medici. - -[272] This letter is dated in More's translation M.cccclxxxxii. from -_Paris_, in mistake for M.cccclxxxvi. from _Perugia_. See Pici _Op._ p. -257. - -[273] See More's _Works_, p. 19, _in loco_, v. 6. - -[274] Stapleton, ed. 1612, p. 162. Cresacre More's _Life of Sir T. More_, -p. 27. - -[275] Sir T. More's _Works_, p. 9. - -[276] There is a copy of this translation of More's in the British Museum -Library. '276, c. 27, _Pico, &c._, 4{o}, _London_, 1510.' This is probably -the original edition. More may have waited till Henry VIII.'s accession -before daring to publish it. - -[277] This date of More's marriage is the date given in the register -contained on the Burford family picture; and as it is in no way dependent -on the other dates, probably it rested upon some family tradition or -record. It is confirmed by the age of Margaret Roper on the Basle -sketch--22 in 1528. Vide supra, p. 149, n. 1. - -[278] Cresacre More's _Life of Sir T. More_, p. 39. - -[279] Erasmus Botzhemo: _Catalogus Omnium Erasmi Lucubrationum_: Basle, -1523. - -[280] Epist. lxxxi. He arrived at Paris 'postridie Calend, Februarias' (p. -73, E.), i.e. Feb. 2, 1500. - -[281] Epist. iii. This letter is dated in the Leyden edition, 1490, and in -the edition of 1521, p. 264, M.LXXXIX. (_sic_), but it evidently was -written shortly after the illness of Erasmus at Paris in the spring of -1500. See also the mention of 'Arnold' in Epist. xxix. (Paris, 12 April) -and a repetition in it of much that is said in this letter respecting -Erasmus's illness and intention of visiting Italy. See also Epist. dii. -App. - -[282] 'In Britannico littore pecuniola mea, studiorum meorum alimonia, -naufragium fecit.'--Epist. xcii. p. 84 C. - -[283] '_Tenuiter._'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 73, F. Epist. lxxxi. and see also -lxxx. - -[284] Erasmus to Battus: Epist. xxix. Paris, 12 April, probably in 1500. -See also Epist. lxxx. 'Græscæ literæ animum meum propemodum enecant: verum -neque precium datur, neque suppetit, quo libros, aut præceptoris operam -redimam. Et dum hæc omnia tumultuor, vix est unde vitam sustineam.' - -[285] Epist. xciv. - -[286] Epistolæ xxxvi. lxxvi. lxxi. (20 Nov.), lxxii. (9 Dec.), xciv. xcix. -(11 Dec.), lxxiii. (11 Dec.), and lxxiv. seem to belong to this period of -flight to Orleans. Epist. xv. and lxxvii. (14 Dec.), lxxviii. (18 Dec.), -and xci. (14 Jan.), seem to mark the date of his return to Paris. - -[287] Epist. xcii. Paris, 27 Jan. 1500 (should be 1501). - -[288] Epist. xxxix. - -[289] Epist. ccccvii. App. - -[290] 'Nec est in ullo mortalium aliquid solidæ spei, nisi in uno -Batto.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 48, C. Epist. liii. - -[291] Epist. xxx. 2 July [1501] seems to be the first letter written from -St. Omer, where Erasmus was then staying with the Abbot. See also Epist. -xxxix., where he speaks of having been terrified at Paris with the numbers -of funerals. On 12 July and 18 July he writes Epist. liv.-lviii. -('Tornaco' evidently meaning the castle of Tornahens). Epist. lix. also -was written about the same time. Epist. xcviii. 30 July, if written by -Erasmus, shows he was still at St. Omer. All these letters seem to belong -to the year 1501. - -[292] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 52, E. Epist. lix. - -[293] Epist. lxii. - -[294] Erasmus to Botzhem: _Catalogus Omnium Erasmi Lucubrationum_: Basle, -1523, leaf b, 4. - -[295] Erasmus to Justus Jonas: Epist. ccccxxxv. - -[296] 'Ea quum placerent etiam eruditis, præsertim Ioanni Viterio -Franciscano cujus erat in illis regionibus autoritas summa.'--_Letter to -Botzhem_, leaf b, 4. There can be no doubt that the John Viterius -mentioned in this letter is the same person as the Vitrarius of the letter -to Justus Jonas. See also Mr. Lupton's introduction to his translation of -Colet on Dionysius. - -[297] Eras. Epist. clxxiii. - -[298] Ibid. xciv. - -[299] _Lucubratiunculæ aliquot Erasmi_: Antwerp, 1503. _Biogr. de Thierry -Martins_: par A. F. Van Iseghem: Alost, 1852, 8vo. See also Letter to -Botzhem (_Catalogus, &c._), fol. b, 4. - -[300] It is very difficult to fix the true dates of these letters, and to -ascertain to what year they belong. Epist. ccccxlvi. App., from Louvain, -mentions the death of Battus, and that the Marchioness of Vere had married -below her. He speaks of himself as buried in Greek studies. - -[301] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 94. Epist. cii. Dated 1504, but should be -probably 1505. - -[302] See Erasmus Edmundo: Epist xcvi. 'ex arce Courtemburnensi.' - -[303] The Panegyric upon Philip, King of Spain, on his return to the -Netherlands. See Epist. ccccxlv. App. Erasmus Gulielmo Goudano. - -[304] More literally 'The _Pocket Dagger_ of the Christian Soldier.' But -Erasmus himself regarded it as a 'Handybook.' See _Enchiridion_, ch. viii. -English ed. 1522. 'We must haste to that which remaineth lest it should -not be an "Enchiridion," that is to say "a lytell treatyse hansome to be -caryed in a man's hande," but rather a great volume.' - -[305] See especially chap. ii. _Allegoria de Manna_, Eras. _Op._ v. fol. -6-10, &c. - -[306] It is evident that Erasmus had not yet appreciated as fully as he -did afterwards the _historical_ method which Colet had applied to St. -Paul's Epistles to get at their real meaning and 'spirit.' - -[307] Alfonso Fernandez, Archdeacon of Alcor, to Erasmus: Palencia, Nov. -27, 1527. _Life and Writings of Juan de Valdès_, by Benjamin Wiffen: -London, Quaritch, 1865, p. 41. - -[308] The above is an abridged translation from the _Enchiridion_, ed. -Argent. June, 1516, pp. 7, 8, which, being published before the Lutheran -controversy commenced, is probably a reprint of the earlier editions. The -editions of 1515 are the earliest that I have seen. - -[309] This letter was republished in the edition of some letters of -Erasmus printed at Basle, 1521, p. 221, and see also Eras. _Op._ iii. -Epist. ciii. - -[310] Letter to Fox, Bishop of Winchester. London, Cal. Jan. 1506. Eras. -_Op._ i. p. 214. - -[311] Erasmus's letter to Botzhem, _Catalogus, &c._ Basle, 1523, leaf b, -3. - -[312] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 475, D. - -[313] The epigrams have no dates, and it is impossible, therefore, to say -positively which of them were written during this period. The following -translation of one of them from Cayley's _Life of Sir Thomas More_, vol. -i. p. 270 (with this reservation as to its date), may be taken as a -sample:-- - - A squall arose; the vessel's tossed; - The sailors fear their lives are lost. - 'Our sins, our sins,' dismayed they cry, - 'Have wrought this fatal destiny!' - - A monk it chanced was of the crew, - And round him to confess they drew. - Yet still the restless ship is tossed, - And still they fear their lives are lost. - - One sailor, keener than the rest, - Cries, 'With our sins she's still oppress'd; - Heave out that monk, who bears them all, - And then full well she'll ride the squall.' - - So said, so done; with one accord - They threw the caitiff overboard. - And now the bark before the gale - Scuds with light hull and easy sail. - - Learn hence the weight of sin to know, - With which a ship could scarcely go. - -[For the Latin, see _Epigrammata Thomæ Mori_, Basilæ, 1520, pp. 72, 73.] - -[314] E. g.:-- - - 'T. Mori in Avarum.' - - 'Dives Avarus Pauper est.' - - 'Sola Mors Tyrannicida est.' - - 'Quid inter Tyrannum et Principem.' - - 'Sollicitam esse Tyranni Vitam.' - - 'Bonum Principem esse Patrem non Dominum.' - - 'De bono Rege et Populo.' - - 'De Principe bono et malo.' - - 'Regem non satellitium sed virtus reddit tutum.' - - 'Populus consentiens regnum dat et aufert.' - - 'Quis optimus reipub. status.' - -[315] Alluding to this time, Erasmus spoke of More as 'Tum studiorum -sodali.'--Letter to Botzhem, 1523, leaf b, 3. - -[316] See letter of Erasmus to Richard Whitford, Eras. _Op._ i. p. 265, -dated May, ex rure (1506). - -[317] Lucian's dialogue called _Somnium_ he sent to Dr. Christopher -Urswick, a well-known statesman (Eras. _Op._ i. p. 243); _Toxaris, sive de -Amicitiâ_, to Fox, Bishop of Winchester (_Ibid._ p. 214); _Timon_ to Dr. -Ruthall, afterwards Bishop of Durham (_Ibid._ p. 255); _De Tyrannicidâ_, -to Dr. Whitford, chaplain to Fox (_Ibid._ p. 267). - -[318] See an amusing account of this visit to Lambeth Palace in the letter -to Botzhem (_Catalogus_, leaf a, 5); also Knight's _Life of Erasmus_, p. -83. - -[319] See Knight's _Life of Erasmus_, pp. 96-101. _Adagia._ _Op._ ii. 554. -Epist. dccclxxiv. and dccccliii. - -[320] Eras. _Op._ iii. Epist. civ. - -[321] Epist. cv. - -[322] See his Colloquy, _Diversoria_. - -[323] Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 755. Erasmus to Botzhem, leaf a, 4. - -[324] Luther visited Rome in 1510, or a year or two later. Luther's -_Briefe_, De Wette, 1. xxi. - -[325] 'Nullum enim annum vixi insuavius!'--Erasmus to Botzhem, leaf a, 4. - -[326] Eras. Ep. cccclxxxvi. App. - -[327] Epist. cccclxxxvii. App. - -[328] Eras. to Botzhem, leaf b, 8. - -[329] Mountjoy to Erasmus, Epist. x., dated May 27, 1497, but should be -1509. - -[330] It is difficult to fix the date of the arrival of Erasmus in -England. He was at Venice in the autumn of 1508. (See the Aldine edition -of his _Adagia_, dated Sept. 1508.) After this he wintered at Padua (see -_Vita Erasmi_, prefixed to Eras. _Op._ i.); and after this went to Rome -(ibid.). This brings the chronology to the spring of 1509. In April, 1509, -Henry VIII. ascended the English throne. On May 27, 1509, Lord Mountjoy -wrote to Erasmus, who seems to have been then at Rome, pressing him to -come back to England (Eras. Epist. x., the date of which is fixed by its -contents). - -The letter prefixed to the _Praise of Folly_ is dated _ex rure, 'quinto -Idas Junias,'_ and states that the book is the result of his meditations -during his long journeys on horseback on his way from Italy to England. -This letter must have been dated June 9, 1510, at earliest, or 1511, at -latest. 1510 is the probable date (see _infra_, note at p. 204). The later -editions of the _Praise of Folly_ put the year 1508 to this letter; but -the edition of August, 1511 (Argent.) gives no year, nor does the Basle -edition of 1519, to which the notes of Lystrius were appended. So that the -printed date is of no authority, and it is entirely inconsistent with the -history of the book as given by Erasmus. The first edition, printed by -_Gourmont_, at Paris, I have not seen, but, according to Brunet, it has -_no date_. In the absence of direct proof, it is probable on the whole -that Erasmus returned to England between the autumn of 1509 and June, -1510. - -[331] See the letter to More prefixed to the _Praise of Folly_. - -[332] Roper, p. 9. - -[333] See More's letter to Dorpius, in which he mentions this visit. - -[334] Roper, p. 6. - -[335] Hall, ed. 1548, fol. lix. - -[336] _Epigrammata Mori_: Basil, 1520, p. 17. - -[337] Johnson's _Life of Linacre_, pp. 179 _et seq._ - -[338] Vide _infra_, p. 380. - -[339] Stapleton, 1588 ed. pp. 26, 27. - -[340] Roper, p. 9. - -[341] More's son John--nineteen in 1528, according to Holbein's -sketch--was probably born in 1509. More's three daughters, Margaret, -Elizabeth, and Cicely, were all older. - -[342] See the letter of Erasmus to Botzhem, ed. Basle, 1523, leaf b, 3, -and Jortin, App. 428. Also _Erasmi ad Dorpium Apologia_, Louvain, 1515, -leaf F, iv. - -[343] Argent. 1511, leaf D, iii., where occurs the marginal reading, -'Indulgentias taxat.' - -[344] Argent. 1511, E, 8, and Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 457. - -[345] Argent. 1511, leaf E, viii., and Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 462. - -[346] Argent, 1511, leaf F, and Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 465. - -[347] Argent. 1511, leaf F, and Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 465. - -[348] Basle, 1519, p. 178 _et seq._, and Eras. _Op._ ix. pp. 466 _et seq._ - -[349] Basle, 1519, p. 181. - -[350] Basle, 1519, p. 183, and Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 468. - -[351] Basle, 1519, p. 183, and Argent. 1511, leaf F; which contains, -however, only part of this paragraph. - -[352] Basle, 1519, p. 185. Argent. 1511, leaf F, ii., and Eras. _Op._ iv. -p. 469. - -[353] Basle, 1519, pp. 185 and 186. - -[354] Ibid. p. 180. - -[355] This paragraph is not inserted in the edition Argent. 1511, but -appears in the Basle edition, 1519, p. 192, and Eras. _Op._ iv. pp. 473, -474. - -[356] Argent. 1511, leaf F, viii. and Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 479. - -[357] Ranke, _Hist. of the Popes_, chap. ii. s. 1. - -[358] Erasmus Buslidiano: Bononiæ, 15 Cal. Dec. 1506, Eras. _Op._ i. p. -311. - -[359] Argent. 1511, leaf G, iii. Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 484. - -[360] Ranke, _Hist. of the Popes_, chap. ii. s. 1 (abridged quotation). - -[361] _Moriæ Encomium_: Argent. M.DXI. leaf G, iii. This edition contains -all the above passages on Popes, and was published during the lifetime of -Julius II., as he did not die till the spring of 1513. - -[362] Erasmus writes: 'It was sent over into France by the arrangement of -those at whose instigation it was written, and there printed from a copy -not only full of mistakes, but even incomplete. Upon this within a few -months it was reprinted more than seven times in different -places.'--_Erasmi ad Dorpium Apologia_, Louvain, 1515. - -See also Erasmus to Botzhem, where Erasmus says 'Aderam Lutetiæ quum per -Ricardum Crocum pessimis formulis depravatissime excuderetur.' (First -edition of this letter: Basle, 1523; leaf b, 4.) In the copy fixed to -Eras. _Op._ i. '_nescio quos_' is substituted for '_Ricardum Crocum_,' -_who was not the printer, but the friend of More who got it published_. -(See Erasmus to Colet, Epist. cxlix. Sept. 13, 1511 (wrongly dated 1513), -where Erasmus says of Crocus, 'qui nunc Parisiis dat operam bonis -literis.' Erasmus was at Paris in April 1511. (See Epistolæ clxix., cx., -and clxxv. taken in connection with each other.)) In a catalogue of the -works of Erasmus (a copy of which is in the British Museum Library), -entitled _Lucubrationum Erasmi Roterodami Index_, and printed by Froben, -at Basle, in 1519, it is stated that the _Moriæ Encomium_ was 'sæpius -excusum, _primum Lutetiæ per Gormontium, deinde Argentorati per -Schurerium_,' &c. The latter edition is the earliest which I have been -able to procure, and it is dated 'mense Augusti M.DXI.' But the date of -the first edition printed at Paris by Gourmont I have not been able to fix -certainly. According to Brunet, it had no date attached. - -After staying at More's house, and there writing the book itself, he may -have added the prefatory letter 'Quinto Idus Junias,' 1510, 'ex rure,' -whilst spending a few months with Lord Mountjoy, as we learn he did from a -letter to Servatius from 'London from the Bishop's house' (Brewer, No. -1418, Epist. cccclxxxv., under date 1510), it is most probable that in -1511 Erasmus paid a visit to Paris, being at Dover 10 April, 1511; at -Paris 27 April (see _Epistolæ_ clxix., cx., and clxxv.); and thus was -there when the first edition was printed. His letters from Cambridge do -not seem to begin till Aug. 1511. See Brewer, Nos. 1842, Epist. cxvi.; and -1849, Epist. cxviii. No. 1652 belongs, I think, to 1513. Possibly No. -1842, Epist. cxvi., belongs to a later date; and, if so, No. 1849, Epist. -cxviii., may be the first of his Cambridge letters, and with this its -contents would well agree. - -[363] Brewer, No. 1418. Eras. Epist. App. cccclxxxv., and see cccclxxxiv., -dated 1 April, London. - -[364] Brewer, No. 1478. Eras. Epist. cix. 6, Id. Feb., and it seems, in -March 1511, Warham gave him a pension out of the rectory of Aldington. -Knight, p. 155. - -[365] Brewer, No. 4427. - -[366] 'A right fruitfull Admonition concerning the Order of a good -Christian Man's Life, very profitable for all manner of Estates, &c., made -by the famous Doctour Colete sometime Deane of Paules. Imprinted at London -for Gabriell Cawood, 1577.'--Brit. Museum Library. - -[367] In Sept. 1505. Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 265, and n. a. - -[368] 'Insumpto patrimonio universo vivus etiam ac superstes solidam -hæreditatem cessi,' &c. Letter of Colet to Lilly, dated 1513, prefixed to -the several editions of _De Octo Orationis Partibus, &c._ - -[369] The number of the 'miraculous draught of fishes.' - -[370] Statutes of St. Paul's School. Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 364. See -also the letter from Colet to Lilly, prefixed to the _Rudiments of -Grammar_, 1510. Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 124, n. r. - -[371] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 457, c. - -[372] Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 109. - -[373] Brewer's _Calendar of State Papers_, Henry VIII., vol. i. No. 1076, -under date June 6, 1510. - -[374] Compare licenses mentioned in Brewer's _Calendar of State Papers_ of -Henry VIII. (vol. i. Nos. 1076, 3900, and 4659), with documents given in -Knight's _Life of Colet_, _Miscellanies_, No. v. and No. iii. - -[375] 'De pueris statim ac liberaliter instituendis.'--Eras. _Op._ i. p. -505. - -[376] Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 175, and copied from him by Jortin, -vol. i. pp. 169, 170. - -[377] Take the following examples: 'Revere thy elders. Obey thy superiors. -Be a fellow to thine equals. Be benign and loving to thy inferiors. Be -always well occupied. Lose no time. Wash clean. Be no sluggard. Learn -diligently. Teach what thou hast learned lovingly.'--Colet's _Precepts of -Living for the Use of his School_. Knight's _Life of Colet_. -_Miscellanies_, No. xi. - -[378] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 458, D. - -[379] This epigram and the above-mentioned prefaces are inserted by Knight -in his _Life of Colet_ (_Miscellanies_, No. xiii.), and were taken by him -from what he calls _Grammatices Rudimenta_, London, M.DXXXIIII. in '_Bibl. -publ. Cantabr. inter MS. Reg._' But see note 1 on the next page. They were -in the preface to Colet's _Accidence_. - -[380] See also the characteristic letter from Colet to Lilly, prefixed to -the _Syntax_. The editions of 1513, 1517, and 1524 are entitled, -_Absolutissimus de Octo Orationis Partium Constructione Libellus_. The -_Accidence_ was entitled, _Coleti Editio unà cum quibusdam_, &c. - -[381] Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 126. - -[382] Eras. Epist. cxlix. Erasmus to Colet, Sept. 13, 1513 (Brewer, i. -4447), but should be 1511. See 4528 (Eras. Epist. cl.), which mentions the -_De Copiâ_ being in hand, which was printed in May 1512. (?) - -[383] _De Ratione Studii Commentariolus_: Argent. 1512, mense Julio, and -printed again with additions, Argent. 1514, mense Augusto. The above -translation is greatly abridged. - -[384] Eras. Epist. App. iv. - -[385] In 4 Henry VIII. (1513) Lord Chancellor Warham received 100 marks -salary, and 100 marks for commons of himself and clerk--200 marks, or -133_l._ Brewer, i. Introduction, cviii. note (3). - -[386] Prefatory Letter of Beatus Rhenanus, prefixed to the edition of -More's _Epigrammata_, printed at Basle, 1518 and 1520. - -[387] Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 370. _Miscellanies_, No. vi. - -[388] 'Recte instituendæ pubis artifex.' Preface of Erasmus to _De Octo -Orationis Partium Constructione_, etc. Basle, 1517. - -[389] Colet to Erasmus, Sept. 1511, not 1513 (Brewer, No. 4448), for the -same reason as Nos. 4447 and 4528. - -[390] Eras. Epist. cl. Brewer, p. 458. Dated October 29, 1513, but, as it -mentions the _De Copiâ_ being in hand, it must have been written in 1511. - -[391] John Ritwyse, or Rightwyse. - -[392] 'Moreover, that Thomas Geffrey caused this John Butler divers -Sundays to go to London to hear Dr. Colet.'--Foxe, ed. 1597, p. 756. - -[393] Ibid. p. 1162. - -[394] William Sweeting and John Brewster, on October 18, 1511.--Foxe, ed. -1597, p. 756. - -[395] Eras. Epist. cxxvii. Brewer, i. No. 1948. - -[396] Brewer, i. p. 2004. - -[397] Ibid. i. Introduction. - -[398] Brewer, i. p. 4312. Warham to Henry VIII.--a document referring to -this convocation as held at St. Paul's from Feb. 6, 1511 (i.e. 1512) to -Dec. 17 following. This document is in many places wholly illegible, but -these words are visible: 'concessimus ... [pro defensione ecclesiæ] -Anglicanæ et hujus inclyti regni vestri Angliæ; necnon ad sedandum et -extirpandum hereses et schismata in universali ecclesia quæ his diebus -plus solito pullulant.' - -[399] That Colet preached in English, see the remark of Erasmus that he -had studied _English_ authors in order to polish his style and to prepare -himself for preaching the gospel.--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, B. It may also -be inferred from the Lollards going to hear his sermons. In his rules for -his school he directed that the chaplain should instruct the children in -the Catechism and the Articles of the faith and the Ten Commandments in -_English_.--Knight's _Life of Colet_. _Miscellanies_, Num. v. p. 361. - -[400] Tyndale, p. 168 (Parker Society). - -[401] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 460, D. - -[402] Erasmus to Werner: Eras. Ep. Lond. ed. lib. xxxi. Ep. 23. The person -alluded to in this letter was clearly not James Stanley, as has sometimes -been assumed. - -[403] Cooper's _Athenæ Cantab._ p. 16. Also _Philomorus_, Lond. Pickering, -1842, pp. 55-57, and _Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ_, p. 70. - -[404] Epigram 'In Posthumum Episcopum.' - -[405] Epigram 'In Episcopum illiteratum, de quo ante Epigramma est sub -nomine Posthumi.' There is no reason, I think, to conclude that More's -satire was directed in these epigrams against the Bishop of Ely. There may -have been plenty of Scotists whom the cap might fit as well, or better. In -the same year that Stanley was made Bishop of Ely, Fitzjames was made -Bishop of London. The late Dean Milman (_Annals of St. Paul's_, p. 120) -shows, however, that Fitzjames was not unlearned, as he had been Warden of -Merton and Vice-chancellor of Oxford. - -[406] _Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ_, p. 298; and Knight's _Life of Erasmus_, -p. 229. - -[407] Brewer, i. 4312. - -[408] A 'tenth,' of the clergy, produced in 1500 about 12,000_l._ See -Italian Relation of England, C. S. p. 52. Four-tenths would be equal to -about half a million sterling in present money. - -'If the King should go to war, he ... immediately compels the clergy to -pay him one, two, or three fifteenths or tenths ... and more if the -urgency of the war should require it.'--_Ibid._ p. 52. - -[409] 'Senex quidam theologus et imprimis severus.'--_Erasmi -Annotationes_, edit. 1519, p. 489; and edit. 1522, p. 558. 'Senex quidam -severus et vel supercilio teste theologus, magno stomacho, -respondit.'--_Erasmi Moriæ Encomium_, Basle, 1519, p. 225. - -[410] See note of Erasmus in his '_Annotationes_,' _in loco_ Titus iii. -10; also the _Praise of Folly_, where the story is told in connection with -further particulars. The exact coincidence between the two accounts of the -old divine's construction of Titus iii. 10 leads to the conclusion that -the rest of the story, as given in the _Praise of Folly_, may also very -probably be literally true. Knight, in his _Life of Colet_, concludes that -as the story is told in the _Praise of Folly_, the incident must have -occurred in a _previous convocation_, as this satire was written _before_ -1512.--Knight, pp. 199, 200. But the story is not inserted in the editions -of 1511 and of 1515, whilst it is inserted in the Basle edition of the -_Encomium Moriæ_, November 12, 1519, published just after Colet's death -(p. 226). Nor is the first part of the story relating to Titus iii. 10 to -be found in the first edition of the _Annotationes_ (1516). The story is -first told by Erasmus in the second edition (1519), published just before -Colet's death, and then without any mention of Colet's name; the latter -being possibly omitted lest, as Bishop Fitzjames was still living, its -mention should be dangerous to Colet. It was not till the third edition -was published (in 1522), when both Colet and Colet's persecutor were dead, -that Erasmus added the words, 'Id, ne quis suspicetur meum esse commentum, -accepi _ex Johanne Coleto_, viro spectatæ integritatis, quo præsidente res -acta est.'--_Annotationes_, 3rd ed. 1522, p. 558. - -[411] _Praise of Folly_, 1519, p. 226. - -[412] There is an old English translation given by Knight in his _Life of -Colet_ (pp. 289-308), printed by 'Thomas Berthelet, regius impressor,' and -without date. _Pynson_ was the King's printer in 1512 (Brewer, i. p. -1030), and accordingly he printed the Latin edition of 1511, _i.e._ -1512.--Knight, p. 271. Knight speaks of the old English version as -'written probably by the Dean himself,' but he gives no evidence in -support of his conjecture.--See Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 199. - -[413] 'Neque valde miror si clarissimæ scholæ tuæ rumpantur invidia. -Vident enim uti ex equo Trojano prodierunt Græci, qui barbaram diruere -Trojam, sic è tuâ prodire _scholâ_ qui ipsorum arguunt atque subvertunt -inscitiam.'--Stapleton's _Tres Thomæ_, p. 166, ed. 1612; p. 23, ed. 1588. - -[414] Brewer, vol. ii. No. 3190. The true date, 1512, is clearly fixed by -the allusion to the 'De Copia,' &c.--Eras. Epist. App. ccccvi. - -[415] Dated 'M.DXII. iii. Kal. Maias: Londini.' - -[416] The first edition was printed at Paris by Badius. Another was -printed by Schurerius (Argentorat.), January 1513. And, in Oct. 1514, -Erasmus sent to Schurerius a _revised_ copy for publication. - -[417] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 460, D and E. - -[418] Ibid. p. 460, E. - -[419] 3 Tyndale, p. 168 (Parker Society). - -[420] 'The Seven Peticyons of the Paternoster, by Joan Colet, Deane of -Paules,' inserted in the collection of Prayer entitled '_Horæ beate Marie -Virginis secundum usum Sarum totaliter ad longum_.'--Knight's _Life of -Colet_, App. _Miscellanies_, No. xii. p. 450. - -[421] Eras. Epist. cvii. Brewer, No. 3495, under date 1st Nov. 1512. - -[422] Eras. Epist. cxxviii. and cxvi. - -[423] 'Written by Master Thomas More, then one of the undersheriffs of -London, about the year 1513.'--_More's English Works_, p. 35. - -[424] 'Morus noster melitissimus, cum sua facillima conjuge ... et liberis -ac universa familia pulcherrime valet.'--Ammonius to Erasmus: Epist. -clxxv. This letter, dated May 19, 1515, evidently belongs to an earlier -date. It is apparently in reply to Epist. cx. dated April 27, from Paris, -and written by Erasmus during his stay there in 1511. - -[425] The date of the death of More's first wife it is not easy exactly to -fix. Cresacre More says, 'His wife Jane, as long as she lived, which was -but some six years, brought unto him almost every year a child.'--_Life of -Sir T. More_, p. 40. This would bring her death to 1511, or 1512. - -[426] _Philomorus_, p. 71. - -[427] See Brewer, i. preface p. xl et seq., and authorities there cited. - -[428] '_In Brixium Germanum falsa scribentem de Chordigera._' '_In eundem: -Versus excerpti e Chordigera Brixii_;' '_Postea de eadem Chordigera_;' -'_Epigramma Mori alludens ad versus superiores: Aliud de eodem_,' -&c.--_Mori Epigrammata._ - -[429] See the several epigrams relating to Brixius in _Mori Epigrammata_. -For the wearisome correspondence which resulted from the publication of -these epigrams and the '_Antimorus_' of Brixius in reply, see Eras. _Op._ -iii., index under the head 'Brixius (Germanus).' See also _Philomorus_, p. -71. - -[430] Eras. _Op._ iii. pp. 460, 461. See also '_Richardi Pacei ... de -Fructu qui ex doctrina percipitur, liber_.' Basle, 1517, Oct. And Cresacre -More's _Life of More_, App. - -[431] Brewer, i. 3723. - -[432] Ibid. 3752, 3821. - -[433] Ibid. 3809. - -[434] Brewer, i. xlvii, and No. 3820. Edward Lord Howard to Henry VIII. - -[435] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 461. Compare _Enchiridion_, 'Canon VI.' - -[436] Colet, and Erasmus, and More, notwithstanding their very severe -condemnation of the wars of the period, and wars in general, never went so -far as to lay down the doctrine, that '_All_ War is unlawful to the -Christian.' - -[437] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 461, A, E. - -[438] Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 207, note quoted from _Antiq. -Britann._, Sub. Wil. Warham, ed. Han. p. 306. - -[439] Brewer, Nic. West to Henry VIII. 3838. - -[440] Brewer, i. 3780. - -[441] Ibid. 3857. Sir E. Howard to Wolsey. - -[442] Henry VIII. to Cardinal Bainbridge. Brewer, i. 3876. - -[443] Brewer, i. 3876. - -[444] Ibid. 3903, Sir E. Howard to Henry VIII. - -[445] Ibid. 4005, Echyngham to Wolsey. - -[446] Brewer, i. 4019, Thomas Lord Howard to Wolsey; 4020, Thomas Lord -Howard to Henry VIII. - -[447] Ibid. 4055, Henry VIII. to his ambassadors in Arragon. - -[448] Ibid. 4075, Fox to Wolsey. - -[449] Ibid. 3977, 5761. - -[450] Eras. Epist. cxix. Brewer, i. 4427, Erasmus to Ammonius. - -[451] Erasmi _Epigrammata_: Basle, 1518, p. 353; and Eras. _Op._ i. p. -1224, F. - -[452] _De Deditione Nerviæ, Mori Epigrammata_: Basle, 1518, p. 263, and -ed. 1522, p. 98. - -[453] For the particulars mentioned in this section, it will be seen how -much I am indebted to Mr. Brewer. See vol. i. of his Calendar, preface pp. -l-lv, in addition to the particular authorities cited. - -[454] Eras. Epist. cxiv. Brewer, i. 1652. - -[455] See mention of Aldridge in Eras. Epist. dcclxxxii. - -[456] _Compendium Vitæ Erasmi_: Eras. _Op._ i. preface. - -[457] Eras. Epist. cxvii. Brewer, i. 1847. - -[458] Eras. Epist. cxv. Brewer, i. 4336. The allusion to the 'De Copia' -(printed in May 1512) fixes the date. - -[459] Eras. Epist. cxxix. Brewer, i. 4576. See also Brewer, i. 2013, which -belongs to the same autumn. Epist. cxli. - -[460] From the letters referred to by Brewer, i. p. 963, Nos. 5731 (Eras. -Epist. clxv.), 5732, 5733, and 5734, it would seem that he had undertaken -the education of a boy to whom he had been '_more than a father_.' This -does not prove that he was in the habit at Cambridge of taking private -pupils, as possibly this boy was placed under his care somewhat in the -same way as More had been placed with Cardinal Morton. - -[461] See Eras. Epist. cl. Brewer, i. 4528. - -[462] Eras. Epist. cxix. Brewer, i. 4427. - -[463] Brewer, i. 4428. - -[464] Eras. Epist. cxxxi. Brewer, i. 2001, under the date 1511. The -allusion to the King of Scots, as well as the passage quoted, fix the date -1513. See also Eras. Epist. cxxix. Brewer, i. 4576. - -[465] Eras. Epist. cxxxi. Brewer, i. 2001. - -[466] 5 Henry VIII. c. i. - -[467] Brewer, i. 4819. Notes of a speech in this parliament. - -[468] Eras. Epist. cxliv. - -[469] Compare More's _Epigrams_, headed: 'Populus consentiens Regnum dat -et aufert,' and 'Bonum Principem esse patrem non dominum.' - -[470] Eras. Epist. cxliv. and published among 'Auctarium Selectarum -aliquot Epistolarum Erasmi,' &c. Basil, 1518, p. 62. The above extracts -are abridged in the translation. - -[471] Eras. Epist. cxliii. - -[472] Eras. Germano Brixio: Eras. Epist. mccxxxix. - -[473] Brewer, i. 4845, 5173, and 4727. - -[474] Eras. Epist. cxv. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 107, D. Brewer, i. 4336. - -[475] Eras. Epist. cxv. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 106, E and F. - -[476] Eras. Epist. cxv. - -[477] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 785, A. - -[478] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 785, A, C. - -[479] _Ibid._ p. 457, A. See also Eras. Epist. viii. App. - -[480] The companion of Erasmus was, according to the 'Colloquy,' -'_Gratianus Pullus_, an Englishman, learned and pious, but with less -liking for this part of religion than I could wish.' 'A _Wickliffite_, I -fancy!' suggested the other spokesman in the 'Colloquy.' 'I do not think -so' (was the reply), '_although he had read his books_, somewhere or -other.'--_Colloquia_: Basle, 1526, p. 597. In his letter to Justus Jonas, -Erasmus mentions that Colet was in the habit of reading heretical -books.--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 460, A. It has been suggested also -(_Pilgrimages to Walsingham_, &c. by J. G. Nichols, F.S.A. Westminster, -1849, p. 127), that as in the same letter he describes Colet as wearing -_black_ vestments (_pullis_ vestibus), instead of the usual purple (Eras. -_Op._ iii. p. 457, B.), hence the name '_Pullus_' may in itself point to -Colet. There is also an allusion by Erasmus in his treatise, '_Modus -Orandi_,' to his visit to the shrine of St. Thomas-à-Becket, in which he -says, 'Vidi ipse quum ostentarent linteola lacera quibus ille dicitur -abstersisse muccum narium, abbatem ac cæteros, qui adstabant, aperto -scriniolo venerabundos procidere ad genua, ac manibus etiam sublatis -adorationem gestu repræsentare. Ista _Joanni Coleto, nam is mecum aderat_, -videbantur indigna, mihi ferenda videbantur donec se daret opportunitas ea -citra tumultum corrigendi.'--Eras. _Op._ v. p. 1119, F, and p. 1120, A. -This allusion to Colet so accurately comports with what is said in the -Colloquy of 'Gratianus Pullus,' that the one seems most probably suggested -only as a _nom de plume_ for the other. I am further indebted to Mr. -Lupton for the suggestion that when Ammonius, writing to Erasmus (Epist. -clxxv.), says 'tuus _Leucophæus_ salvere te jubet,' he alludes to Colet: -'Leucophæus' being a Greek form of the same nickname as 'Pullus' might be -in a Latin form. Mr. Lupton has also shown that '_Gratian_' is a rendering -of '_John_.' See his introduction to his edition of _Colet on the -Sacraments of the Church_, pp. 6, 7. So that the identification of Colet -with the _Gratianus Pullus_ of the Colloquy is now complete. - -[481] The lazar-house of Harbledown. See Dean Stanley's _Historical -Memorials of Canterbury_, ed. 1868, p. 243. - -[482] The colloquy from which the particulars given in this section have -been obtained is entitled _Peregrinatio Religionis ergo_. It was not -contained in the edition of 1522 (Argent.), but it was inserted probably -in that of 1524 (which, however, I have not seen). It was contained in the -Basle edition of 1526, which is probably a reprint of that of 1524, the -prefatory letter at the beginning being dated Calen. Aug. 1524. - -[483] Eras. Ammonio: Eras. Epist. clix. - -[484] Eras. Epist. App. viii. There is a reference in the letter to Wolsey -as 'Episcopus Lincolniensis,' and this confirms the correctness of the -date, as Wolsey was translated to the Archbishopric of York Aug. -1514.--_Fasti Eccl. Anglicanæ_, p. 310. - -[485] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 160, A. - -[486] Eras. Epist. clxxxii. Partly written at Antwerp, but finished at -Basle, Aug. 29, 1514. - -[487] The letter is dated 'Lovanii, A.D. mdxiiii. Kal. Aug.' - -[488] 'Quo viro non alium habet mea quidem sententia Anglorum Imperium vel -magis pium, vel qui Christum verius sapiat.' - -[489] _Cato Erasmi. Opuscula aliquot Erasmo Roterodamo Castigatore et -Interprete, &c._ 'Colonie in edibus Quentell. A.D. mcccccxv;' and Ibid. -'Colonie in edibus Martini Werdenensis xii. Kal. Dec. (1514?)' - -[490] Coletus Erasmo: Epist. lxxxv. App. - -[491] Ranke's _History of the Reformation_, bk. ii. c. 1. See Erasmus's -mention of Reuchlin in the letter written this autumn to Wimphelingus, -appended to the 2nd edition of _De Copiâ_. Schelestadt, 1514; and Eras. -Epist. clxvii. and clxviii. As to his friendship with the Archbishop of -Maintz, _vide_ Epist. cccxxxiv. - -[492] See letter to Wimphelingus, Basle, xi. Kal. Oct. 1514, _ubi supra_, -for these and the following particulars. - -[493] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 1249; and see Epist. clxxiv. Erasmus to Leo X. -p. 154, C and D. - -[494] Epist. dccccxxii. Eras. _Op._ iii. pp. 1054, 1055. - -[495] See the _Life of Beatus Rhenanus_, by John Sturmius, 'Vita -clarissimorum Historicorum.' Buderi, 1740, pp. 53-62; and Eras. _Op._ iii. -pp. 154, C, &c. (see Index under his name); and especially the prefatory -letter from Erasmus to Beatus Rhenanus, prefixed to 'Enarratio in Primum -Psalmum, Beatus vir,' &c. Louvain, 1515. There is also a mention of him -worth consulting in Du Pin's _Ecclesiastical Writers_, iii. p. 399. - -[496] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 222, E; and the letter to Wimphelingus. - -[497] Erasmus to Mountjoy, Epist. clxxxii., and the letter above mentioned -to Wimphelingus. - -[498] Epist. clxxxii. - -[499] Epist. Erasmi clix. and Epist. lxxxv. App. - -[500] Epist. lxxxv. App. - -[501] Epist. ad Wimphelingum. - -[502] Epist. clxvii. clxviii. and clxxiv. - -[503] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 141, C and D. - -[504] Brewer, i. lxix, and ii. i, _et seq._ - -[505] Ibid. ii. xxxviii. - -[506] Brewer, ii. liv. - -[507] See Eras. Epist. App. xxvii. xxi. and xxiii. These letters are dated -1515; and, from the mention of the New Testament as not yet placed in -Froben's hand, this date would seem to be correct. - -[508] Eras. _Op._ ii. pp. 870-2; and in part translated in Hallam's -_Literature of the Middle Ages_, part I, c. iv. These passages are quoted -from the explanation given in the Adagia of the proverb, '_Scarabeus -Aquilam quærit_.' They occur in the edition separately printed by Froben -in large type and in an octavo form, entitled 'Scarabeus:' Basle, mense -Maio, 1517, ff. 21-23. - -[509] Eras. _Op._ ii. p. 775. From the _Adagia_, 'Sileni Alcibiadis.' - -[510] Eras. Epist. App. xxi. That this edition was printed in 1515, see -mention of it in Erasmus's letter to Dorpius, dated Antwerp, 1515, and -published at Louvain, Oct. 1515. - -[511] Martinus Dorpius Erasmo: _D. Erasmi, &c. Enarratio in Primum -Psalmum, &c. &c._ Louvain, Oct. 1515. - -[512] See the commencement of the reply of Erasmus. - -[513] 'Martinus Dorpius instigantibus quibusdam primus omnium coepit in me -velitari.... Scirem illum non odio mei huc venisse, sed juvenem tum, ac -natura facilem, aliorum impulsu protrudi.'--_Erasmus Botzemo, Catalogus_, -&c. Basle, 1523; leaf b, 5. - -[514] Erasmus to Dorpius: _D. Erasmi, &c. Enarratio in Primum Psalmum, &c. -&c._ Louvain, Oct. 1515. - -[515] Erasmus to Wolsey: Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 1565; App. Epist. lxxiv. -wrongly dated 1516 instead of 1515. - -[516] In a letter prefixed to the _Erasmi Epigrammata_, Basle, 1518, -Froben pays a just tribute to the good humour and high courtesy of Erasmus -while at work in his printing-office, interrupted as he often was, in the -midst of his laborious duties, by frequent requests from all kinds of -people for an epigram or a letter from the great scholar.--Pp. 275, 276. - -[517] Erasmus Urbano Regio: Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 1554, App. Epist. liii. - -[518] In one place he even supplied a portion of the Greek text which was -missing by translating the Latin back into Greek! - -[519] _Epist. ad Car. Grymanum_, prefixed to the Paraphrase on the Epistle -to the Romans. Edition Louvain, 1517. - -[520] Erasmus Gwolfgango Fabricio Capitoni: Epist. ccvii. _Op._ iii. p. -189, 89, A, C, Feb. 22, 1516, from Antwerp, but probably the year should -be 1518. See also his reference to the same pagan tendencies of Italian -philosophy in his treatise entitled '_Ciceronianus_,' and the letter -prefixed to it. - -[521] Ranke's _History of the Popes_, i. ch. ii. sec. 3. - -[522] _Ubi supra._ - -[523] See the authorities mentioned by Ranke, and also Hallam's -_Literature of Europe_, chap. iv. ed. 1837, p. 435. - -[524] Hallam, p. 436. - -[525] Moria, ed. 1511, Argent. fol. G. iii. - -[526] Hallam's _Literature of the Middle Ages_, ed. 1837, p. 555, _et -seq._ - -[527] Compare the satire on Monks in '_Scarabeus_,' and the colloquy -called '_Charon_,' with the following passage, in which Erasmus alludes to -the continental wars of Henry VIII.: 'Id enim temporis adornabatur bellum -in Gallos, et hujus fabulæ non minimam partem Minoritæ duo agebant, quorum -alter, fax belli, mitram meruit, alter bonis lateribus vociferabatur in -concionibus in _Poetas_. Sic enim designabat Coletum,' &c. Eras. _Op._ -iii. p. 460, F. - -[528] Compare the similar views expressed in the _Enchiridion_ (Canon V.) -fifteen years before. - -[529] Both the above passages are slightly abridged in the -translation.--_Novum Instrumentum_, leaf aaa, 3 to bbb. - -[530] _Id._ leaf bbb to bbb 5. The quotations in this case also are -abridged. - -[531] _Novum Instrumentum_: Annotationes in loco Acts vii. p. 382:--'Et -hunc locum annotavit Hieronymus in Libro ad Pammachium de Optimo Genere -Interpretandi, qui secus habeatur in Genesi, ubi legitur quod Abraham -emerit ab Ephron Etheo filio Saor juxta Hebron quadringentis drachmis -speluncam duplicem, et agrum circa eam, sepelieritque in ea Saram uxorem -suam; atque in eodem legimus libro postea revertentem de Mesopotamia Jacob -cum uxoribus et filiis suis posuisse tabernaculum ante Salem, urbem -Sichymorum, quæ est in terra Chanaan, et habitasse ibi et emisse partem -agri, in quo habebat tentoria, ab Emor patre Sychem, centum agnis, et -statuisse ibi altare et invocasse deum Israhel. Proinde Abraham non emit -specum ab Emor patre Sychem, sed ab Ephron filio Saor, nec sepultus est in -Sychem sed in Hebron, quæ corrupte dicitur Arboch. Porro duodecim -patriarchæ non sunt sepulti in Arboch sed in Sychem, qui ager non est -emptus ab Abraham sed a Jacob. Hunc nodum illic nectit Hieronymus nec eum -dissolvit.' - -[532] In loco Mark ii. p. 299, where Erasmus writes:--'Divus Hieronymus in -libello de Optimo Genere Interpretandi indicat nomen Abiathar pro -Achimelech esse positum, propterea quod libro Regum primo, capite 22, ubi -refertur hujusce rei historia, nulla mentio hat Abiathar sed duntaxat -Achimelech. Sive id acciderit lapsu memoriæ, sive vitio scriptorum, sive -quod ejusdem hominis vocabulum sit Abiathar et Abimelech; nam Lyra putat, -Abiathar fuisse filium Achimelech qui sub patre functus sit officio -paterno, et eo cæso jussu Saulis comes fuerit fugæ Davidicæ.' - -[533] In loco Matt. xxvii. p. 290:--'Annotavit hunc quoque locum divus -Hieronymus in libro cui titulus de Optimo Genere Interpretandi, negans -quod his citat ex Hieremia Matthæus, prorsus exstare apud Hieremiam, verum -apud Zachariam prophetam, sed ita ut quæ retulit evangelista, parum -respondeant ad Hebraicam veritatem, ac multo minus ad vulgatam editionem -Septuaginta. Etenim ut idem sit sensus tamen inversa esse verba, imo pene -diversa. Cæterum locus est apud Zachariam, cap. ii., si quis velit -excutere. Nam res perplexior est quam ut his paucis explicari possit, et -prope [Greek: parergon] est. Refert Hieronymus Hieremaiam apocryphum sibi -exhibitum a quodam Judæo factionis Nazarenæ in quo hæc ad verbum ut ab -evangelista citantur haberentur. Verum non probat ut apostolus ex -apocryphis adduxerit testimonium, præsertim cum his mos sit evangelistis -et apostolis ut, neglectis verbis, sensum utcumque reddant in citandis -testimoniis.' - -[534] See especially _Novum Instrumentum_, pp. 295, 290, 377, 382, 270. - -[535] Roper, 9. - -[536] - - 1512 £286,269 - 1513 699,714 - 1514 155,757 - --------- - £1,141,740 - - 1515 £74,007 - 1516 130,779 - 1517 78,887 - ------- - £283,673 - -See Brewer, ii. preface, cxciv. - -[537] 6 Henry VIII. c. 24. - -[538] Ibid. c. 26. - -[539] 6 Henry VIII. c. 1. The draft of this Act in the final form in which -it was adopted when Parliament met again in the autumn, is in Wolsey's -handwriting.--Brewer. - -[540] Grafton, p. 104. Holinshed, ii. 835, under date 6 Henry VIII. - -[541] 4 Henry VIII. c. 5, and 6 Henry VIII. c. 3. - -[542] 6 Henry VIII. c. 5. - -[543] Lord Herbert's History, under date 1521, ed. 1649, p. 108; and -Grafton, pp. 1016-1018. - -[544] Brewer, i. Nos. 4019 and 4020. - -[545] 4 Henry VIII. c. 2, and 6 Henry VIII. c. 6. - -[546] 6 Henry VIII. c. 12. - -[547] Brewer, ii. 422 (7 May), 480, and 534; also Roper, 10. - -[548] Brewer, ii. 672, 679, 733, 782, 807. - -[549] Ibid. 672 and 733. - -[550] Ibid. 904 and 922. - -[551] Ibid. 1067. - -[552] 'First after the Trinity come the _Seraphic_ spirits, all _flaming -and on fire_.... They are _loving_ beings of the highest order, &c.' -Colet's abstract of the _Celestial Hierarchy of Dionysius_. Mr. Lupton's -translation, p. 20. - -[553] Fiddes' _Life of Wolsey_. Collections, p. 252, quoted from MS. in -Herald's office. Cerem. vol. iii. p. 219, &c. Brewer, ii. 1153. - -[554] Brewer, ii. 1335. - -[555] Eras. Epist. ccli. and App. lxxxvii. - -[556] Erasmus to Hutten, Epist. ccccxlvii. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 476, F. - -[557] Utopia, 1st ed. T. Martins. Louvain [1516], chap. 'De Foederibus.' -Leaf k, ii. - -[558] Utopia, 1st ed. 'De Re Militari.' Leaf k, iii. - -[559] _Utopia_, 1st ed. Leaves m, iv. v. - -[560] More's English Works: _The Apology_, p. 850. - -[561] _Utopia_, 1st ed. Leaf h, i. - -[562] _Utopia_, 1st ed. Leaf f, iii. - -[563] _Ibid._ chap. 'De Urbibus,' Leaf f, i. - -[564] I may be allowed to refer the reader to the valuable mention of -'Utopia' in the preface to Mr. Brewer's _Calendar of the Letters, &c. of -Henry VIII._ vol. ii. cclxvii _et seq._, where its connection with the -political and social condition of Europe at the time is well pointed out. - -[565] In support of the abstract here given of the moral philosophy of the -Utopians, see _Utopia_, 1st ed. Leaf h, ii. _et seq._ - -For the following careful translation of the most material part of it, I -am indebted to the Rev. W. G. Rouse, M.A. - -'The same points of moral philosophy are discussed by the Utopians as by -us. They inquire what is "_good_" in respect as well of the mind as of the -body, as also of external things; also, whether the title "_good_" be -applicable to all these, or to the mental qualities alone. They discuss -"_virtue_" and "_pleasure_." But their first and principal topic of debate -is concerning human "_happiness_"--on what thing or things they consider -it to depend. - -'But here they seem more inclined than they should be to that party which -advocates "_pleasure_," as being that which they define as either the -whole, or the most important part of human happiness. And, what is more -surprising, they even draw arguments in support of so nice an opinion from -the principles of religion, which is usually sombre and severe, and of a -stern and melancholy character. For they never dispute about happiness -without joining some principles drawn from religion to those derived from -rational philosophy; without which, reason is, in their opinion, defective -and feeble in the search for true happiness. Their religious principles -are as follow. The soul is immortal, and, by the goodness of God, born to -happiness. He has appointed rewards after this life for man's virtues and -good deeds--punishment for his sins. Now, though these principles -appertain to _religion_, yet they think that they are led by _reason_ to -believe and assent to them. Apart from these principles, they -unhesitatingly declare that no man can be so foolish as not to see that -pleasure is to be pursued for its own sake through thick and thin; so long -as he takes care only not to let a less pleasure stand in the way of a -greater, and not to pursue any pleasure which is followed in its turn by -pain. - -'For they consider "_virtue_" austere and hard to strive after; and they -deem it the greatest madness for a man not only to exclude all -"_pleasure_" from life, but even voluntarily to suffer pain without -prospect of future profit (for what profit can there be, if you gain -nothing after death, after having spent the whole of your life without -pleasure, that is, in misery?). - -'But now they do not place happiness in the enjoyment of every kind of -pleasure, but in that only which is honest and good. For they think that -our nature is attracted to happiness, as to its supreme good, by that very -"_virtue_" to which alone the opposite party ascribes happiness. For they -define "_virtue_," the living in accordance with nature; inasmuch as, to -this end, we are created by God. They believe that he follows the guidance -of nature who obeys the dictates of reason in the pursuit or avoidance of -anything; and they say that reason first of all inflames men with a love -and reverence for the Divine Majesty, to whom we owe it both that we -exist, and that we are capable of happiness; and secondly, that reason -impresses upon us and urges us to pass our lives with the least amount of -care and the greatest amount of pleasure ourselves; and, as we are bound -to do by the natural ties of society, to give our assistance to the rest -of mankind towards attaining the same ends. For never was there a man so -stern a follower of "virtue," or hater of pleasure, who, whilst thus -enjoining upon you labours, watchings, and discomfort, would not tell you -likewise to relieve the want and misfortunes of others to the utmost of -your ability, and would not think it commendable for men to be of mutual -help and comfort to one another in the name of humanity. If, then, it be -in human nature (and no virtue is more peculiar to man) to relieve the -misery of others, and, by removing their troubles, to restore them to the -enjoyment of life, that is, to pleasure--does not nature, which prompts -men to do this for others, urge them also to do it for themselves? For a -joyful life--that is, a life of pleasure--is either an evil--in which -case, not only should you not help others to lead such a life, but, as far -as you can, prevent them from leading it, as being hurtful and deadly; or, -if it be a good thing, and if it be not only lawful, but a matter of duty -to enable others to lead such a life--why should it not be good for -yourself first of all, who ought not to be less careful of yourself than -of others? For when nature teaches you to be kind to others, she does not -bid you to be hard and severe to yourself in return. Nature herself then, -in their belief, enjoins a happy life--that is, "_pleasure_"--as the end -of all our efforts; and to live by this rule, they call "_virtue_." - -'But, since nature urges men to strive together to make life more cheerful -(which, indeed, she rightly does; for no man is so much raised above the -condition of his fellows as to be the only favourite of nature, which -cherishes alike all whom she binds together by the tie of a common shape), -she surely bids you urgently to beware of attending so much to your own -interest as to prejudice the interest of others. They think, therefore, -that not only all contracts between private citizens should be kept, but -also public laws, which either a good prince has legally enacted, or a -people neither oppressed by tyranny, nor circumvented by fraud, has -sanctioned by common consent for the apportionment of the conveniences of -life; that is, the material of pleasure. Within the limits of these laws, -it is common prudence to look after your own interests; it is a matter of -duty to have regard for the public weal also. But to attempt to deprive -another of pleasure in favouring your own, is to do a real injury. On the -other hand, to deprive yourself of something in order that you may give it -to another, that is indeed an act of humanity and kindness which in itself -never costs so much as it brings back. For it is not only repaid by the -interchange of kindnesses; but also the very consciousness of a good -action done and the recollection of the love and gratitude of those whom -you have benefited, afford more pleasure to the mind, than the thing from -which you have abstained would have afforded to the body. And, lastly, God -repays the loss of these small and fleeting pleasures with vast and -endless joy; a doctrine of the truth of which religion easily convinces a -believing mind. - -'Thus, on these grounds, they determine that, all things being carefully -weighed and considered, all our actions, and our very virtues among them, -regard pleasure and happiness after all as their object.'--_Utopia_, 1st -ed. Leaf h, ii. _et seq._ - -[566] J. S. Mill's _Essay on Utilitarianism_, p. 24. - -[567] _Utopia_ 1st ed. Leaf i, i. - -[568] Leaf i, ii. - -[569] Leaf i, iii. - -[570] Leaf h, ii. - -[571] Leaves h, i. and ii. - -[572] Leaf l, iv. - -[573] Ibid. - -[574] Leaf m, ii. - -[575] Leaf m, i. - -[576] Leaf l, iii. - -[577] Leaf m, iii. - -[578] It is impossible not to see in this a ritualism rather of the -_Dionysian_ than of the modern sacerdotal type. - -[579] _Utopia_, 1st ed. 'De Religionibus Vtopiensium.' - -[580] Epist. clxvii. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 144, A. - -[581] Erasmus to Savage: Epist. clxxvi. June 1, 1516. Brewer, 1976. - -[582] 'There is certainly a steadiness of moral principle and Christian -endurance, which tells us that it is better not to exist at all than to -exist at the price of virtue; but few indeed of the countrymen and -contemporaries of Machiavel had any claim to the practice, whatever they -might have to the profession, of such integrity. _His crime in the eyes of -the world, and it was truly a crime, was to have cast away the veil of -hypocrisy, the profession of a religious adherence to maxims which at the -same moment were violated._'--Hallam's _Literature of the Middle Ages_, -chap. vii. s. 31. - -[583] 'Whatever may be thought of the long-disputed question as to -Machiavelli's motives in writing, his work certainly presents to us a -gloomy picture of the state of public law and European society in the -beginning of the sixteenth century: one mass of dissimulation, crime, and -corruption, which called loudly for a great teacher and reformer to arise, -who should speak the unambiguous language of truth and justice to princes -and people, and stay the ravages of this moral pestilence. - -'Such a teacher and reformer was _Hugo Grotius_, who was born in the -latter part of the same century and flourished in the beginning of the -seventeenth.... He was one of those powerful minds which have paid the -tribute of their assent to the truth of Christianity.'--Wheaton's -_Elements of International Law_: London, 1836, pp. 18, 19. - -[584] 1st ed. leaf c, i. - -[585] 1st ed. leaf d, ii. Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 567. - -[586] 1st ed. leaf d, iii. Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 567. - -[587] Leaf d, iii. - -[588] 1st ed. leaf f, ii. Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 574. - -[589] 'Monarchia temperata,' in the marginal reading. - -[590] Abridged quotation, 1st ed. leaf f, iv. Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 576. - -[591] _Ibid._ - -[592] 1st ed. leaf g, iii. Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 579. - -[593] Leaf l, i. - -[594] 1st. ed. leaf l, i. Eras. _Op._ iv. pp. 593, 594. - -[595] _Ibid._ Charles the Bold was the prince alluded to. - -[596] Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 595, _et seq._ - -[597] 1st ed. leaf l, iv. - -[598] Leaf m, i. - -[599] Eras. _Op._ iv. 603. - -[600] 1st ed. leaf o, i. Eras. _Op._ iv. pp. 607 _et seq._ - -[601] 1st ed. leaf o, iii. - -[602] On August 5 he seems to have been in London, and to have written a -letter from thence to Leo X. Eras. Epist. clxxxi. Brewer, ii. 2257. - -On August 17 he writes from Rochester to Ammonius, that he is spending ten -days there. Eras. Epist. cxlvi. Brewer, ii. 2283. And again on August 22. -Eras. Epist. cxlvii. Brewer, ii. 2290. On the 31st he writes to Boville -from the same place. Eras. Epist. cxlviii. Brewer, ii. 2321. - -[603] Erasmus to Ammonius: Epist. cxxxiii. Brewer, ii. 2323, without date. - -[604] Eras. Epist. lxxxvii. App. and ccxviii. Brewer, ii. 2409. - -[605] Erasmus Ægidio: Epist. cccxlv. November 18, 1518. The mention of St. -Jerome as not yet finished (see Epist. ccxviii.; Brewer, 2409), fixes the -date 1516. Brewer, ii. 2558. - -[606] Letter from More to Peter Giles, prefixed to 'Utopia.' - -[607] Roper, pp. 9, 10. Eras. _Op._ iii. pp. 474, 476. - -[608] More to Erasmus: Eras. Epist. ccxxvii. - -[609] Roper, 10. - -[610] Erasmus to Hutten: Epist. ccccxlvii. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 476, B. - -[611] Leaf b, 4. - -[612] Leaves b, iv to c, ii. These extracts are somewhat abridged and -condensed. - -[613] Leaves d, ii. _et seq._ These extracts are somewhat abridged and -condensed. - -[614] Eras. Epist. App. xliv. (Brewer, ii. 2748), in which Lord Mountjoy -acknowledges the receipt of a copy sent by Erasmus, dated Jan. 4, 1516; -i.e. 1517 in modern reckoning. - -[615] The extracts from the Utopia, translations of which are given in -this chapter, have in all cases been taken from the first edition -(Louvain, 1516), but very few alterations were made in subsequent -editions. The first edition was published in Dec. 1516. I am indebted to -Mr. Lupton for the suggestion that the publication of some letters of -Vespucci at Florence, in 1516, may have suggested More's use of that -voyager's name in his introductory book. - -Erasmus, writing from Antwerp to More, March 1 [1517], says: 'Utopiam tuam -recognitam, huc quam primum mittito, et nos exemplar, aut Basilium -mittemus aut Lutetiam.'--Epist. ccviii. - -Erasmus sent it to Froben of Basle, by whom a corrected edition was -published in March, 1518, and another in November of the same year. See -Appendix F. - -[616] Eras. Epist. cclvi. Brewer, ii. 2000; from St. Omer; and see ccxxv. -Brewer, ii. 1976. - -[617] Epist. clviii. Erasmus to Ammonius: June 5, 1514; in error for 1516. - -[618] More to Erasmus: Eras. Epist. lii. App. London, Feb. 25, 1516. - -[619] Eras. Epist. lxxxiv. App. Brewer, ii. 2941, dated 'in die sancti -Edwardi, in festo _suæ_ [? secundæ] translationis, sive 13 Octobris, -1516.' Probably '_second_ translation of St. Edward,' on June 20, 1516. -The words 'sive 13 Oct.' are not found in the copy of this letter in -_Aliquot Epistolæ, &c._ (Basle, 1518, pp. 249, 252), nor in the ed. of -1640. The earlier date seems to harmonise more with the contents of the -letter than the later date. - -[620] Eras. Epist. lxxxvii. App. Brewer, ii. 2492. - -[621] Eras. Epist. Waramus Erasmo, cclxi. _Aliquot Epistolæ, &c._ Basle, -1518, p. 231. - -[622] Eras. Epist. ccxxi. App. - -[623] Thomæ Mori ad Monachum Epistola: _Epistolæ aliquot Eruditorum -Virorum_. Basle, 1520, p. 122. - -[624] Erasmus to Boville, from the Bishop's palace at Rochester, pridie -calendas Septembris. _Aliquot Epistolæ, &c._ Basle, 1518, pp. 234-246. -Eras. Epist. cxlviii. Brewer, ii. 2321. The above is only an abstract of -this letter, and some of the quotations are abridged. - -[625] More to Erasmus: Epist. lxxxvii. App. dated Oct. 31, 1516. - -[626] Erasmus to Ammonius, from Brussels, December 29, 1516. Brewer, ii. -2709. - -[627] Epist. cclvi. June 1517; should be 1516. Brewer, ii. 2000. - -[628] Bearing date, Tubingen, Aug. 21, 1516. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 1595. It -was first printed probably at the back of the titlepage of '_Epigrammata -Des. Erasmi Roterodami_.' Basle, March 1518. - -[629] Oecolampadius Erasmo: Eras. Epist. ccxxxviii.; also cxix. App. and -ccccxi. - -[630] Spalatinus Erasmo: Eras. Epist. xciv. App. - -[631] Luther's _Briefe_. De Wette, i. 40, No. xxii. - -[632] Philippi Melanchthonis _Vita Martini Lutheri_, chap. v. 'Vita ejus -monastica.' - -[633] Philippi Melanchthonis _Vita Martini Lutheri_, chap. vi. vii. - -[634] Ranke refers to the period before 1516. See _Hist. of Reformation_, -vol. i. bk. ii. ch. i. - -[635] _Novum Instrumentum_, folio, 433. - -[636] Luther to Spalatin: Luther's _Briefe_. De Wette, No. xxii. - -[637] Luther an Joh. Lange: De Wette, No. xxix. p. 52. - -[638] More to Erasmus: Epist. lxxxvii. App. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 1575, A -and B. - -[639] Vol. i. Epist. 2. - -[640] Vol. i. App. 1. - -[641] Vol. ii. Ep. 9. - -[642] Vol. ii. Ep. 49. - -[643] Ibid. Ep. 68. - -[644] One of the best and most valuable essays on the _Epistolæ Obscurorum -Virorum_ will be found in No. cv. of the _Edinburgh Review_, March 1831. - -[645] Ranke's _History of the Reformation_, bk. ii. chap. 1. - -[646] Epist. cxxxiii. App. - -[647] Ibid. ccccxxviii. App. - -[648] Ibid. ccxlvi. App. - -[649] 'Sed, meo judicio, nulla via assequemur, quam ardenti amore et -imitatione Jesu. Quare relictis ambagibus, ad brevitatem brevi compendio -eamus: ego pro viribus volo.' These sentences remind one of the -conversation between Tauler and Nicholas of Basle, in the beautiful story -of the _Master and the Man_, where the master says, 'Verum est, charissime -fili, quod ais. Adhuc enim durior mihi videtur esse hic sermo tuus.' And -the layman replies, 'Et tamen ipse me rogasti, Domine Magister, ut -compendiosissimum ad supremam hujus vitæ perfectionem iter tibi -demonstrarem. Et certe securiorem ego, quàm sit ista, viam ad imitandum -exemplar sacratissimæ humanitatis Christi nullam novi.' _Thauleri Opera_, -p. 16. Paris. 1623. - -[650] Foxe, ed. 1597, p. 887. - -[651] Thomæ Mori ad Monachum Epistola. _Epistolæ aliquot Eruditorum -Virorum_: Basle, 1520, pp. 128, 129. The letter does not state exactly the -date of this singular occurrence. - -[652] _On the Romans_: Louvain, 1517, at the press of Martins. - -[653] Erasmus to Cope, ccv. Brewer, ii. p. 2962. See also cciii. and cciv. -and Erasmus to Henry VIII. cclxviii. - -[654] Erasmus to Cardinal Grymanus, prefixed to the _Paraphrases on the -Romans_. Dated, Id. Nov. 1517. - -[655] Mountjoy to Wolsey: Brewer, ii. p. 1259; and Bishop of Worcester to -Wolsey: ibid. No. 4179. Ranke's _Hist. of the Reformation_, bk. ii. chap. -1. - -[656] One early edition, without date, has in the margin, 'Fictæ -pontificum condonationes vel indulgentiæ;' and Lystrius, in his note on -this passage, says, 'Has vulgo vocant indulgentias.' The marginal note in -the Argent. edition of 1511 reads, 'indulgentias taxat.' - -[657] Basle, ed. 1519, p. 141. - -[658] Eras. Epist. cclxiv. Aug. 29, 1517. - -[659] Bishop of Worcester to Wolsey: Brewer, ii. p. 4179. - -[660] Papers relating to the Convocation: Brewer, ii. p. 1312. - -[661] Ranke's _History of the Reformation_, London, 1845, i. p. 333. -Brewer, ii. p. 3160 and 3688. - -[662] Brewer, ii. p. 3818, and preface, ccv. - -[663] Ranke, p. 332. - -[664] Ibid. p. 333. - -[665] Ibid. p. 350. - -[666] Ibid. p. 356. - -[667] Erasmus to Beatus Rhenanus: Epist. clxiv. App. Brewer, ii. p. 3614. -Ranke, p. 378. - -[668] Ranke, pp. 239 and 379. - -[669] Ibid. p. 359. - -[670] Ranke, p. 239. - -[671] Ibid. p. 241. - -[672] Erasmus to Fisher: cccvi. App. Brewer, ii. p. 3989. - -[673] Eras. Epist. App. cccv. Brewer, ii. p. 3992. - -[674] Eras. Epist. App. cclxix. - -[675] Epist. App. cclxv. Brewer, ii. p. 3991. - -[676] Ægidius to Erasmus: Epist. ccccxxxvi. Brewer, ii. p. 4238. - -[677] See Brewer's preface to vol. ii. pp. cxlvii-clvii. - -[678] See Brewer, ii. cxlii-clxi (preface). - -[679] Roper, p. 11. - -[680] Roper, p. 48. - -[681] Epist. cclxviii. - -[682] Epist. App. cccxi. and cclxxxii. Brewer, ii. p. 4111. - -[683] Erasmus to Henry VIII.: Brewer, iii. No. 226. - -[684] March 13, 1518. Eras. Epist. App. cclxxiv. Brewer, ii. p. 4005. - -[685] Epist. ccxlvii. Brewer, ii. p. 4138. Eras. Epist. Basle, 1521, p. -217. - -[686] Eras. Epist. App. cclxxxiv.-v. - -[687] Ibid. App. cccv. - -[688] Eras. _Op._ iii. 401 E. - -[689] Eras. Epist. ccciii. first printed in _Auctarium selectarum -Epistolarum Erasmi, &c._ Basle, 1518, p. 39. - -[690] Luther's _Briefe_. De Wette. Epist. No. xxxvii. - -[691] Eras. Epist. ccciii. - -[692] Epist. ccclxxvi. dated May 15, 1518, and first printed at p. 45 of -the _Auctarium selectarum Epistolarum, &c._ Basle, 1518. - -[693] Erasmus to More, App. cclxxxv. Brewer, ii. p. 4204; and in App. -cclxxxiv. Ibid. ii. p. 4203. - -[694] Brewer, ii. p. 3991. Eras. Epist. App. cclxv. - -[695] _Lucubrationum Erasmi Index_: Frobenius, Basle, 1519. - -[696] Epist. cclxv. App. Brewer, ii. p. 3991. Dated March 5, 1518. - -[697] Eras. Epist. App. cccxi. Brewer, ii. p. 4110. - -[698] _Adagia_: Basle, 1520-21, p. 494. I have not seen the edition of -1517, but it is mentioned in _Lucubrationum Erasmi Index_; Basle, 1519. - -[699] _Auctarium selectarum aliquot Epistolarum Erasmi_, &c.: Basle, with -preface by Beatus Rhenanus, dated xi. Calendas Septembris, 1518, and -'_Aliquot Epistolæ sane quam elegantes Erasmi Roterodami, et ad hunc -aliorum eruditissimorum hominum_.' Basle, Jan. 1518. The latter includes -Colet's letter to Erasmus on the _Novum Instrumentum_. An edition, -containing some of the letters of Erasmus and others, had also been -printed by Martins at Louvain in April, 1517. - -[700] English translation. London: Jno. Byddell, 1522. - -[701] 'Cur sic arctamus Christi professionem quam ille latissime voluit -patere?' - -[702] These passages are condensed in the translation. - -[703] Erasmus to Laurinus: Epist. ccclvi. See Jortin, i. 140. - -[704] The Epistle at the beginning from Leo X. to Erasmus, bears date -Sept. 1518. March 1519 is the date printed at the end. - -[705] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. p. 266. - -[706] _Novum Testamentum_, pp. 209, 93, 82, 83. - -[707] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. pp. 19, 20. - -[708] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. pp. 28, 29. - -[709] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. pp. 34, 35. - -[710] _Ibid._ p. 32. - -[711] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. p. 32. These passages are abridged in -the translation. - -[712] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. pp. 35, 36. - -[713] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. p. 42. - -[714] _Ibid._ p. 61. - -[715] When, after the 3rd edition had been published and a 4th was in -preparation, in 1526, a Doctor of the Sorbonne attacked the New Testament -of Erasmus, he was able triumphantly to ask him, 'what he wanted?' His New -Testament had already been 'scattered abroad by the printers in thousands -of copies over and over again.' His critic '_should have written in -time_!'--Erasmus to the Faculty of Paris. Jortin, ii. App. No. xlix. p. -492. - -[716] Eras. _Op._ iii. pp. 374, 375. - -[717] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 432, D and E. - -[718] Eras. Epist. ccclvii. - -[719] Eras. _Op._ iii. 1490, D. Brewer, ii. Nos. 3670, 3671, dated Sept. -1517. - -[720] Brewer, preface, ccxi. - -[721] Jortin's _Life of Erasmus_, App. p. 662-667. - -[722] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 408, b. - -[723] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 408. - -[724] _Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII._ ii. p. 127. - -[725] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 457, E. See also Mr. Lupton's _Introduction_ to -his edition of _Dean Colet on the Sacraments of the Church_, pp. 19 and -26. - -[726] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 457, E. - -[727] _Ibid._ p. 459, A and B. - -[728] William Lilly was married and had several children. The sur-master, -John Rightwyse, married his daughter. Mr. Lupton informs me, that in vol. -iv. of Stow's _Historical Collections_ (Harleian, No. 450), fol. 58 _b_, -is a Latin epitaph, in ten lines, by Lilly on his wife. Her name is spelt -'Hagnes,' and (if the reading be correct) they appear to have had fifteen -children. - -[729] Knight's _Life of Colet_. _Miscellanies_, No. v. - -[730] The original of this book with Colet's signature is still preserved -at the Mercers' Hall. - -[731] Knight, p. 227. He drew up a body of statutes, which, however, were -never accepted by the chapter.--Milman's _Annals of St. Paul's_, p. 124. - -[732] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 460, A. - -[733] _Ibid._ p. 445, B. - -[734] _Ibid._ p. 751, E. - -[735] Strausz. Leipzig, 1858, vol. i. p. 123. - -[736] _Epistolæ aliquot Eruditorum, &c._ Appended to _Apologia Erasmi, -&c._ Basil 1520, pp. 139, 140. - -[737] This letter possibly may not have reached England before Colet's -death; but it is most likely that the date is wrong, as so often is the -case with these letters--the year not being often added by the writer -himself at the time, but by some copyist subsequently. - -[738] 'Epistola clarissimi viri Thomæ Mori, qua refellit rabiosam -maledicentiam monachi cujusdam juxta indocti atque arrogantis.'--_Epistolæ -aliquot Eruditorum Virorum, &c._ Basileæ, M.DXX. pp. 92-138. Also Jortin's -_Life of Erasmus_, Appendix. - -[739] 'Nisi quod Lutherus fertur Augustini doctrinam mordicus tenens -antiquatam sententiam rursus instaurare.'--p. 99. - -[740] For the above particulars see Ranke's _History of the Reformation_, -bk. ii. c. iii. - -[741] _Melanchthonis Epistolæ_: Bretschneider, i. p. 63, and p. 66. - -[742] March 1519, Bretschneider, i. p. 75. - -[743] Erasmus to Oecolampadius, 1518, Epist. cccliv. - -[744] Dated January 5, from Wittemberg. Bretschneider, i. p. 59. - -[745] Epist. ccccxi. - -[746] Luther's _Briefe_. De Wette, vol. i. Epist. cxxx. p. 249. - -[747] Louvain, May 30, 1519. Eras. Epist. ccccxxvii. - -[748] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 444, E and F. - -[749] Epist. cccxvii. May 8, 1519. - -[750] Epist. ccccxiii. Ap. 23, 1519. - -[751] Eras. Epist. Laurentio: Louvain, Feb. 1519, prefixed to the Basle -edition of the Five Epistles, 1520. - -[752] _Apologia pro Declamatione de Laude Matrimonii_: Basil. 1519. - -[753] Colet seems even to have retired from the office of preacher before -the King on Good Friday, which he had filled in 1510, 1511, 1512, 1513, -1515, 1516, and 1517. Brewer, ii. pp. 1445-1474. In 1518 the sermon was -preached by the Dean of Sarum, p. 1477. - -[754] Epist. cccclxxiv. Erasmus to Fisher: Louvain, Oct. 17, 1519. - -[755] Ranke, bk. ii. c. iii. De Wette, i. No. ccviii. p. 425. That Luther -had found a point of unison between himself and the Hussites, not only in -their common opposition to Papal authority, but also in their common -adoption of the severest views of St. Augustine, see '_Assertio omnium -articulorum M. Lutheri per Bullam Leonis X. novissimam damnatorum_.' Mense -Martio M.DXXI. Leaves Kk, ii. and iii. 'Habes, miserande Papa, quid hic -oggannias. Unde et hunc articulum necesse est revocare, male enim dixi -quod liberum arbitrium ante gratiam sit res de solo titulo, sed -simpliciter debui dicere, lib. arb. est figmentum in rebus, seu titulus -sine re. Quia nulli est in manu sua quippiam cogitare mali aut boni, sed -omnia (ut Viglephi articulus _Constantiæ_ damnatus recte docet) de -necessitate absoluta eveniunt.' These articles were condemned as a part of -the heresy of John Huss, of whom Luther in the same treatise had -said:--'Et in faciem tuam sanctissime Vicarie Dei, tibi libere dico, omnia -damnata Joannis Huss esse evangelica et Christiana,' &c. (_Ibid._ leaf Hh, -iii.) - -[756] See Epist. ccccxii. Louvain, April 23, 1519. - -[757] _History of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren._ By the -Rev. John Holmes. London, 1825, vol. i. chaps. i. and ii. - -[758] This middle party were called 'Calixtines.' See introduction to -Holmes's _History_, vol. i. p. 21, where the facts mentioned in this -letter are detailed, very much in accordance with Schlechta's account. - -[759] John Zisca was a Hussite. He died in 1424, nine years after the -death of Huss, and on his monument was inscribed, '_Here lies John Zisca, -who having defended his country against the encroachments of Papal -tyranny, rests in this hallowed place in spite of the Pope_.'--Ibid. p. -20. - -[760] Epist. cccclxiii. Dated Oct. 10, 1519. - -[761] Epist. cccclxxviii. Dated Nov. 1, 1519. The letter is a long one, -and these quotations are somewhat abridged in translation. - -[762] Luther replied:--'Absint a nobis Christianis Sceptici.... Nihil apud -Christianos notius et celebratius, quam assertio. Tolle assertiones et -Christianissimum tulisti.... Spiritus Sanctus non est scepticus, nec dubia -aut opiniones in cordibus nostris scripsit, sed assertiones, ipsa vita, et -omni experientia, certiores et firmiores.'--_De Servo Arbitrio_ Mar. -Lutheri. Wittembergæ, 1526, pp. 7-12. - -[763] 'Ideo alteram est judicium externum, quo non modo pro nobis ipsis, -sed et pro aliis et propter aliorum salutem, certissime judicamus spiritus -et dogmata omnium. Hoc judicium est publici ministerii in verbo et officii -externi, et maxime pertinet ad duces et præcones verbi &c.'--_De Servo -Arbitrio_ Mar. Lutheri. Wittembergæ, 1526, p. 82. - -[764] See Mozley's _Augustinian Doctrine of Predestination_. Chap. x. -_Scholastic Doctrine of Predestination._ And see the particular instance -there given on the subject of infants dying in original sin, p. 307. -'Being by nature reprobate, and not being included within the remedial -decree of predestination, they were ... [according to the pure Augustinian -doctrine] ... subject to the sentence of eternal punishment.... The -Augustinian schoolman [Aquinas] could not expressly contradict this -position, but what he could not contradict he could explain. Augustine had -laid down that the punishment of such children was the mildest of all -punishment in hell.'... Aquinas 'laid down the further hypothesis, that -this punishment was not pain of body or mind, but _want of the Divine -vision_.' - -[765] Epist. ccccxlvii. - -[766] See note on the date, More's birth, Appendix C. - -[767] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 475, E. - -[768] _Ibid._ C and D. One is tempted to think that More intended to -describe his first wife in the epigram, 'Ad Candidum qualis uxor -deligenda,' very freely translated into English verse by Archdeacon -Wrangham as follows:-- - - Far from her lips' soft door - Be noise or silence stern, - And hers be learning's store, - Or hers the power to learn. - - With books she'll time beguile, - And make true bliss her own, - Unbuoyed by Fortune's smile, - Unbroken by her frown. - - So still thy heart's delight, - And partner of thy way, - She'll guide thy children right, - When myriads go astray. - - So left all meaner things, - Thou'lt on her breast recline, - While to her lyre she sings - Strains, Philomel, like thine; - - While still thy raptured gaze - Is on her accents hung, - As words of honied grace - Steal from her honied tongue. - -Quoted from _Philomorus_, p. 42. - -[769] More's English _Works_, p. 1420. - -[770] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 475, D and E. - -[771] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 476, D, &c. - -[772] _Ibid._ p. 474, B. - -[773] _Ibid._ p. 474, E. - -[774] _Ibid._ p. 477, B. - -[775] _Ibid._ p. 474, E and F. - -[776] Colloquy entitled _Amicitia_. - -[777] Stapleton's _Tres Thomæ_, p. 257. - -[778] Eras. _Op._ i. p. 511, E. - -[779] _Mori Epigrammata_: Basle, 1520, p. 110. The first edition was -printed at Basle along with the _Utopia_ in 1518, and does not contain -these verses. - -[780] Mackintosh's _Life of Sir Thomas More_, p. 73, quoting 'City -Records.' - -[781] Roper, p. 12. - -[782] Ellis, _Original Letters_, 3rd series, letter lxxx. - -[783] Epist. cccclxvii. - -[784] Ibid. cccclxx. - -[785] Epist. cccclxxi. - -[786] Ibid. cccclxxiv. - -[787] Eras. _Op._ iii. Epist. cccclxxxi., and _Epistolæ aliquot Eruditorum -Virorum_: Basil. 1520, p. 46. - -[788] Ibid. p. 122. 'Coletum nomino, quo uno viro neque doctior neque -sanctior apud nos aliquot retro seculis quisque fuit.' - -[789] Ashmolean MSS. Oxford 77-141 a. I have to thank Mr. Coxe for the -following copy of the inscription: 'Joannes Coletus, Henrici Coleti iterum -prætoris Londini filius, et hujus templi decanus, magno totius populi -moerore, cui, ob vitæ integritatem et divinum concionandi munus, omnium -sui temporis fuit chariss., decessit anno a Christo nato 1519 et inclyti -regis Henrici Octavi 11, mensis Septembris 16. Is in coemeterio Scholam -condidit ac magistris perpetua stipendia contulit.' - -[790] Luther in his famous speech at the Diet, after alluding to his -doctrinal and devotional works, and offering to retract whatever in them -was contrary to Scripture, emphatically refused to retract what he had -written against the Papacy, on the ground that were he to do so, it would -be 'like throwing both doors and windows right open' to Rome to the injury -of the German nation. And in his German speech he added an exclamation, -most characteristic, at the very idea of the absurdity of its being -thought possible, that he could retract anything on this point:--'Good -God, what a great cloak of wickedness and tyranny should I be!' See -Förstermann's _Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der evangelischen -Kirchen-Reformation_, vol. i. p. 70: Hamburg, 1842. - -[791] I am mainly indebted to Mr. Lupton for this list. - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - -Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. - -Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}. - -The original text includes Greek characters that have been replaced with -transliterations in this text version. - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Oxford Reformers, by Frederic Seebohm - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OXFORD REFORMERS *** - -***** This file should be named 43735-8.txt or 43735-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/7/3/43735/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Oxford Reformers - John Colet, Erasmus, and Thomas More - -Author: Frederic Seebohm - -Release Date: September 15, 2013 [EBook #43735] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OXFORD REFORMERS *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43735 ***</div> <p class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></p> @@ -19520,383 +19481,7 @@ Kirchen-Reformation</i>, vol. i. p. 70: Hamburg, 1842.</p> <p><a name='f_791' id='f_791' href='#fna_791'>[791]</a> I am mainly indebted to Mr. Lupton for this list.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Oxford Reformers, by Frederic Seebohm - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OXFORD REFORMERS *** - -***** This file should be named 43735-h.htm or 43735-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/7/3/43735/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - -</pre> - +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43735 ***</div> </body> </html> diff --git a/43735.txt b/43735.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 7122364..0000000 --- a/43735.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,19759 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Oxford Reformers, by Frederic Seebohm - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Oxford Reformers - John Colet, Erasmus, and Thomas More - -Author: Frederic Seebohm - -Release Date: September 15, 2013 [EBook #43735] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OXFORD REFORMERS *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - - - - -JOHN COLET, ERASMUS, AND THOMAS MORE. - - - - -_By the same Author._ - -THE ENGLISH VILLAGE COMMUNITY Examined in its Relations to the Manorial -and Tribal Systems, &c. With 13 Maps and Plates. 8vo. 16_s._ - -THE TRIBAL SYSTEM IN WALES: Being Part of an Inquiry into the Structure -and Methods of Tribal Society. With 3 Maps. 8vo. 12_s._ - -THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION (_Epochs of Modern History_). With 4 -Maps and 12 Diagrams. Fcp. 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ - - LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. - London, New York, and Bombay. - - - - - THE OXFORD REFORMERS - - JOHN COLET, ERASMUS, AND THOMAS MORE. - - _BEING A HISTORY OF THEIR FELLOW-WORK._ - - - BY FREDERIC SEEBOHM. - - 'Tu interea patienter audi; ac nos ambo, collidentibus inter - se silicibus, si quis ignis excutiatur, eum avide - apprehendamus. _Veritatem_ enim quaerimus, non opinionis - offensionem....' (_Colet_, Eras. Op. v. p. 1292). - - 'Take no heed what thing many men do, but what thing the - _very law of nature_, what thing _very reason_, what thing - _Our Lord himself_ showeth thee to be done' (_Pico della - Mirandola_, translated by More: More's English Works, p. 13). - - 'Cur sic arctamus Christi professionem quam Ille latissime - volnit patere?' (_Erasmus_, Letter to Volzius, prefixed to - the 'Enchiridion'). - - - REPRINTED FROM THE THIRD EDITION. - - - LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. - LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY. - 1896. - - All rights reserved. - - - - -PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. - - -Since this book was written, years ago, the works of Dean Colet have one -after another been placed within reach of the public, ably edited by my -friend Mr. Lupton, and now I understand that a biography by the same -competent hand is also in the press. - -Under these circumstances I have had some hesitation in allowing a Third -Edition to be printed. I have yielded, however, to Mr. Lupton's pleading -that this history of the fellow-work of the three friends, imperfect as it -always was, and antiquated as it has now become, may live a little longer. - -F. S. - -THE HERMITAGE, HITCHIN: _March 8, 1887_. - - - - -PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. - - -Two circumstances have enabled me to make this Second Edition more -complete, and I trust more correct, than its predecessor. - -First: the remarkable discovery by Mr. W. Aldis Wright, on the blank -leaves of a MS. in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, of an -apparently contemporary family register recording, _inter alia_, the date -of the marriage of Sir Thomas More's parents, and of the birth of Sir -Thomas More himself (see Appendix C), has given the clue, so long sought -for in vain, to the chronology of More's early life. It has also made it -needful to alter slightly the title of this work. - -Secondly: the interesting MSS. of Colet's, on the 'Hierarchies of -Dionysius,' found by Mr. Lupton in the library of St. Paul's School, and -recently published by him with a translation and valuable -introduction,[1] have supplied a missing link in the chain of Colet's -mental history, which has thrown much fresh light, as well upon his -connection with the Neo-Platonists of Florence, as upon the position -already taken by him at Oxford, before the arrival of Erasmus. - -The greater part of the First Edition was already in the hands of the -public, when I became aware of the importance of this newly discovered -information; but, in October last, I withdrew the remaining copies from -sale, as it seemed to me that it would hardly be fair, under the -circumstances, to allow them to pass out of my hands. They have since been -destroyed. - -In publishing this revised and enlarged edition, I wish especially to -tender my thanks to Mr. Lupton for his invaluable assistance in its -revision, and for the free use he has throughout allowed me to make of the -results of his own researches. - -I have also to thank the Librarian of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, for the -loan of a beautiful copy of Colet's MS. on 'I. Corinthians;' and Mr. -Bradshaw, for kindly obtaining for me a transcript of the MS. on 'Romans' -in the University Library. - -At Mr. Bradshaw's suggestion I have added, in the Appendix, a catalogue of -the early editions of the works of Erasmus in my collection. It will at -least serve as evidence of the wide circulation obtained by these works -during the lifetime of their author. - -HITCHIN: _May 10, 1869_. - - - - -PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. - - -Some portions of this History were published in a somewhat condensed form -in the course of last year in the 'Fortnightly Review,' and I have to -thank the Editor for the permission to withdraw further portions, although -already in type, in order that the publication of this volume might not be -delayed.[2] - -Having regard to the extreme inaccuracy of the dates of the letters of -Erasmus,[3] the conflicting nature of the evidence relating to the -chronology of More's early life,[4] and the scantiness of the materials -for anything like a continuous biography of Colet, I should have -undertaken a difficult task had I attempted in this volume, even so far as -it goes, to give anything approaching to an exhaustive biography of Colet, -Erasmus, and More. But my object has not been to write the biography of -any one of them. I have rather endeavoured to trace their _joint_-history -and to point out the character of their _fellow-work_. And with regard to -the latter the evidence is so full, so various, and so consistent as to -leave, I think, little room for misapprehension, either as to whether -their work was indeed _fellow-work_, or as to the general spirit and scope -of the work itself. - -I gladly take this opportunity of tendering my best thanks to those who -have aided me in this undertaking. - -My warmest thanks are due to the Rev. J. S. Brewer, M.A., as well for the -invaluable aid afforded by his Calendars of the Letters, &c. of Henry -VIII., and for the loan of the proof-sheets of the forthcoming volume, as -for _the revision of the greater part of my translations_; also to Mr. -Gairdner for his ever ready assistance at the Public Record Office; to Dr. -Edward Boehmer, of the University of Halle, for his aid in the collection -of many of the early editions of works of Erasmus quoted in this volume; -to the Senate and the late Librarian of the Cambridge University Library -for the loan of the volume of MSS. marked Gg. 4, 26; and to Mr. Henry -Bradshaw, of King's College, Cambridge, for much valuable assistance, most -courteously rendered, in the examination of this and other manuscripts at -Cambridge. I have also to thank the Rev. J. H. Lupton, of St. Paul's -School, for the description given in Appendix C.[5] of a manuscript of -Colet's in the Library of St. Paul's School which I had overlooked, and -which I am happy to find is likely soon to be printed by him. - -In conclusion, I cannot refrain from adding a tribute of affectionate -regard for the memory of two of my friends--the late Mr. William Tanner of -Bristol, and the late Mr. B. B. Wiffen of Woburn--of whose interest in the -progress of this work I have received many proofs, and of whose kindly -criticism I have gratefully availed myself. - -HITCHIN: _March 30, 1867_. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - CHAPTER I. - - 1. John Colet returns from Italy to Oxford (1496) 1 - - 2. The Rise of the New Learning (1453-92) 5 - - 3. Colet's previous History (1496) 14 - - 4. Thomas More, another Oxford Student (1492-6) 23 - - 5. Colet first hears of Erasmus (1496) 27 - - - CHAPTER II. - - 1. Colet's lectures on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (1496-7?) 29 - - 2. Visit from a Priest during the Winter Vacation (1496-7?) 42 - - 3. Colet on the Mosaic Account of the Creation (1497?) 46 - - 4. Colet studies afresh the Pseudo-Dionysian Writings (1497?) 60 - - 5. Colet lectures on 'I. Corinthians' (1497?) 78 - - 6. Grocyn's Discovery (1498?) 90 - - - CHAPTER III. - - 1. Erasmus comes to Oxford (1498) 94 - - 2. Table-talk on the Sacrifice of Cain and Abel (1498?) 97 - - 3. Conversation between Colet and Erasmus on the Schoolmen - (1498 or 1499) 102 - - 4. Erasmus falls in love with Thomas More (1498) 113 - - 5. Discussion between Erasmus and Colet on 'The Agony in the - Garden,' and on the Inspiration of the Scriptures (1499) 116 - - 6. Correspondence between Colet and Erasmus on the - Intention of Erasmus to leave Oxford (1499-1500) 126 - - 7. Erasmus leaves Oxford and England (1500) 133 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - 1. Colet made Doctor and Dean of St. Paul's (1500-5) 137 - - 2. More called to the Bar--In Parliament--Offends Henry - VII.--The Consequences (1500-1504) 142 - - 3. Thomas More in Seclusion from Public Life (1504-5) 146 - - 4. More studies Pico's Life and Works--His Marriage (1505) 151 - - 5. How it had fared with Erasmus (1500-5) 160 - - 6. The 'Enchiridion,' &c. of Erasmus (1501-5) 173 - - - CHAPTER V. - - 1. Second Visit of Erasmus to England (1505-6) 180 - - 2. Erasmus again leaves England for Italy (1506) 183 - - 3. Erasmus visits Italy and returns to England (1507-10) 186 - - 4. More returns to Public Life on the Accession of Henry VIII. - (1509-10) 189 - - 5. Erasmus writes the 'Praise of Folly' while resting at More's - House (1510 or 1511) 193 - - - CHAPTER VI. - - 1. Colet founds St. Paul's School (1510) 206 - - 2. His Choice of Schoolbooks and Schoolmasters (1511) 215 - - - CHAPTER VII. - - 1. Convocation for the Extirpation of Heresy (1512) 222 - - 2. Colet is charged with Heresy (1512) 249 - - 3. More in trouble again (1512) 255 - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - 1. Colet preaches against the Continental Wars--The First - Campaign (1512-13) 258 - - 2. Colet's Sermon to Henry VIII. (1513) 262 - - 3. The Second Campaign of Henry VIII. (1513) 267 - - 4. Erasmus visits the Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham (1513) 273 - - - CHAPTER IX. - - 1. Erasmus leaves Cambridge, and meditates leaving England - (1513-14) 276 - - 2. Erasmus and the Papal Ambassador (1514) 282 - - 3. Parting Intercourse between Erasmus and Colet (1514) 284 - - - CHAPTER X. - - 1. Erasmus goes to Basle to print his New Testament (1514) 294 - - 2. Erasmus returns to England--His Satire upon Kings (1515) 306 - - 3. Returns to Basle to finish his Works--Fears of the Orthodox - Party (1515) 312 - - - CHAPTER XI. - - 1. The 'Novum Instrumentum' completed--What it really was - (1516) 320 - - - CHAPTER XII. - - 1. More immersed in Public Business (1515) 337 - - 2. Colet's Sermon on the Installation of Cardinal Wolsey - (1515) 343 - - 3. More's 'Utopia' (1515) 346 - - 4. The 'Institutio Principis Christiani' of Erasmus (1516) 365 - - 5. More completes his 'Utopia'--the Introductory Book (1516) 378 - - - CHAPTER XIII. - - 1. What Colet thought of the 'Novum Instrumentum' (1516) 391 - - 2. Reception of the 'Novum Instrumentum' in other Quarters - (1516) 398 - - 3. Martin Luther reads the 'Novum Instrumentum' (1516) 402 - - 4. The 'Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum' (1516-17) 407 - - 5. The 'Pythagorica' and 'Cabalistica' of Reuchlin (1517) 411 - - 6. More pays a Visit to Coventry (1517?) 414 - - - CHAPTER XIV. - - 1. The Sale of Indulgences (1517-18) 419 - - 2. More drawn into the Service of Henry VIII.--Erasmus leaves - Germany for Basle (1518) 427 - - - CHAPTER XV. - - 1. Erasmus arrives at Basle--His Labours there (1518) 434 - - 2. The Second Edition of the New Testament (1518-19) 442 - - 3. Erasmus's Health gives way (1518) 455 - - - CHAPTER XVI. - - 1. Erasmus does not die (1518) 457 - - 2. More at the Court of Henry VIII. (1518) 458 - - 3. The Evening of Colet's Life (1518-19) 461 - - 4. More's Conversion attempted by the Monks (1519) 470 - - 5. Erasmus and the Reformers of Wittemberg (1519) 476 - - 6. Election of Charles V. to the Empire (1519) 482 - - 7. The Hussites of Bohemia (1519) 484 - - 8. More's Domestic Life (1519) 497 - - 9. Death of Colet (1519) 503 - - 10. Conclusion 505 - - - APPENDICES. - - A. Extracts from MS. Gg. 4, 26, in the Cambridge University - Library, Translations of which are given at pp. 37, 38 of - this Work 511 - - B. Extracts from MS. on 'I. Corinthians.'--Emmanuel College - MS. 3. 3. 12 513 - - C. On the Date of More's Birth 521 - - D. Ecclesiastical Titles and Preferments of Dean Colet, in - Order of Time 529 - - E. Catalogue of early Editions of the Works of Erasmus in my - possession 530 - - F. Editions of Works of Sir Thomas More in my Possession 542 - - - INDEX 545 - - - - -THE OXFORD REFORMERS: COLET, ERASMUS, AND MORE. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - - -I. JOHN COLET RETURNS FROM ITALY TO OXFORD (1496). - -[Sidenote: John Colet announces lectures on St. Paul's Epistles.] - -It was probably in Michaelmas Term of 1496[6] that the announcement was -made to doctors and students of the University of Oxford that John Colet, -a late student, recently returned from Italy, was about to deliver a -course of public and gratuitous lectures in exposition of St. Paul's -Epistles. - -[Sidenote: Only graduates in Theology might lecture on the Bible.] - -This was an event of no small significance and perhaps of novelty in the -closing years of that last of the Middle Ages; not only because the -Scriptures for some generations had been practically ignored at the -Universities, but still more so because the would-be lecturer had not as -yet entered deacon's orders,[7] nor had obtained, or even tried to obtain, -any theological degree.[8] It is true that he had passed through the -regular academical course at Oxford, and was entitled, as a Master of -Arts, to lecture upon any other subject.[9] But a degree in Arts did not, -it would seem, entitle the graduate to lecture upon the Bible.[10] - -It does not perhaps follow from this, that Colet was guilty of any -flagrant breach of university statutes, which, as a graduate in Arts, he -must have sworn to obey. The very extent to which real study of the -Scriptures had become obsolete at Oxford, may possibly suggest that even -the statutory restrictions on Scripture lectures may have become obsolete -also.[11] - -Before the days of Wiclif, the Bible had been free, and Bishop -Grosseteste could urge Oxford students to devote their _best morning -hours_ to Scripture lectures.[12] But an unsuccessful revolution ends in -tightening the chains which it ought to have broken. During the fifteenth -century the Bible was _not_ free. And Scripture lectures, though still -retaining a nominal place in the academical course of theological study, -were thrown into the background by the much greater relative importance of -the lectures on 'the Sentences.' What Biblical lectures were given were -probably of a very formal character.[13] - -[Sidenote: Commencement of a new movement at Oxford.] - -The announcement by Colet of this course of lectures on St. Paul's -Epistles was in truth, so far as can be traced, the first overt act in a -movement commenced at Oxford in the direction of practical Christian -reform--a movement, some of the results of which, had they been gifted -with prescience, might well have filled the minds of the Oxford doctors -with dismay. - -They could not indeed foresee that those very books of 'the Sentences,' -over which they had pored so intently for so many years, in order to -obtain the degree of Master in Theology, and at which students were still -patiently toiling with the same object in view--they could not foresee -that, within forty years, these very books would 'be utterly banished from -Oxford,' ignominiously 'nailed up upon posts' as waste paper, their loose -leaves strewn about the quadrangles until some sportsman should gather -them up and thread them on a line to keep the deer within the neighbouring -woods.[14] They could not, indeed, foresee the end of the movement then -only beginning, but still, the announcement of Colet's lectures was likely -to cause them some uneasiness. They may well have asked, whether, if the -exposition of the Scriptures were to be really revived at Oxford, so -dangerous a duty should not be restricted to those duly authorised to -discharge it? Was every stripling who might travel as far as Italy and -return infected with the 'new learning' to be allowed to set up himself as -a theological teacher, without graduating in divinity, and without waiting -for decency's sake for the bishop's ordination? - -On the other hand, any Oxford graduate choosing to adopt so irregular a -course, must have been perfectly aware that it would be one likely to stir -up opposition, and even ill-will,[15] amongst the older divines; and it -maybe presumed that he hardly would have ventured upon such a step without -knowing that there were at the university others ready to support him. - - -II. THE RISE OF THE NEW LEARNING (1453-92). - -[Sidenote: The old and new school of thought.] - -In all ages, more or less, there is a new school of thought rising up -under the eyes of an older school of thought. And probably in all ages the -men of the old school regard with some little anxiety the ways of the men -of the new school. Never is it more likely to be so than at an epoch of -sharp transition, like that on which the lot of these Oxford doctors had -been cast. - -[Sidenote: An age of progress and transition.] - -[Sidenote: Advance of Infidel arms in Europe.] - -We sometimes speak as though our age were _par excellence_ the age of -progress. _Theirs_ was much more so if we duly consider it. The youth and -manhood of some of them had been spent in days which may well have seemed -to be the latter days of Christendom. They had seen Constantinople taken -by the Turks. The final conquest of Christendom by the infidel was a -possibility which had haunted all their visions of the future. Were not -Christian nations driven up into the north-western extremity of the known -world, a wide pathless ocean lying beyond? Had not the warlike creed of -Mahomet steadily encroached upon Christendom, century by century, -stripping her first of her African churches, from thence fighting its way -northward into Spain? Had it not maintained its foothold in Spain's -fairest provinces for seven hundred years? And from the East was it not -steadily creeping over Europe, nearer and nearer to Venice and Rome, in -spite of all that crusades could do to stop its progress? If, though -little more than half the age of Christianity, it had already, as they -reckoned it had, drawn into its communion five times[16] as many votaries -as there were Christians left, was it a groundless fear that now in these -latter days it might devour the remaining sixth? What could hinder it? - -[Sidenote: Internal weakness of the Church.] - -A Spartan resistance on the part of united Christendom perhaps might. But -Christendom was not united, nor capable of Spartan discipline. Her -internal condition seemed to show signs almost of approaching dissolution. -The shadow of the great Papal schism still brooded over the destinies of -the Church. That schism had been ended only by a revolution which, under -the guidance of Gerson, had left the Pope the constitutional instead of -the absolute monarch of the Church. The great heresies of the preceding -century had, moreover, not yet been extinguished. The very names of Wiclif -and Huss were still names of terror. Lollardy had been crushed, but it was -not dead. Everywhere the embers of schism and revolution were still -smouldering underneath, ready to break out again, in new fury, who could -tell how soon? - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Defeat of the Moors in Spain, and discovery of America.] - -It was in the ears of this apparently doomed generation that the double -tidings came of the discovery of the Terra Nova in the West, and of the -expulsion of the infidel out of Spain. - -The ice of centuries suddenly was broken. The universal despondency at -once gave way before a spirit of enterprise and hope; and it has been well -observed, men began to congratulate each other that their lot had been -cast upon an age in which such wonders were achieved. - -Even the men of the old school could appreciate these facts in a fashion. -The defeat of the Moors was to them a victory to the Church. The discovery -of the New World extended her dominion. They gloried over both. - -But these outward facts were but the index to an internal upheaving of the -mind of Christendom, to which they were blind. The men who were guiding -the great external revolution--reformers in their way--were blindly -stamping out the first symptoms of this silent upheaving. Gerson, while -carrying reform over the heads of Popes, and deposing them to end the -schism or to preserve the unity of the Church, was at the same moment -using all his influence to crush Huss and Jerome of Prague. Queen Isabella -and Ximenes, Henry VII. and Morton, while sufficiently enlightened to -pursue maritime discovery, to reform after a fashion the monasteries under -their rule, and ready even to combine to reform the morals of the Pope -himself in order to avert the dreaded recurrence of a schism,[17] were not -eager to pursue these purposes without the sanction of Papal bulls, and -without showing their zeal for the Papacy by crushing out free thought -with an iron heel and zealously persecuting heretics, whether their faith -were that of the Moor, the Lollard, or the Jew. - -[Sidenote: The revival of learning.] - -The fall of Constantinople, which had sounded almost like the death-knell -of Christendom, had proved itself in truth the chief cause of her revival. -The advance of the Saracens upon Europe had already told upon the European -mind. The West has always had much to learn from the East. It was, for -instance, by translation from Arabic versions that Aristotle had gained -such influence over those very same scholastic minds to which his native -Greek was an abomination. - -This further triumph of infidel arms also influenced Christian thought. -Eastern languages and Eastern philosophies began to be studied afresh in -the West. Exiles who had fled into Italy had brought with them their -Eastern lore. The invention of printing had come just in time to aid the -revival of learning. The printing press was pouring out in clear and -beautiful type new editions of the Greek and Latin classics. Art and -science with literature sprang up once more into life in Italy; and to -Italy, and especially to Florence, which, under the patronage of the -splendid court of Lorenzo de' Medici, seemed to form the most attractive -centre, students from all nations eagerly thronged. - -[Sidenote: Its effect on religion. Revival of Neo-Platonism.] - -It was of necessity that the sudden reproduction of the Greek philosophy -and the works of the older Neo-Platonists in Italy should sooner or later -produce a new crisis in religion. A thousand years before, Christianity -and Neo-Platonism had been brought into the closest contact. Christianity -was then in its youth--comparatively pure--and in the struggle for mastery -had easily prevailed. Not that Neo-Platonism was indeed a mere phantom -which vanished and left no trace behind it. By no means. Through the -pseudo-Dionysian writings it not only influenced profoundly the theology -of mediaeval mystics, but also entered largely even into the Scholastic -system. It was thus absorbed into Christian theology though lost as a -philosophy. - -[Sidenote: The Platonic Academy, Ficino.] - -Now, after the lapse of a thousand years, the same battle had to be fought -again. But with this terrible difference; that now Christianity, in the -impurest form it had ever assumed--a grotesque perversion of -Christianity--had to cope with the purest and noblest of the Greek -philosophies. It was, therefore, almost a matter of course that, under the -patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Platonic Academy under Marsilio -Ficino should carry everything before it. Whether the story were literally -true of Ficino himself or not, that he kept a lamp burning in his chamber -before a bust of Plato, as well as before that of the Virgin, it was at -least symbolically true of the most accomplished minds of Florence. - -[Sidenote: Plato and Christianity.] - -Questions which had slept since the days of Julian and his successors were -discussed again under Sixtus IV. and Innocent VIII. The leading minds of -Italy were once more seeking for a reconciliation between Plato and -Christianity in the works of the pseudo-Dionysius, Macrobius, Plotinus, -Proclus, and other Neo-Platonists. There was the same anxious endeavour, -as a thousand years earlier, to fuse all philosophies into one. Plato and -Aristotle must be reconciled, as well as Christianity and Plato. The old -world was becoming once more the possession of the new. It was felt to be -the recovery of a lost inheritance, and everything of antiquity, whether -Greek, Roman, Jewish, Persian, or Arabian, was regarded as a treasure. It -was the fault of the Christian Church if the grotesque form of -Christianity held up by her to a reawakening world seemed less pure and -holy than the aspirations of Pagan philosophers. It would be by no merit -of hers, but solely by its own intrinsic power, if Christianity should -retain its hold upon the mind of Europe, in spite of its ecclesiastical -defenders. - -Christianity brought into disrepute by the conduct of professed -Christians, was compelled to rest as of old upon its own intrinsic merits, -to stand the test of the most searching scientific criticisms which -Florentine philosophers were able to apply to it. Men versed in Plato and -Aristotle were not without some notion of the value of intrinsic evidence, -and the methods of inductive enquiry. Ficino himself thought it well, -discarding the accustomed scholastic interpreters, to turn the light of -his Platonic lamp upon the Christian religion. From his work, '_De -Religione Christiana_,' dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici, and written in -1474, some notion may be gained of the method and results of his -criticism. That its nature should be rightly understood is important in -connection with the history of the Oxford Reformers. - -[Sidenote: The _De Religione Christiana_ of Ficino.] - -Ficino commences his argument by demonstrating that _religion_ is natural -to man; and having, on Platonic authority, pointed out the truth of the -one common religion, and that all religions have something of good in -them, he turns to the Christian religion in particular. Its truth he tries -to prove by a chain of reasoning of which the following are some of the -links. - -[Sidenote: Argument of Ficino in support of Christianity.] - -He first shows that 'the disciples of Jesus were not deceivers;'[18] and -he supports this by examining, in a separate chapter, 'in what spirit the -disciples of Christ laboured;'[19] concluding, after a careful analysis of -the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, that they did not seek their -_own_ advantage or honour but 'the glory of _Christ_ alone.' Then he shows -that 'the disciples of Christ were not _deceived_ by anyone,'[20] and that -the Christian religion was founded, not in human wisdom, but 'in the -wisdom and power of God;'[21] that Christ was 'no astrologer,' but -'derived his authority from God.'[22] He adduced further the evidence of -miracles, in which he had no difficulty in believing, for he gave two -instances of miracles which had occurred in Florence only four years -previously, and in which he declared to Lorenzo de' Medici, that, -philosopher as he was, he believed.[23] After citing the testimony of some -Gentile writers, and of the Coran of the Mahometans, and discussing in the -light of Plato, Zoroaster, and Dionysius, the doctrine of the 'logos,' and -the fitness of the incarnation, he showed that the result of the coming of -Christ was that men are drawn to love with their whole heart a God who in -his immense love had himself become man.[24] After dwelling on the way in -which Christ lightened the burden of sin,[25] on the errors he dispelled, -the truths he taught,[26] and the example he set,[27] Ficino proceeds in -two short chapters to adduce the testimony of the 'Sibyls.'[28] This was -natural to a writer whose bias it was to regard as genuine whatever could -be proved to be ancient. But it is only fair to state that he relies much -more fully and discusses at far greater length the prophecies of the -Ancient Hebrew prophets,[29] vindicating the Christian rendering of -certain passages in the old Testament against the Jews, who accused the -Christians of having perverted and depraved them.[30] He concludes by -asserting, that if there be much in Christianity which surpasses human -comprehension, this is a proof of its divine character rather than -otherwise. These are his final words. 'If these things be divine, they -must exceed the capacity of any human mind. Faith (as Aristotle has it) is -the foundation of knowledge. By faith alone (as the Platonists prove) we -ascend to God. "I believed (said David) and therefore have I spoken." -Believing, therefore, and approaching the fountain of truth and goodness -we shall drink in a wise and blessed life.'[31] - -[Sidenote: Christianity a thing of the heart.] - -Thus was the head of the Platonic Academy at Florence turning a critical -eye upon Christianity, viewing it very possibly too much in the light of -the lamp kept continually burning before the bust of Plato, but still, I -think, honestly endeavouring, upon its own intrinsic evidence and by -inductive methods, to establish a reasonable belief in its divine -character in minds sceptical of ecclesiastical authority, and over whom -the dogmatic methods of the Schoolmen had lost their power.[32] -Nevertheless Ficino, as yet, was probably more of an intellectual than of -a practical Christian, and Christianity was not likely to take hold of the -mind of Italy--of re-awakening Europe--through any merely philosophical -disquisitions. The lamp of Plato might throw light on Christianity, but it -would not light up Christian fire in other souls. For Christianity is a -thing of the heart, not only of the head. Soul is kindled only by soul, -says Carlyle; and to teach religion the one thing needful is to find a man -who _has_ religion.[33] Should such a man arise, a man himself on fire -with Christian love and zeal, his torch might light up other torches, and -the fire be spread from torch to torch. But, until such a man should -arise, the lamp of philosophy must burn alone in Florence. Men might come -from far and near to listen to Marsilio Ficino--to share the patronage of -Lorenzo de' Medici, to study Plato and Plotinus,--to learn how to -harmonise Plato and Aristotle, to master the Greek language and -philosophies,--to drink in the spirit of reviving learning--but, of true -Christian _religion_, the lamp had not yet been lit at Florence, or if lit -it was under a bushel. - -[Sidenote: Oxford students in Italy.] - -Already Oxford students had been to Italy, and returned full of the new -learning. Grocyn, one of them, had for some time been publicly teaching -Greek at Oxford, not altogether to the satisfaction of the old divines, -for the Latin of the Vulgate was, in their eye, the orthodox language, and -Greek a Pagan and heretical tongue. Linacre, too, had been to Italy and -returned, after sharing with the children of Lorenzo de' Medici the -tuition of Politian and Chalcondyles.[34] - -These men had been to Italy and had returned, to all appearances, mere -humanists. Now five years later Colet had been to Italy and had returned, -_not_ a mere humanist, but an earnest Christian reformer, bent upon giving -lectures, not upon Plato or Plotinus, but upon St. Paul's Epistles. What -had happened during these four years to account for the change? - - -III. COLET'S PREVIOUS HISTORY (1496). - -[Sidenote: Colet's return from Italy.] - -John Colet was the eldest[35] son of Sir Henry Colet, a wealthy merchant, -who had been more than once Lord Mayor of London,[36] and was in favour at -the court of Henry VII. His father's position held out to him the -prospect of a brilliant career. He had early been sent to Oxford, and -there, having passed through the regular course of study in all branches -of scholastic philosophy, he had taken his degree of Master of Arts. - -[Sidenote: His studies at Oxford.] - -On the return of Grocyn and Linacre from Italy full of the new learning, -Colet had apparently caught the contagion. For we are told he 'eagerly -devoured Cicero, and carefully examined the works of Plato and -Plotinus.'[37] - -When the time had come for him to choose a profession, instead of deciding -to follow up the chances of commercial life, or of royal favour, he had -resolved to take Orders. - -[Sidenote: Sets out on his travels.] - -The death of twenty-one[38] brothers and sisters, leaving him the sole -survivor of so large a family, may well have given a serious turn to his -thoughts. But inasmuch as family influence was ready to procure him -immediate preferment, the path he had chosen need not be construed into -one of great self-denial. It was not until long after he had been -presented to a living in Suffolk and a prebend in Yorkshire, that he left -Oxford, probably in or about 1494, for some years of foreign travel.[39] - -The little information which remains to us of what Colet did on his -continental journey, is very soon told. - -[Sidenote: Colet studies the Scriptures in Italy.] - -He went first into France and then into Italy.[40] On his way there, or -on his return journey, he met with some German monks, of whose primitive -piety and purity he retained a vivid recollection.[41] In Italy he -ardently pursued his studies. But he no longer devoted himself to the -works of Plato and Plotinus. In Italy, the hotbed of the Neo-Platonists, -he '_gave himself up_' (we are told) '_to the study of the Holy -Scriptures_,' after having, however, first made himself acquainted with -the works of the Fathers, including amongst them the mystic writings then -attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite. He acquired a decided preference -for the works of Dionysius, Origen, Ambrose, Cyprian, and Jerome over -those of Augustine. Scotus, Aquinas, and other Schoolmen had each shared -his attention in due course. He is said also to have diligently studied -during this period Civil and Canon Law, and especially what Chronicles and -English classics he could lay his hands on; and his reason for doing so is -remarkable--that he might, by familiarity with them, polish his style, and -so prepare himself for the great work of preaching the Gospel in -England.[42] - -What it was that had turned his thoughts in this direction no record -remains to tell. Yet the knowledge of what was passing in Italy, while -Colet was there, surely may give a clue, not likely to mislead, to the -explanation of what otherwise might remain wholly unexplained. To have -been in Italy when Grocyn and Linacre were in Italy--between the years -1485 and 1491--was, as we have said, to have drunk at the fountain-head of -reviving learning, and to have fallen under the fascinating influence of -Lorenzo de' Medici and the Platonic Academy--an influence more likely to -foster the selfish coldness of a semi-pagan philosophy than to inspire -such feelings as those with which Colet seems to have returned from _his_ -visit to Italy.[43] - -But in the meantime Lorenzo had died, the tiara had changed hands, and -events were occurring during _Colet's_ stay in Italy--probably in -1495--which may well have stirred in his breast the earnest resolution to -devote his life to the work of religious and political reform. - -[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical scandals.] - -For to have been in Italy while Colet was in Italy was to have come face -to face with Rome at the time when the scandals of Alexander VI. and Caesar -Borgia were in everyone's mouth; to have been brought into contact with -the very worst scandals which had ever blackened the ecclesiastical system -of Europe, at the very moment when they reached their culminating point. - -On the other hand, to have been in Italy when Colet was in Italy was to -have come into contact with the first rising efforts at Reform. - -[Sidenote: Savonarola.] - -If Colet visited Florence as Grocyn and Linacre had done before him, he -must have come into direct contact with Savonarola while as yet his fire -was holy and his star had not entered the mists in which it set in later -years. - -[Sidenote: Savonarola's preaching.] - -Recollecting what the great Prior of San Marco was--what his fiery and all -but prophetic preaching was--how day after day his burning words went -forth against the sins of high and low; against tyranny in Church or -State; against idolatry of philosophy and neglect of the Bible in the -pulpit; recollecting how they told their tale upon the conscience of -Lorenzo de' Medici, and of his courtiers as well as upon the crowds of -Florence;--can the English student, it may well be asked, have passed -through all this uninfluenced? If he visited Florence at all he must have -heard the story of Savonarola's interview with the dying Lorenzo; he must -have heard the common talk of the people, how Politian and Pico, bosom -friends of Lorenzo, had died with the request that they might be buried in -the habit of the order, and under the shadow of the convent of San -Marco;[44] above all, he must again and again have joined, one would -think, with the crowd daily pressing to hear the wonderful preacher. -Lorenzo de' Medici had died before Colet set foot upon Italian soil: -probably also Pico and Politian.[45] And the death of these men had added -to the grandeur of Savonarola's position. He was still preaching those -wonderful sermons, all of them in exposition of Scripture, to which -allusion has been made, and exerting that influence upon his hearers to -which so many great minds had yielded. - -[Sidenote: Savonarola's influence on Pico and Ficino.] - -The man who _had_ religion--the one requisite for teaching it--had arisen. -And at the touch of his torch other hearts had caught fire. The influence -of Savonarola had made itself felt even within the circle of the Platonic -Academy. Pico had become a devoted student of the Scriptures and had died -an earnest Christian. Ficino himself, without ceasing to be a Neo-Platonic -philosopher, had also, it would seem, been profoundly influenced for a -time by the enthusiasm the great reformer.[46] And in the light of -Colet's return to Oxford from Italy, a lover of Dionysius and to lecture -on St. Paul's Epistles, it is curious to observe that, shortly before -Colet's visit to Italy, Ficino himself had published translations of some -of the Dionysian writings,[47] and that apparently about the time of -Colet's visit he was himself lecturing on St. Paul.[48] - -[Sidenote: Their influence on Colet.] - -If therefore Colet visited Florence, it may well be believed that he came -into direct contact with Savonarola and Ficino. Whilst even if he did not -visit Florence at all (and there appears to be no direct evidence that he -did),[49] there remains abundant evidence, which will turn up in future -chapters, that Colet had studied the writings of Pico,[50] of Ficino,[51] -and of the authors most often quoted in their pages. He thus at least came -directly under _Florentine_ influence, at a time when the fire of -religious zeal, kindled into a flame by the enthusiasm of the great -Florentine Reformer, and fed by the scandals of Rome, was scattering its -sparks abroad. - -[Sidenote: Spirit in which Colet returned to Oxford.] - -Be this as it may, whatever amount of obscurity may rest upon the history -of the mental struggles through which Colet had passed before that result -was attained, certain it is that he had returned to England with his mind -fully made up, and with a character already formed and bent in a direction -from which it never afterwards swerved. He had returned to England, not to -enjoy the pleasures of fashionable life in London, not to pursue the -chances of Court favour, not to follow his father's mercantile calling, -not even to press on at once towards the completion of his clerical -course; but, unordained as he was, and without doctor's degree, in all -simplicity to begin the work which had now become the settled purpose of -his life, by returning to Oxford and announcing this course of lectures on -St. Paul's Epistles. - - -IV. THOMAS MORE, ANOTHER OXFORD STUDENT (1492-6). - -When Colet, catching the spirit of the new learning from Grocyn and -Linacre, left Oxford for his visit to Paris and Italy, he left behind him -at the university a boy of fifteen, no less devoted than himself to the -study of the Greek language and philosophy. - -This boy was _Thomas More_. He was the son of a successful lawyer, living -in Milk Street, Cheapside. - -[Sidenote: His early history.] - -[Sidenote: Cardinal Morton.] - -[Sidenote: More's genius.] - -Brought up in the very centre of London life, he had early entered into -the spirit of the stirring times on which his young life was cast. He was -but five years old when in April 1483 the news of Edward IV.'s death was -told through London. But he was old enough to hear an eyewitness tell his -father, that 'one Pottyer, dwelling in Redcross Street, without -Cripplegate,' within half a mile of his father's door, 'on the very night -of King Edward's death, had exclaimed, "By my troth, man, then will my -master the Duke of Glo'ster be king."'[52] And followed as this was by -Richard's murder of the young Princes, he never forgot the incident. After -some years' study at St. Anthony's School in Threadneedle Street, his -father placed him in domestic service (as was usual in those times) with -the Archbishop and Lord Chancellor Morton,[53] a man than whom no one knew -the world better or was of greater influence in public affairs--the -faithful friend of Edward IV., the feared but cautious enemy of Richard, -the man to whose wisdom Henry VII. in great measure owed his crown. Morton -was the Gamaliel at whose feet young More was brought up, drinking in his -wisdom, storing up in memory his rich historic knowledge, learning the -world's ways and even something of the ways of kings, till a naturally -sharp wit became unnaturally sharpened, and Morton recognised in the youth -the promise of the future greatness of the man. He was but thirteen or -fourteen at most, yet he would 'at Christmas time suddenly sometimes step -in among the players, making up an extempore part of his own;' ... and the -Lord Chancellor 'would often say unto the nobles that divers times dined -with him, "This child here waiting at table, whosoever shall live to see -it, will prove a marvellous man."'[54] It was Morton who had sent him to -Oxford 'for his better furtherance in learning.'[55] - -Colet probably had known More from childhood. Their fathers were both too -much of public men to be unknown to each other, and though Colet was -twelve years older than young More when they most likely met at Oxford in -1492-3, their common studies under Grocyn and Linacre were likely to bring -them into contact.[56] More's ready wit, added to great natural power and -versatility of mind, were such as to enable him to keep pace with others -much older than himself, and to devote himself with equal zeal to the new -learning. - -[Sidenote: His fascinating character.] - -Whether it was thus at Oxford that Colet had first formed his high opinion -of More's character and powers, we know not, but certain it is that he was -long after wont to speak of him as the _one genius_ of whom England could -boast.[57] Moreover, along with great intellectual gifts was combined in -the young student a gentle and loving disposition, which threw itself into -the bosom of a friend with so guileless and pure an affection, that when -men came under the power of its unconscious enchantment they literally -_fell in love_ with More. If Colet's friendship with More dated back to -this period, he must have found in his young acquaintance the germs of a -character somewhat akin to his own. Along with so much of life and -generous loveliness, there was a natural independence of mind which formed -convictions for itself, and a strength and promptness of will whereby -action was made as a matter of course to follow conviction. There was, in -truth, in More's character a singular union of conservative and radical -tendencies of heart and thought. - -But the intercourse between them at Oxford did not last long, for Colet, -as already said, went off on his travels, leaving More buried in his -Oxford studies under Linacre's tuition. - -[Sidenote: More already destined for the Bar.] - -It was the father's purpose that the son at Oxford should be preparing for -his future profession. Jealous lest the temptations of college life should -disqualify him for the severe discipline involved in those legal studies -to which it was to be the preparatory step, he kept him in leading-strings -as far as he possibly could, cutting down his pecuniary allowance to the -smallest amount which would enable him to pay his way, even compelling him -to refer to himself before purchasing the most necessary articles of -clothing as his old ones wore out. He judged that by these means he should -keep his son more closely to his books, and prevent his being allured from -the rigid course of study which in his utilitarian view was best adapted -to fit him for the bar.[58] - -[Sidenote: More leaves Oxford.] - -[Sidenote: More enters Lincoln's Inn.] - -So far as can be traced, this stern discipline did not fail of its -end;[59] he worked on at Oxford, without getting into mischief, and -certainly without neglecting his books. But there was another snare from -which parental anxiety was not able wholly to preserve him. Before he had -been two years at Oxford, the father found out that he had begun to show -symptoms of fondness for the study of the Greek language and -literature,[60] and might even be guilty of preferring the philosophy of -the Greeks to that of the Schoolmen. This was treading on dangerous -ground, and it seemed to the anxious parent high time that a stop should -be put to new-fangled and fascinating studies, the use of which to a -lawyer he could not discern. So, somewhat abruptly, he took young More -away from the University, and had him at once entered as a student at New -Inn.[61] After the usual course of legal studies at New Inn, he was -admitted in February 1496,[62] just as Colet was returning from Italy, as -a student of Lincoln's Inn, for a few more years of hard legal study, -preparatory to his call to the Bar. - - -V. COLET FIRST HEARS OF ERASMUS (1496). - -One other circumstance must be mentioned in this chapter. - -Whilst Colet was passing through Paris, on his return journey from Italy, -he became acquainted with the French historian Gaguinus, whose work '_De -Origine et Gestis Francorum_,' had been published shortly before.[63] -Colet was in the habit of reading every book of history which came in his -way,[64] and no doubt this history of Gaguinus was no exception to the -rule. Whilst he was at Paris, a letter was shown to him which the -historian had received from a scholar and acquaintance of rising celebrity -in Paris, in which the new history was reviewed and praised.[65] From the -perusal of this letter, Colet formed a high estimate of the learning and -wide range of knowledge of its accomplished writer.[66] But scholars were -plentiful in Paris, and he was not personally introduced to this one in -particular. He was not then, like Gaguinus, one of the lions of Paris, -though he was destined to become one of the lions of History. Colet after -reading his letter did not forget his name. Nor was it a name likely to be -soon forgotten by posterity. - -It was, '_Erasmus_.' - - - - -CHAPTER II. - - -I. COLET'S LECTURES ON ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS (1496-7?). - -[Sidenote: The state of Scripture study at Oxford.] - -To appreciate the full significance of Colet's lectures, it is needful to -bear in mind what was the current opinion of the scholastic divines of the -period concerning the Scriptures, and what the practical mode of -exposition pursued by them at the Universities. - -The scholastic divines, holding to a traditional belief in the _plenary_ -and _verbal_ inspiration of the whole Bible, and remorselessly pursuing -this belief to its logical results, had fallen into a method of exposition -almost exclusively _textarian_. The Bible, both in theory and in practice, -had almost ceased to be a record of real events, and the lives and -teaching of living men. It had become an arsenal of texts; and these texts -were regarded as detached invincible weapons to be legitimately seized and -wielded in theological warfare, for any purpose to which their words might -be made to apply, without reference to their original meaning or context. - -[Sidenote: The Bible regarded as verbally inspired. Method of exposition -_textarian_.] - -Thus, to take a practical example, when St. Jerome's opinion was quoted -incidentally that possibly St. Mark, in the second chapter of his Gospel, -might by a slip of memory have written 'Abiathar' in mistake for -'Abimelech,' a learned divine, a contemporary of Colet's at Oxford, -nettled by the very supposition, declared positively that 'that could not -be, unless the Holy Spirit himself could be mistaken;' and the only -authority he thought it needful to cite in proof of the statement was a -text in Ezekiel: 'Whithersoever the Spirit went, thither likewise the -wheels were lifted up to follow Him.'[67] It was in vain that the reply -was suggested that 'it is not for us to define in what manner the Spirit -might use His instrument.' The divine triumphantly replied, 'The Spirit -himself in Ezekiel _has_ defined it. The wheels were not lifted up, except -to follow the Spirit.'[68] - -[Sidenote: Theory of manifold senses.] - -[Sidenote: Literal sense neglected.] - -[Sidenote: The Bible a dead book.] - -This Oxford divine did not display any peculiar bigotry or blindness. He -did but follow in the well-worn ruts of his scholastic predecessors. It -had been solemnly laid down by Aquinas in the 'Summa,' that 'inasmuch as -God was the author of the Holy Scriptures, and all things are at one time -present to His mind, therefore, under their single text, they express -several meanings.' 'Their literal sense,' he continues, 'is manifold; -their spiritual sense threefold--viz. allegorical, moral, anagogical.'[69] -And we have the evidence of another well-known Oxford student, also a -contemporary with Colet at the University, that this was then the -prevalent view. Speaking of the dominant school of divines, he remarks: -'They divide the Scripture into four senses, the literal, tropological, -allegorical, and analogical--the literal sense has become nothing at -all.... Twenty doctors expound one text twenty ways, and with an antitheme -of half an inch some of them draw a thread of nine days long.... They not -only say that the literal sense profiteth nothing, but also that it is -hurtful and noisesome and killeth the soul. And this they prove by a text -of Paul, 2 Cor. iii., "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." -Lo! say they, the literal sense killeth, the spiritual sense giveth -life.'[70] And the same student, in recollection of his intercourse at the -Universities with divines of the traditional school in these early days, -bears witness that 'they were wont to look on no more Scripture than they -found in their Duns;'[71] while at another time he complains 'that some of -them will prove a point of the Faith as well out of a fable of Ovid or any -other poet, as out of St. John's Gospel or Paul's Epistles.'[72] Thus had -the scholastic belief in the verbal inspiration of the sacred text led men -blindfold into a condition of mind in which they practically ignored the -Scriptures altogether.[73] - -[Sidenote: Colet's lectures.] - -Such was the state of things at Oxford when Colet commenced his lectures. -The very boldness of the lecturer and the novelty of the subject were -enough to draw an audience at once. Doctors and abbots, men of all ranks -and titles, flocked with the students into the lecture hall, led by -curiosity doubtless at first, or it may be, like the Pharisees of old, -bent upon finding somewhat whereof they might accuse the man whom they -wished to silence. But since they came again and again, as the term went -by, _bringing their note-books with them_, it soon became clear that they -continued to come with some better purpose.[74] - -[Sidenote: Colet's style of speaking.] - -Colet already, at thirty, possessed the rare gift of saying what he had to -say in a few telling words, throwing into them an earnestness which made -every one feel that they came from his heart. 'You say what you mean, and -mean what you say. Your words have birth in your heart, not on your lips. -They follow your thoughts, instead of your thoughts being shaped by them. -You have the happy art of expressing with ease what others can hardly -express with the greatest labour.'[75] Such was the first impression made -by Colet's eloquence upon one of the greatest scholars of the day, who -heard him deliver some of these lectures during another term. - -[Sidenote: Colet's method of exposition.] - -From the fragments which remain of what seem to be manuscript notes of -these lectures, written by Colet himself at the 'urgent and repeated -request,' as he expressed it, 'of his faithful auditors,'[76] and now -preserved in the Cambridge Libraries,[77] something more than a -superficial notion may be gained of what these lectures were. - -[Sidenote: Not _textarian_.] - -They were in almost every particular in direct contrast with those of the -dominant school. They were not _textarian_. They did not consist of a -series of wiredrawn dissertations upon isolated texts. They were no -'thread of nine days long drawn from an antitheme of half an inch.' Colet -began at the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans, and went through with -it to the end, in a course of lectures, treating it as a whole, and not as -an armoury of detached texts.[78] Nor were they on the model of the -_Catena aurea_, formed by linking together the recorded comments of the -great Church authorities. There is hardly a quotation from the Fathers or -Schoolmen throughout the exposition of the Epistle to the Romans.[79] - -[Sidenote: Colet points out the marks of St. Paul's own character.] - -[Sidenote: Colet's personal interest in St. Paul.] - -Instead of following the current fashion of the day, and displaying -analytical skill in dividing the many senses of the sacred text, Colet, it -is clear, had but one object in view, and that object was to bring out the -direct practical meaning which the apostle meant to convey to those to -whom his epistles were addressed. To him they were the earnest words of a -living man addressed to living men, and suited to their actual needs. He -loved those words because he had learned to love the apostle--the -_man_--who had written them, and had caught somewhat of his spirit. He -loved to trace in the epistles the marks of St. Paul's own character. He -would at one time point out, in his abruptly suspended words, that -'_vehemence of speaking_' which did not give him time to perfect his -sentences.[80] At another time he would stop to admire the rare prudence -and tact with which he would temper his speech and balance his words to -meet the needs of the different classes by whom his epistle would be -read.[81] And again he would compare the eager expectations expressed in -the Epistle to the Romans of so soon visiting Rome and Spain, with the far -different realities of the apostle's after life; recalling to mind the -circumstances of his long imprisonment at Caesarea, and his arrival at last -in Rome, _four years_ after writing his epistle, to remain a prisoner two -years longer in the Imperial city before he could carry out his intention -of visiting Spain.[82] He loved to tell how, notwithstanding these -cherished plans for the future, the apostle, being a man of great courage, -was prepared, 'by his faith, and love of Christ,'[83] to bear his -disappointment, and to reply to the prophecy of Agabus, that he was ready, -not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of his -Master, if need be, instead of fulfilling the plans he had laid out for -himself. - -[Sidenote: Circumstances of the Roman Christians.] - -And whilst investing the epistles with so _personal_ an interest, by thus -bringing out their connection with St. Paul's character and history, Colet -sought also to throw a sense of reality and life into their teaching, by -showing how specially adapted they were to the circumstances of those to -whom they were addressed. When, for instance, he was expounding the -thirteenth chapter of the Epistle, he would take down his _Suetonius_ in -order to ascertain the state of society at Rome and the special -circumstances which made it needful for St. Paul so strongly to urge Roman -Christians 'to be obedient to the higher powers, and to pay tribute -also.'[84] - -[Sidenote: Colet tries to look at all sides of a doctrine.] - -[Sidenote: Question of free will.] - -It is very evident, too, how careful he was not to give a one-sided view -of the apostle's doctrine--what pains he took to realise his actual -meaning, not merely in one text and another, but in the drift of the whole -epistle; now ascertaining the meaning of a passage by its place in the -apostle's argument;[85] now comparing the expressions used by St. Paul -with those used by St. John, in order to trace the practical harmony -between the Johannine and Pauline view of a truth, which, if regarded on -one side only, might be easily distorted and misunderstood. In expounding -the Epistle to the Romans it was impossible to avoid allusion to the great -question afterwards forced into so unhappy a prominence by the Wittemberg -and Geneva Reformers, as it had already been by Wiclif and Huss--the -question of the freedom of the Will. Upon this question Colet showed an -evident anxiety not to fall into one extreme whilst avoiding the other. -His view seems to have been that the soul which is melted and won over to -God by the power of _love_ is won over _willingly_, and yet through no -merit of its own. Probably his views upon this point would be described as -'mystic.' Certainly they were not Augustinian.[86] In concluding a long -digression upon this endless and perplexing question, Colet apologises -for the length to which he had wandered from St. Paul, and excuses -himself on the ground that 'his zeal and affection towards men'--his -desire 'to confirm the weak and wavering'--had got the better of his 'fear -of wearying the reader.'[87] - -Connected with this habit of trying to look at all sides of a doctrine, -there is, I think, visible throughout, an earnest attempt to regard it in -its practical connection with human life and conduct rather than to rest -in its logical completeness. - -[Sidenote: Colet dwells on the practical aspects of St. Paul's doctrines.] - -[Sidenote: Quotes Marsilio Ficino,] - -If he quotes from the Neo-Platonic philosophers of Florence (and almost -the only quotation of any length contained in this manuscript is from the -_Theologia Platonica_ of Marsilio Ficino[88]), it is, not to follow them -into the mazes of Neo-Platonic speculation, but to enforce the practical -point, that whilst, here upon earth, the _knowledge_ of God is impossible -to man, the _love_ of God is not so; and that by how much it is worse to -_hate_ God than to be ignorant of Him, by so much is it better to _love_ -Him than to _know_ Him. - -[Sidenote: and Aristeas.] - -And never does he speak more warmly and earnestly than when after having -urged with St. Paul, that 'rites and ceremonies neither purify the spirit -nor justify the man,'[89] and having quoted from _Aristeas_ to show how, -on Jewish feast days, seventy priests were occupied in slaying and -sacrificing thousands of cattle, deluging the temple with blood, thinking -it well pleasing to God, he points out how St. Paul covertly condemned -these outward sacrifices, as Isaiah had done before him, by insisting upon -that _living sacrifice of men's hearts and lives_ which they were meant to -typify.[90] He urges with St. Paul that God is pleased with _living_ -sacrifices and not dead ones, and does not ask for sacrifices in cattle, -but in _men_. His will is that their beastly appetites should be slain and -consumed by the fire of God's Spirit[91] ...; that men should be converted -from a proud trust in themselves to an humble faith in God, and from -self-love to the love of God. To bring this about, Colet thought was 'the -chief cause, yes the sole cause,' of the coming of the Son of God upon -earth in the flesh.[92] - -[Sidenote: Colet points out the need of ecclesiastical reform.] - -Nor was he afraid to apply these practical lessons to the circumstances of -his own times. Thus, in speaking of the collections made by St. Paul in -relief of the sufferers from the famine in Judea (the same he thought as -that predicted by Agabus), he pointed out how much better such voluntary -collections were than 'money extorted by bitter exactions under the name -of tithes and oblations.'[93] And, referring to the advice to Timothy, 'to -avoid avarice and to follow after justice, piety, faith, charity, -patience, and mercy,' he at once added that '_priests of our time_' might -well be admonished 'to set such an example as this _amongst their own -parishioners_,' referring to the example of St. Paul, who chose to 'get -his living by labouring with his hands at the trade of tentmaking, so as -to avoid even suspicion of avarice or scandal to the Gospel.'[94] - -One other striking characteristic of this exposition must be -mentioned--the unaffected modesty which breathes through it, which, whilst -not quoting authority, does not claim to be an authority itself, which -does not profess to have attained full knowledge, but preserves throughout -the childlike spirit of enquiry.[95] - - * * * * * - -On the whole, the spirit of Colet's lectures was in keeping with his -previous history. - -[Sidenote: Colet quotes the Neo-Platonist.] - -The passage already mentioned as quoted from Ficino, the facts that, in a -marginal note on the manuscript, added apparently in Colet's handwriting, -there is also a quotation from Pico,[96] and that the names of -Plotinus,[97] and 'Joannes Carmelitanus,'[98] are cited in the course of -the exposition--all this is evidence of the influence upon Colet's mind of -the writings of the philosophers of Florence, confirming the inference -already drawn from the circumstances of his visit to Italy. But in its -_comparative_ freedom from references to authorities of _any_ kind, except -the New Testament, Colet's exposition differs as much from the writings of -Ficino and Pico as from those of the Scholastic Divines. - -[Sidenote: Marks of his love for Dionysius.] - -In many peculiar phrases and modes of thought, evident traces also occur -of that love for the Dionysian writings which Colet is said to have -contracted in Italy, and which he shared with the modern Neo-Platonic -school. - -[Sidenote: Origen and Jerome.] - -In the free critical method of interpretation and thorough acknowledgment -of the human element in Scripture, as well as in the Anti-Augustinian -views already alluded to, there is evidence equally abundant in -confirmation of the statement, that he had acquired when abroad a decided -preference for Origen and Jerome over Augustine. - -[Sidenote: His independent search for truth.] - -Lastly in his freedom from the prevailing vice of the patristic -interpreters--their love of allegorising Scripture--and in his fearless -application of the critical methods of the New learning to the Scriptures -themselves, in order to draw out their literal sense, there is striking -confirmation of the further statement that, whilst in Italy, he had -'devoted himself wholly'[99] to their study. Colet's object obviously had -been to study St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans for _himself_, and his -whole exposition confirms the truth of his own declaration in its last -sentence, that 'he had tried to the best of his power, with the aid of -Divine grace, to bring out St. Paul's true meaning.' 'Whether indeed' (he -adds modestly) 'I have done this I hardly can tell, but the greatest -_desire_ to do so I _have_ had.'[100] - - -II. VISIT FROM A PRIEST DURING THE WINTER VACATION (1496-7?). - -[Sidenote: Conversation on the richness of St. Paul's writings.] - -Colet, one night during the winter vacation, was alone in his chambers. A -priest knocked at the door. He was soon recognised by Colet as a diligent -attender of his lectures. They drew their chairs to the hearth, and talked -about this thing and that over the winter fire, in the way men do when -they have something to say, and yet have not courage to come at once to -the point. At length the priest pulled from his bosom a little book. -Colet, amused at the manner of his guest, smilingly quoted the words, -'Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.' The priest -explained that the little book contained the Epistles of St. Paul, -carefully transcribed by his own hand. It was indeed a treasure, for of -all the writings that had ever been written, he most loved and admired -those of St. Paul; and he added, in a politely flattering tone, that it -was Colet's lectures during the recent term, which had chiefly excited in -him this affection for the apostle. Colet turned a searching eye upon his -guest, and finding that he was truly in earnest, replied with warmth, -'Then, brother, I love you for loving St. Paul, for I, too, dearly love -and admire him.' In the course of conversation, which now turned upon the -object which the priest had at heart, Colet happened to remark how -pregnant with both matter and thought were the Epistles of St. Paul, so -that almost every word might be made the subject of a discourse. This was -just what Colet's guest wanted. Comparing Colet's lectures with those of -the scholastic divines, who, as we have heard, were accustomed 'out of an -antitheme of half an inch to draw a thread of nine days long' upon some -useless topic, he may well have been struck with the richness of the vein -of ore which Colet had been working, and he had come that he might gather -some hints as to his method of study. 'Then,' said he, stirred up by this -remark of Colet's, 'I ask you now, as we sit here at our ease, to extract -and bring to light from this hidden treasure, which you say is so rich, -some of these truths, so that I may gain from this our talk whilst sitting -together something to store up in the memory, and at the same time catch -some hints as to how, following your example, I may seize hold of the main -points in the epistles when I read St. Paul by myself.' - -[Sidenote: Romans i. taken as an example.] - -'My good friend,' replied Colet, 'I will do as you wish. Open your book, -and we will see how many and what golden truths we can gather from the -first chapter only of the Epistle to the Romans.' - -'But,' added the priest, 'lest my memory should fail me, I should like to -write them down as you say them.' Colet assented, and thereupon dictated -to his guest a string of the most important points which struck him as he -read through the chapter. They were, as Colet said, only like detached -rings, carelessly cut from the golden ore of St. Paul, as they sat over -the winter fire, but they would serve as examples of what might be -gathered from a single chapter of the apostle's writings. - -The priest departed, fully satisfied with the result of his visit; and -from the evident pleasure with which Colet told this story in a letter to -Kidderminster, Abbot of Winchcombe,[101] we may learn how his own spirits -were cheered by the proof it gave, that he had not laboured altogether in -vain. - -[Sidenote: Letter to an Abbot.] - -The letter itself, too, apart from the story which it tells, may give some -insight into his feelings during these months of solitary labour. It -reads, I think, like the letter of a man deeply in earnest, engaged in -what he feels to be a great work; whose sense of the greatness of the work -suggests a natural and noble anxiety, that though he himself should not -live to finish it, it may yet be carried forward by others; whose ambition -it is to die working at his post, leaving behind him, at least, the first -stones laid of a building which others greater than he may carry on to -completion. - -After telling the story of the priest's visit, Colet writes thus:-- - - _Colet to the Abbot of Winchcombe._ - - * * * * * - - 'Thus, Reverend Father, what he [the priest] wrote down at my - dictation I have wished to detail to you, so that you too, so ardent - in your love of all sacred wisdom, may see what we, sitting over the - winter fire, noted offhand in our St. Paul. - - [Sidenote: Colet wants his friend to see why he admires St. Paul's - writings.] - - 'In the first chapter only of the Epistle to the Romans, we found all - the following truths. [Here follows a long list.]... These we - extracted, and noted, venerable father, as I said, offhand, in this - one chapter only. Nor are these all we might have noted. For even in - the very address one might discover that Christ was promised by the - prophets, that Christ is both God and man, that Christ sanctifies men, - that through Christ there is a resurrection, both of the soul and of - the body. And besides these there are numberless others contained in - this chapter, which anyone with lynx eyes could easily find and dig - out, if he wished, for himself. _Paul_, of all others, seems to me to - be a fathomless _ocean_ of wisdom and piety. But these few, thus - hastily picked out, were enough for our good priest, who wanted some - thoughts struck off roundly, and fashioned like rings, from the gold - of St. Paul. These, as you see, I have written out for you with my own - hand, most worthy father, that your mind, in its golden goodness, - might recognise, as from a specimen, how much gold lies treasured up - in St. Paul. - - 'I want the Warden also to read this over with you, for his cultivated - taste and love of everything good is such that I think he will be - very much pleased with whatever of good it may contain. - - 'Farewell, most excellent and beloved father. - - 'Yours, JOHN COLET.' - - 'When you have read what is contained on this sheet of paper, let me - have it again, for I have no copy of it; and, although I am not in the - habit of keeping my letters, and cannot do so, as I send them off just - as I write them, without keeping a copy; yet if any of them contain - anything instructive (_aliquid doctrinae_), I do not like to lose them - entirely. Not that they are in themselves worth preserving, but that, - left behind me, they may serve as little memorials of me. And if there - be any other reason why I should wish to preserve my letters to you, - this is one, and a chief one--that I should be glad for them to remain - as permanent witnesses of my regard for you. - - 'Again, farewell!' - -The sole survivor of a family of twenty-two, though himself but thirty, -Colet might well keep always in view the possibility of an early death. - - -III. COLET ON THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION (1497?). - -It would seem that one of Colet's friends, named _Radulphus_, had been -attempting to expound '_the dark places of Scripture_,' and that in doing -so he had commenced with the words of Lamech in the fourth chapter of -Genesis, as though this were the first 'dark place' to be found in the -Bible! - -[Sidenote: Letters of Colet on the Mosaic account of creation.] - -Out of this circumstance arose a correspondence on the meaning of the -first chapter of Genesis, which Colet thought required explanation as much -as any other portion of Scripture. Four of Colet's letters to Radulphus, -containing his views on the Mosaic account of the creation, have -fortunately been preserved, bound up with a copy of his manuscript -exposition on the Epistle to the Romans, in the Library of Corpus Christi -College, Cambridge.[102] Colet seems to have thought them worth -preserving, as he did the letter to the Abbot of Winchcombe; and as any -attempt to realise the position and feelings of Colet, when commencing his -lectures at Oxford on St. Paul's epistles, would have been very imperfect -without the story of the priest's visit, so these letters to Radulphus, -apart from their intrinsic interest, are especially valuable as giving -another practical illustration of the position which Colet had assumed -upon the question of the inspiration and interpretation of the Scriptures; -as showing, perhaps, more clearly than anything else could have done, that -the principles and method which he had applied to St. Paul's writings, -were not hastily adopted, but the result of mature conviction,--that Colet -was ready to apply them consistently to the Old Testament as well as to -the New, to the first chapter of Genesis as well as to the Epistle to the -Romans. - -[Sidenote: First letter to Radulphus.] - -Colet begins his first letter by telling Radulphus how surprised he was -that, whilst professing to expound the 'dark places of Scripture,' he -should, as already mentioned, have commenced with the words of Lamech, -leaving the first three chapters of Genesis untouched; for these very -chapters, so lightly passed over by Radulphus, seemed to him, he said, 'so -obscure that they might almost in themselves be that "_abyss_" to which -Moses alluded when he wrote that "darkness covered the face of the -deep."'[103] - -[Sidenote: Use of a knowledge of Hebrew.] - -After admitting the impossibility of coming to an accurate understanding -of the meaning of what Moses wrote without a knowledge of Hebrew and -access to Hebrew commentaries, 'which Origen, Jerome, and all really -diligent searchers of the Scriptures have appreciated,' he goes on to say -that, notwithstanding their extreme obscurity, and the possibility that -Radulphus might be able to throw more light upon them than he himself -could, he would nevertheless give him some of his notions on the meaning -of the verses from 'In the beginning,' &c. to the end of the 'first day.' - -He then began his explanation by saying that, though not unmindful of the -manifold senses of Scripture, he should confine himself to rapidly -following _one_;[104] and this seems to be the only allusion in these -letters to the prevalent theory of the 'manifold senses.' Taken in -connection with the full expression of his views upon the subject on a -future occasion, the words here made use of probably must be construed -rather as showing that he did not wish at that moment to enter into the -question with Radulphus, than as intended to give any indication of what -his views were upon it. - -[Sidenote: All things created at once in eternity.] - -Then he proceeds to state his conviction that the first few verses of -Genesis contain a sort of summary of the whole work of creation. 'First -of all, I conceive,' Colet wrote, 'that in this passage the creation of -the universe has been delivered to us in brief (_summatim_), and that God -created all things _at once_ in his eternity[105]--in that eternity which -transcends all time, and yet is less extended than a point of time, which -has no division of time, and is before all time.' - -The world consists primarily of _matter_ and _form_, and the object of -Moses was, Colet thought, to show that both matter and form were created -_at once_ (_simul_). And therefore Moses began with saying, 'In the -beginning (i.e. in eternity) God created heaven (i.e. form) and the earth' -(i.e. matter).[106] Matter was never without form, but that he might point -out the order of things, Moses added, that 'the earth (matter) was empty -and void[107] (i.e. without solid and substantial being), and darkness -covered the face of the deep' (i.e. the matter was in darkness, and -without life and being).[108] Then the text proceeds, 'The Spirit of God -moved upon the face of the waters.' 'See how beautifully' (wrote Colet), -'he proceeds in order, showing at one view the creation and union of form -with matter,[109] using the word "water" to express the unstable and fluid -condition of matter.' Then follow the words, 'Let there be light' (i.e. -according to Colet, things assumed form and definition[110]). - -Having thus explained the opening verses of Genesis as a statement in -brief--_a summary_--of the whole work of creation, Colet concluded this -first letter by saying, 'What follows in Moses is a repetition and further -expansion of what he has said above--a distinguishing in _particular_ of -what before was comprehended in the _general_. If you think otherwise, -pray let me have your views. Farewell.'[111] - -[Sidenote: Second letter.] - -[Sidenote: Colet takes into account the rude multitude for whom Moses -wrote.] - -[Sidenote: And that his object was to give them a moral lesson, not a -scientific one.] - -Radulphus having, apparently in reply to this letter, requested Colet to -proceed to explain the _other_ days, Colet, in the _second_ letter, takes -up the subject where he left it in the first. Having spoken of form and -matter, Moses proceeds, he says, in proper order, and treats of things in -particular, 'placing before the eye the arrangement of the world; which he -does in this way, in my opinion' (wrote Colet), 'that he may seem to have -regard to the understanding of the vulgar and rude multitude whom he -taught.'[112] Thus, as when trying to understand the Epistle to the -Romans, Colet took down his 'Suetonius,' and studied the circumstances of -the Roman Christians to whom the epistle was written, so, in trying to -understand the book of Genesis, Colet seems to have regarded it as written -expressly for the benefit of the children of Israel, and to have called to -mind how rude and uncivilised a multitude Moses had to teach; and he seems -to have come to the conclusion that the object of Moses was not to give to -the learned of future generations a scientific statement of the manner -and order of the creation of the universe, but to teach a _moral_ lesson -to the people whom he was leading out of the bondage and idolatry of -Egypt. And thus, in Colet's view, Moses, 'setting aside matters purely -Divine and out of the range of the common apprehension, proceeds to -instruct the unlearned people, by touching rapidly and lightly on the -order of those things with which their eyes were very palpably conversant, -that he might teach them what men are, and for what purpose they were -born, in order that he might be able with less difficulty to lead them on -afterwards to a more civilised life and to the worship of God--_which was -his main object in writing_.[113] And that this was so is made obvious by -the fact, that even amongst things cognisable to the senses, Moses passed -over such as are less palpable, as _air_ and _fire_, fearing to speak of -anything but what can easily be seen, as land, sea, plants, beasts, men; -singling out from amongst stars, the sun and moon, and of fishes, "great -whales." Thus Moses arranges his details in such a way as to give the -people a clearer notion, and he does this _after the manner of a popular -poet_, in order that he may the more adapt himself to the spirit of simple -rusticity, picturing a succession of things, works, and times, of such a -kind as there certainly could not be in the work of _so great a -Workman_.'[114] - -[Sidenote: Moses accommodated himself to the rude minds of the people.] - -This recognition by Colet of _accommodation_, on the part of Moses, to the -limited understanding of the rude people whom he taught, occurs over and -over again in these letters; _so_ often, indeed, that in one letter he -apologises to Radulphus for the repetition, being aware, as he says, that -_he_ is not addressing a 'muddle-headed Hebrew' (lutulentum Hebraeum), but -a most refined philosopher! Thus he explains the difficulty of the -creation of the firmament on the second day by saying, 'This was made -before, but that simple and uncivilised multitude had to be taught in a -homely and palpable way.'[115] - -[Sidenote: Third letter.] - -In the third letter Colet proceeds to speak of the third day--the -separation of the waters from the dry land, and the creation of plants and -herbs. Here again everything is explained on the principle of -accommodation. 'Since the untutored multitude, looking round them, saw -nothing but the sky above, and land and water here below, and then the -things which spring from land and water, and live in them, so Moses suits -his order to their powers of observation.' - -[Sidenote: Colet believes in a sort of development of things.] - -The firmament or sky was spoken of in the second day; now, therefore, on -the third day, Moses mentions land and water, and the things which spring -from them. Plants and herbs are thus spoken of almost as though they were -a part of land and water; and here Colet gives Radulphus what he speaks of -as a notion of his own, hard, perhaps, for his friend to receive, but -nevertheless his own conviction, that, [instead of each element being -separately created, as it were, out of nothing] 'fire springs from ether, -air from fire, water from air, and from water, lastly, earth.' And Moses -probably in speaking of the creation of plants &c. on the third day, -before he came to other things, intended thereby to show, Colet thought, -that the earth is spontaneously productive of plants. He also thought that -Moses mentioned the creation of plants before the heavenly bodies, in -order to show that the germinating principle is in the earth itself, and -not, according to the vulgar idea, in the sun and stars. - -[Sidenote: Moses divided the creation into six days, after the manner of a -poet, by a useful and most wise poetic figment.] - -At the end of the third letter, Colet naturally stumbles on the difficulty -of explaining how, if all things were created _at once_ 'in the -beginning,' before all time, Moses could say at the end of each stage of -his description of the creation, 'and the evening and the morning were the -first, second, third, &c. _day_:' and, after fairly losing himself in an -attempt to solve this difficulty, he ends by urging Radulphus to leave -these obscure points, which are practically beyond our range, and to bear -in mind throughout what he had before spoken of, viz. that whilst Moses -wished to speak in a manner not unworthy of God, he wished, at the same -time, in matters within the knowledge of the common people, to satisfy the -common people, and to keep to the order of things; above all things, to -lead the people on to the religion and worship of the one God.[116] 'The -chief things known to the common people were sky, land and water, stars, -fishes, beasts, and so he deals with them. He arranged them in six days; -_partly_ because the things which readily occur to men's minds are six in -number:[117]--(1) What is above the sky, (2) sky itself, (3) land, -surrounded by water, and productive of plants, (4) sun and moon in the -sky, (5) fish in the water, (6) beasts inhabiting earth and air, and -_man_, the inhabitant of the whole universe;--and _partly_ and _chiefly_, -that he might lead the people on to the imitation of God, whom, _after the -manner of a poet_, he had pictured as working for six days and resting the -seventh, so that they also should devote every seventh day to rest and to -the contemplation of God and to worship.'[118] 'For, beyond all doubt,' -Colet proceeds to say, 'Moses never would have put forward a number of -days for any other purpose than that, by this most useful and most wise -poetic figment, the people might be provoked to imitation by an example -set before them, and so ending their daily labours on the sixth day, spend -the seventh in the highest contemplation of God.'[119] Colet ends his -third letter by saying, 'Thus you have my notions upon the work of the -third day, but what to make of it I know not. It is enough, as I have -said, to have touched upon it lightly. Farewell.' - -[Sidenote: Fourth letter.] - -[Sidenote: Colet confesses his uncertainty.] - -From the commencement of the fourth letter it would seem that Radulphus -had been from home four days, and Colet jokingly tells him that _he_ had -spent all those four days in getting through _one_ more of the Mosaic -days. 'And indeed whilst you have been working in the day under the sun, -I, during this time, have been wandering about in the night and the -darkness; neither did I see which way to go, nor do I know at what point I -have arrived.' And then he went on to tell Radulphus that, while in this -perplexity himself, he seemed to have caught Moses also in a great -mistake, for in concluding each day's work with the words, 'the evening -and the morning were the second day, the third day,' and so on, he ought -not to have said _day_ but _night_. What intervenes between the evening -and the morning must of necessity be _night_! For a _day_ begins in the -morning and ends with the evening! And he went on jokingly to say that -there was a still more pressing reason why Moses, dividing his subjects -into days, might have rather called them _nights_; viz. that 'they are so -overwhelmed with darkness that nothing could be more like _night_ than -these Mosaic _days_!' Then looking back upon his attempts to explain their -obscurity, he was obliged to confess that 'perhaps while he had been -trying to throw some light upon them, he might, after all, have increased -the darkness;' and he entreated Radulphus 'to pour into the darkness some -of his light, that he might be enabled thereby to see Colet, and Colet -together with him to see Moses.'[120] - -[Sidenote: All things must have been created at once.] - -[Sidenote: Accommodation on the part of God to man.] - -[Sidenote: Moses uses a most honest and pious poetic figure.] - -After this candid confession of uncertainty, Colet tried to explain the -work of the fourth day, and the words, 'Let there be lights in the -firmament of heaven;' but the only way he could do so was by resorting -again to the principle of accommodation, which he did in these words: 'As -we have said, all these were created at once. For it is unworthy of God, -and unbecoming in us, to think of any one thing as created after any -other, as though He had been unable to create them all at once. Hence in -Ecclesiasticus, "He who dwells in eternity created all things _at once_." -But Moses, _after the manner of a good and pious poet_,[121] as Origen -(against Celsus) calls him, was willing to invent some figure, not -altogether worthy of God, if only it might but be profitable and useful to -men; which race of men is so dear to God, that God himself emptied himself -of his glory, taking the form of a servant, that he might accommodate -himself to the poor heart of man.[122] So all things of God, when given to -man, must needs lose somewhat of their sublimity,[123] and be put in a -form more palpable and more within the grasp of man. Accordingly, the -high knowledge of Moses about God and Divine things and the creation of -the world, when it came to be submitted to the vulgar apprehension, -savoured altogether of the humble and the rustic, so that he had to speak, -not according to _his_ own power of comprehension, but according to the -comprehension of the multitude. Thus, accommodating himself to _their_ -comprehension, Moses endeavoured, by this most honest and pious poetic -figure, at once to allure them and draw them on to the worship of -God.'[124] - -Here the manuscript abruptly ends[125] in the middle of a reference to the -works of Macrobius, whose sanction Colet was apparently about to quote in -support of his attempt to explain the first chapter of Genesis by -reference to the principle of accommodation.[126] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Where Colet got these views.] - -The question may be asked:--'Whence came this doctrine of accommodation -which Colet here used so boldly?' It was at least no birth of the -nineteenth century, nor of the fifteenth. It belonged to a period a -thousand years earlier, when men had (as in Colet's days and in ours) to -reconcile reason and faith--to find a firm basis of _fact_ for -Christianity, instead of resting upon mere ecclesiastical authority. - -It will have been noticed that the two authors cited by Colet in these -letters were Origen and Macrobius. Traces of Dionysian influence are also -apparent.[127] - -It has already been pointed out, that when, after a thousand years' -interval of restless slumber, the spirit of free enquiry was reawakened by -the revival of learning in Italy, the works of the pre-scholastic fathers -and philosophers were studied afresh. The works of Origen, Macrobius, and, -more than all, of Dionysius, were constantly studied and quoted by such -men as Ficino and Pico. And thus it came to pass that the doctrine of -accommodation, with other apparently new-fangled but really _old_ -doctrines, floated, as it were, in the air which Colet had recently been -breathing in Italy. - -[Sidenote: The _Heptaplus_ of Pico.] - -The immediate source of some of the views contained in the letters to -Radulphus was evidently Pico's 'Heptaplus'[128] on the six days' creation; -a work published in beautiful type, shortly before Colet's visit to Italy, -and dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici.[129] Comparing this treatise of -Pico's with Colet's letters, the small verbal coincidences are too -striking to leave any doubt of the connection. - -Nor does this tracing of Colet's thoughts to their source detract from his -originality so much as might at first sight appear. - -Colet found many different germs of thought in Pico. Falling into -congenial soil, this one attained a vigorous growth in his mind, which it -never attained with Pico. Other germs which flourished under Pico took no -root with Colet. The result was, that the spirit of the letters to -Radulphus had little in common with that of the 'Heptaplus.' Colet showed -his originality and independence of thought by seizing one rational idea -contained in Pico's treatise, and leaving the rest. He caught and -unravelled one thread of common sense which Pico had contrived to -interweave with a web of learned but not very wise speculation. - - -IV. COLET STUDIES AFRESH THE PSEUDO-DIONYSIAN WRITINGS (1497?). - -The next glimpse of Colet and his labours at Oxford reveals him immersed -in the study of the Pseudo-Dionysian writings: writing from memory an -abstract of the 'Celestial' and 'Ecclesiastical' Hierarchies,[130] and -even composing short treatises of his own, based throughout upon Dionysian -speculations.[131] - -[Sidenote: The Pseudo-Dionysian writings.] - -During the most part of the middle ages the Pseudo-Dionysian writings were -accepted generally as the genuine productions of Dionysius the -Areopagite--i.e. of a disciple of St. Paul himself. It is not surprising, -therefore, that Colet, falling into this current view, should regard the -writings of the disciple with some degree of that interest and reverence -with which he regarded those of the master. For a time it is evident they -exercised a strong fascination on his mind. - -It has already been mentioned, that the influence of the Dionysian -writings upon the Neo-Platonists of Florence was natural, seeing that they -were in fact the embodiment of the result of the effervescence produced by -the mixture of Neo-Platonic speculations with the Christianity of a -thousand years earlier. - -But whilst it was their _Neo-Platonic_ element which attracted the -attention of Florentine philosophers, it was chiefly, as it seems to me, -their _Christian_ element which fascinated Colet. - -[Sidenote: Their intrinsic power.] - -Nor can we of the nineteenth century altogether afford to ignore these -writings as forgeries. There must have been in them enough of intrinsic -power, apart from their supposed authorship, to account for the enormous -influence exerted by them for centuries over the highest minds in the -church, in spite of the wildness of speculation in which they seemed to -revel; just as there was enough of intrinsic power in St. Augustine to -account for _his_ mighty influence, in spite of his narrow views upon some -points. It is quite possible that, as the very dogmatism of St. Augustine -may have increased his influence in a dogmatic age, so, inasmuch as the -dogmatic theology of the Schoolmen aimed at a pan-theological settlement -of every possible question, their very wildness of speculation may have -aided the influence of the Dionysian writings. This may partly account for -the remarkable extent to which the works of St. Augustine and Dionysius -furnished, as it were, the weft and woof out of which Aquinas wove his -scholastic web.[132] But nothing but some intrinsic power in these works -themselves, apart from their dogmatism and speculation, could account for -their double position as forming the basis, not only of the Scholastic -Theology itself, but also of so many reactions against the results of its -supremacy. These reactions were not always Augustinian. Some of them were -mystic, and the supposed Dionysius was, so to speak, the prophet of the -Mystics. - -One main secret of the intrinsic power of the Dionysian writings, -especially to such men as Colet, lay, undoubtedly, in the severe rebuke -they gave to the ecclesiastical scandals of the times. The state of the -church under Alexander VI. was such that earnest men in Italy had -practically either ceased to believe in it, and in Christianity, as of -divine institution; or were seeking a solution of their difficulties -through those Neo-Platonic speculations, out of which these -Pseudo-Dionysian writings had themselves sprung. - -[Sidenote: What the Dionysian writings were.] - -Colet doubtless, when he came to Italy, had the same difficulties to -fight. Could this ecclesiastical system, so degraded, so vicious, so -hollow and pernicious, be of God? He could not, and probably there was not -anyone in Europe at that moment who could, from his standing-point, wholly -reject it, without rejecting Christianity along with it. The Dionysian -writings presented a way of escape from this terrible alternative. If they -were genuine (and Colet believed them to be so), then the hierarchical -system and its sacraments, however perverted, were yet of apostolic -origin. These writings apparently described, in the words of a disciple of -St. Paul, their apostolic institution and their original intention and -meaning. But the notion gathered by Colet from Dionysius of the apostolic -intention presented an ideal so utterly pure and holy, as compared with -the hollowness and wickedness of ecclesiastical practice, as he saw it in -Italy, that he must indeed have had a heart of stone had he not been moved -by it. - -The following passage will show, in Colet's own words, how, following the -lead of such men as Pico and Ficino (with whose writings, we have seen, he -was acquainted), he was led to regard the Jewish traditions of the Cabala -as genuine Mosaic traditions, committed to writing by Ezra; and, in like -manner, to accept the Pseudo-Dionysian traditions as genuine apostolic -traditions, committed to writing by a disciple of St. Paul; and, further, -it will place in a clear light the connection between his faith in -Dionysius, his grief over the scandals of the church, and his zeal for -reform. - - [Sidenote: Colet sees the difference between the Dionysian and the - Papal rites.] - - 'I know not by what rashness of bishops, in later ages, the ancient - custom fell into disuse--a custom which, owing to its apostolic - institution, had the highest authority.... And had not St. Dionysius - (who seems to me to be such in our church as was Ezra in the synagogue - of Moses, who willed that the mysteries of the old law should be - committed to writing, lest in the confusion of affairs and of men the - record of so much wisdom should perish)--had not Dionysius, I say, in - like manner, as though divining the future carelessness of mankind, - left written down by his productive pen what he retained in memory of - the institutions of the apostle in arranging and regulating the - church, we should have had no record of this ancient custom.... How it - befel, (Colet continued) without grievous guilt, that these became - afterwards wholly changed, I know not; since we must believe that it - was by the teaching of the Holy Spirit that they ordained all things - in the church. For the words of our Saviour in St. John are these: - "Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you - into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he - shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come." - It is because their most holy traditions have been superseded and - neglected, and men have fallen away from the Spirit of God to their - own inventions, that, beyond doubt, all things have been wretchedly - disturbed and confounded; and, as I said before, unless God shall - have mercy upon us, all things will 'go to ruin.'[133] - -[Sidenote: Purity of the Dionysian standard.] - -The truth was that the Dionysian writings, though not of apostolic origin -as Colet supposed, presented, nevertheless, a picture of the -ecclesiastical usages of an age a thousand years earlier than Colet's; and -putting the earlier and the later usages in contrast, it was impossible -for him not to perceive at once how much more pure and rational in its -spirit and tendencies was the ancient Dionysian system than the more -modern Papal one. - -[Sidenote: The Dionysian sacerdotal and ritualistic system is radically -different from the Papal.] - -Both were sacerdotal and ritualistic; but the sacerdotalism and ritualism -of Dionysius were radically opposed in spirit to those of the more modern -system. During the interval between the fifth and the fifteenth century, -sacerdotalism had had time to turn almost literally upside-down, and -ritualism with it. It was thus quite natural that Colet, in the light of -Dionysius, should find 'all things wretchedly disturbed and confounded.' - -[Sidenote: The object of religion not to propitiate the Deity, but to -change the heart of man.] - -The Dionysian theory, however speculative and vicious as such, at least -according to Colet's version of it, did not, like the modern theory, tend -towards that grossest heathen conception of religion, according to which -its main object is the propitiation of the Deity, rather than the changing -of the heart of man. - -Its gospel was not that Christ offered his sacrifice to propitiate an -unreconciled God--to reconcile God to man. On the contrary, it told of a -God who is 'beautiful and good,'[134] who had created all things because -He is good, because He is good recalling[135] all things to Himself, by -the sacrifice of Himself redeeming them, not from His own wrath, but from -the power of Evil. - -[Sidenote: Cur Deus Homo?] - -[Sidenote: Colet on the 'marvellous victory' of a 'suffering Christ.'] - -The following passage may be taken in illustration of this:--'When, -directly after the creation, foolish human nature was allured by the -seductive enticements of the enemy, and fell away from God into a womanish -and dying condition, and was rolling headlong down with rapid course to -death itself, then at length, in His own time, our good, and tender, and -kind, and gentle, and merciful God, giving us all good things at once in -place of all that was bad, willed to take upon Him human nature, and to -enter into it, and rescue it from the power of the adversary, overthrowing -and destroying his empire. For, as St. Paul writes to the Hebrews, -"Forasmuch as the children"--or servants--"are partakers of flesh and -blood," ... therefore also God himself "made himself of no reputation, and -took upon him the form of a servant," and "himself likewise took part of -the same" flesh and blood--that is, human nature--"that through death he -might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and -deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to -bondage:" that he might destroy, I say, that enemy, not by force, but (as -Dionysius says) by judgment and righteousness; which he calls a hidden -thing and a _mystery_.[136] For it was a marvellous victory, that the -Devil, though victorious, in the very fact of his conquering, should be -conquered; and that Jesus should conquer in the very fact of his being -vanquished on the cross; so that in reality, in the victory on each side, -the matter was otherwise than it seemed. And thus when the adversary that -vanquished man was himself vanquished by God, man was restored, without -giving any just cause of complaint to the devil, to the liberty and light -of God. There was shown to him the path to heaven, trodden by the feet of -Christ, whose footsteps we must follow if we would arrive where he has -gone. A suffering Christ, I say (most marvellous!), and dying as though -vanquished, overcame.... By that death we have been rescued from the dead, -and are the servants of God.'[137] - -[Sidenote: Object of Christ's death.] - -Quaint and curious as this view of the connection between the sacrifice of -Christ and the just conquest of the power of Evil may seem to modern ears, -it reflects faithfully the view most current amongst the early Greek -Fathers; and it has at least this merit, that it cannot be translated into -the language of the heathen doctrine of propitiation. - -[Sidenote: Modern 'priests' act _on behalf of man_ before God.] - -It followed that, as the Dionysian theory left no place for the notion -that the sacrifice of Christ was offered to reconcile God to man (seeing -that it upheld the doctrine that it was the sheep that had gone astray, -and rejected the doctrine that the Shepherd had ever deserted the sheep), -so it left no place for a sacerdotal order, according to the heathen -notion of a priesthood. Its priests were not priests according to the -modern definition. It did not--it could not--represent its priesthood as -appearing as heathen priests did (and as some modern priests seem to think -they do)[138] on _behalf of man_ before God, presenting men's offerings to -him. If Christ's office, according to Dionysius, were emphatically to -_plead with men_, to bring _them_ back, so the priest's office was to act -in his stead in the same work. - -[Sidenote: According to Dionysius and Colet, priests act on behalf of God -towards man.] - -The following passage from Colet's abstract presents these two dependent -facts in their proper connection:--'Christ's office on earth the bishops -[elsewhere he speaks of priests and bishops as identical] everywhere -discharge, and in Him act as He acted, and with like zeal strive for the -purification, illumination, and salvation of mankind by constant preaching -of the truth and diffusion of Gospel light, even as He strove. St. Paul -says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing -their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of -reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ." Acting in -Christ's stead, they fan the fire which Christ came to send upon the -earth.... (Luke xii. 49, 50.) He baptized, as John testifies, "with the -Holy Ghost and with fire." For fire purifies, illumines, and perfects. -That fire of the Spirit does this in the souls of men. For the increasing -of this wholesome conflagration amid the forest of men, the bishops are -vicars and ministers of Jesus, and they seek the kindling of mankind in -God. Now this fire is, I doubt not, the holy love of God.[139]... And the -messenger of this goodness, compassion, love, and tenderness of God was -his lovely son Jesus Christ, who ... brought down love to men, that they -being born anew by love, might in turn love their heavenly Father along -with Him.'[140] - -[Sidenote: Modern and Dionysian ritualism very different.] - -The Dionysian theory of sacerdotalism being thus, in its spirit and -attitude, an exact inversion of the modern one, it might naturally be -expected that the Dionysian ritualism would, in like manner, involve an -inversion of modern ritualistic notions. - -This was the case. Instead of idolizing the sacraments as of mystic power -and virtue in themselves, the Dionysian theory represented them as -divinely instituted ceremonies intended to draw mankind by types and -shadows upward to God. - -[Sidenote: The Eucharist.] - -[Sidenote: Baptism.] - -[Sidenote: Sponsors.] - -[Sidenote: Priests have no power of loosing and binding.] - -It did not, like modern ritualism, tend towards the view that the -Eucharist is a _sacrifice_ in the heathen sense--a continued offering by a -human priesthood of the sacrifice of Christ.[141] On the contrary, it -represented this sacrament as commemorative of the death of Christ, and as -symbolic of the professed communion on the part of men with Christ, and -with one another.[142] It did not set forth the sacrament of baptism as -modern ritualists are so fond of doing, as effecting there and then the -regeneration of the person baptized. But it regarded baptism as a symbolic -_profession_ of change of heart--as the ceremony in which the believer -openly takes his soldier's oath to Christ, and promises amended -life.[143] It did not represent the sponsors as promising or professing -_in the child's stead_, that he is then and there regenerated, but -promising that they themselves will do all they can to bring him up as a -child of God.[144] It did not admit in any sacerdotal order, any power to -remit or retain sin, to bind or to loose. On the contrary, it regarded -the priests as God's ministers, who ought to keep in communion with Him, -so that receiving intimation by the Spirit of what is already bound or -loosed in heaven, they may disclose it on earth.[145] - - * * * * * - -If any sacerdotal theory could be believable, it must be confessed, there -is an intrinsically rational and _Christian_ tone about the Dionysian -theory according to Colet's rendering of it, strangely lacking in that of -modern sacerdotalists. - -Forgetting for the moment the speculative adjuncts to the theory, the -professed knowledge of mysteries unknown, which Colet's belief in -Dionysius obliged him to accept, but which did not add any force to the -theory itself, it will be seen at once how powerful a rebuke he must have -felt it to be to the ecclesiastical scandals of the closing years of the -fifteenth century. It assumed, as the essential attribute of any -sacerdotal order laying claim to apostolic institution, the attribute of a -really pure and personal holiness. No merely official sanctity imputed -outwardly to a consecrated order, by virtue of its outward consecration, -could possibly satisfy its requirements.[146] And in the same way the -sacraments were nothing apart from the personal spiritual realities which -they were meant to symbolize. - -[Sidenote: Religion consists in _love_.] - -Underneath, therefore, the wild excess of symbolism and speculation which -lay on the surface, and formed, as it were, the _froth_ of the Dionysian -theology, Colet seems to have found this basis of eternal truth, that -religion is a thing of the heart, not of creed nor of ceremonial -observances; that, in Colet's own rendering of the Dionysian -theory:--'Knowledge leads not to eternal life, but _love_. Whoso loveth -God is known of Him. Ignorant love has a thousand times more power than -cold wisdom.'[147] - -Colet's abstracts of the Dionysian treatises abound with passages -expressive of the purity and holiness of heart required of the Christian, -and of the necessity of his love not being merely of the contemplative -kind, but an active love working for Christ and his fellowmen. The -following extracts may be taken as illustrations of this. - -[Sidenote: The purity of Christians.] - -In concluding the chapter on the meaning of baptism Colet -exclaims:--'Gracious God! here may one perceive how cleansed and how pure -he that professes Christ ought to be; how inwardly and thoroughly washed; -how white, how shining, how utterly without blemish or spot; in fine, how -perfected and filled, according to his measure, with Christ himself.... -May Jesus Christ himself bring it to pass, that we who profess Christ may -both be, and set our affections on, and do all things that are worthy of -our profession.'[148] - -[Sidenote: Self-sacrifice for others a blessed thing.] - -Speaking of the anointing after baptism of the soldier of Christ, Colet -says:--'You must strive that you may conquer; you must conquer that you -maybe crowned. Fight in Him who fights in you and prevails--even Jesus -Christ, who has declared war against death, and fights in all.... It is -the rule of combat that we should imitate our leader.... We have no -enemies except sin (which is ever against us), and the evil spirits that -tempt to sin. When these are vanquished in ourselves, then let us, armed -with the armour of God, in charity succour others, even though they be not -for suffering us, even though in their folly they see not their bondage, -even though they would put their deliverers to death. So to love man as to -die in caring for his salvation is most blessed.'[149] - -[Sidenote: Colet on the Pope.] - -These passages may also be taken as evidence how fully Colet had caught -hold of the spirit, not merely of the froth, of the Dionysian doctrine; -how he had approached it in earnest search after practical religion, and -not merely in the love of speculation. They will also do much to explain -how, drinking deeply at this well of mystic religion, he came back from -Italy, not a mere Neo-Platonic philosopher or 'humanist,' but a practical -Reformer. In Italy he had become acquainted with the scandals of Alexander -VI. In his abstract of Dionysius, in speaking of '_the highest Bishop whom -we call "the Pope,"_' he bursts out into these indignant sentences:--'If -he be a lawful bishop, he of himself does nothing, but God in him. But if -he do attempt anything of _himself_, he is then a breeder of poison. And -if he also bring this to the birth, and carry into execution his own will, -he is wickedly distilling poison to the destruction of the Church. This -has now indeed been done for many years past, and has by this time so -increased as to take powerful hold on all members of the Church; so that, -unless that Mediator who alone can do so, who created and founded the -church out of nothing for Himself (therefore does St. Paul often call it a -"creature")--unless, I say, the Mediator Jesus lay to his hand with all -speed, our most disordered church cannot be far from death.... Men consult -not God on what is to be done, by constant prayer, but take counsel with -men, whereby they shake and overthrow everything. All (as we must own with -grief, and as I write with both grief and tears) seek their own, not the -things which are Jesus Christ's, not heavenly things but earthly, what -will bring them to death, not what will bring them to life eternal.'[150] - -[Sidenote: Colet on the wickedness of priests.] - -The following passage also burns with Colet's zeal for ecclesiastical -reform:--'Here let every priest observe, by that sacrament of washing -[before celebration of the eucharist], how clean, how scoured, how fresh -he ought to be, who would handle the heavenly mysteries, and especially -the sacrament of the Lord's body; how such ought to be so washed and -scoured and polished inwardly, as that not so much as a shadow be left in -the mind whereby the incoming light may be in any wise obscured, and that -not a trace of sin may remain to prevent God from walking in the temple of -our mind. Oh priests! Oh priesthood! Oh the detestable boldness of wicked -men in this our generation! Oh the abominable impiety of those miserable -priests, of whom this age of ours contains a great multitude, who fear not -to rush from the bosom of some foul harlot into the temple of the Church, -to the altar of Christ, to the mysteries of God! Abandoned creatures! on -whom the vengeance of God will one day fall the heavier, the more -shamelessly they have intruded themselves on the Divine office. O Jesu -Christ, wash for us, not our feet only, but our hands and our head!'[151] - -[Sidenote: The zeal is Colet's, not Dionysian.] - -In conclusion, I must remind the reader that it would not be fair to take -this sketch of Colet's abstract of the Dionysian treatises as in any sense -an abstract of the treatises themselves. What I have tried to do is, to -show in what Colet's own mind was influenced by them. The passages I have -quoted are not passages from Dionysius but from Colet. The radical -conception is most often due to Dionysius; the passages themselves -represent the effervescence produced by the Dionysian conceptions in -Colet's mind. The enthusiasm--the fire which they kindled there they would -not have kindled in every one's breast. The fire was indeed very much -Colet's own. I find passages which _burn_ in Colet's abstract _freeze_ in -the original. Whilst, therefore, acknowledging the influence of the -Dionysian writings upon Colet's mind, it must not be forgotten that this -influence was exerted upon the mind of a man not only already acquainted -with the writings of the modern Neo-Platonists and of the Greek Fathers, -but also already devoted to the study of the Scriptures, and bent upon -drawing out for himself from themselves their direct practical meaning. - -[Sidenote: Germs of true scientific thought in Dionysius.] - -The truth is, that just as in the Greek Fathers, with all their tendency -to allegorise Scripture, there was combined a rational critical element -which formed the germ of a sounder and more scientific method of -Scriptural interpretation--a germ which fructified whenever it fell into a -soil suited to its growth, whether in the fifth and sixth or in the -fifteenth and sixteenth centuries--so in the Pseudo-Dionysian philosophy, -with all its unscientific tendency to revel in the wildest speculation, -there were combined germs of true scientific thought, which in like manner -were sure to fructify in such a mind as Colet's. - -[Sidenote: The relativity of all knowledge.] - -Thus in the Dionysian doctrine that God is inscrutable--that all human -knowledge is relative--that man cannot rise to a knowledge of the -absolute--that therefore no conceptions men can form of God can be -accurate, and no language in which they speak of Him can be more than -clumsy analogy--in this principle there is the germ of a rational -understanding of the necessary conditions of Divine revelation involving -the admission of the necessity of _accommodation_ and the _human_ element -in Scripture. Again, in the doctrine that whilst, in this sense, the -_knowledge_ of God is impossible to man, the _love_ of God is not so, -there lies the basis of truth on which alone science can be reconciled -with religion, and religion itself become a power of life. - -Lastly, in the very attempt, so striking throughout Dionysius, to find -out in the sacerdotal and sacramental system a symbolic meaning, who does -not recognise the attempt to find out a _rational intention_ in its -institution, which should make it believable in an age of reviving -philosophy and science? - - -V. COLET LECTURES ON 'I. CORINTHIANS' (1497?). - -[Sidenote: Colet's lectures on Corinthians. MSS. at Cambridge.] - -If the manuscript exposition of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians -preserved at Cambridge, apparently in Colet's own handwriting, with his -own latest corrections,[152] may be taken as evidence of what his lectures -on this epistle were, it may be of some value, apart from its own -intrinsic interest, in enabling us to judge how far he adhered to the same -leading views and method of exposition which he had before adopted, and -how far, in preceding chapters, we have been able to judge rightly of what -they were. - -I think it will be found that this exposition of the Epistle to the -Corinthians is in perfect harmony with all which had preceded it, and that -it shows evident traces of those phases of thought through which Colet had -been passing since his arrival at Oxford. - -Its striking characteristic, like that on the 'Romans,' would seem to be -the pains taken to regard it throughout as the letter of a living apostle -to an actual church. - -[Sidenote: Colet's love for St. Paul.] - -On the one hand, it teems with passages which show the depth of Colet's -almost personal affection for St. Paul, and the clearness with which he -realised the special characteristics of St. Paul's character; his extreme -consideration for others,[153] his modesty,[154] his tolerance, his wise -tact and prudence,[155] his self-denial for others' good.[156] - -[Sidenote: Colet studies the character of the Corinthians.] - -On the other hand, no less conspicuous is the attempt on Colet's part to -realise the condition and peculiar character and circumstances of the -Corinthians, to whom the apostle was writing, as the true key to the -practical meaning of the epistle. - -[Sidenote: Pride of the Greek nation.] - -Thus Colet, in treating of the commencement of the epistle--an epistle -intended to correct the conduct of the Corinthians in some practical -points in which they had erred--stops to admire the wisdom of St. Paul's -method in speaking first of that part of their conduct which he could -praise, before he proceeded to blame. And this he did, Colet thought, -'that by this gentle and mild beginning he might draw them on to read the -rest of his epistle, and lead them to listen more easily to what he had to -blame in their conduct. For (Colet continues) had he at once at starting -been rougher, and accused them more severely, he might indeed have driven -away from himself and his exhortations minds as yet tender and -inexperienced in religion, especially those of that Greek nation, so -arrogant and proud, and prone to be disdainful.[157] Prudently, therefore, -and cautiously had the matter to be handled, having due regard to persons, -places, and seasons, in his observance of which Paul was surely the one -most considerate of all men, who knew so well how to accommodate the means -to the end, that while he sought nothing else but the glory of Jesus -Christ upon earth, and the increase of faith and charity, this man with -divine skill neither did nor omitted anything ever amongst any which -should impede or retard these objects.'[158] - -[Sidenote: Colet describes the state of the Corinthian Church.] - -The same method receives a further illustration from the way in which -Colet draws a picture of the condition of the Corinthian church, evidently -feeling while he did so, how closely in some points it resembled the -condition of the church in his own day. He surely must have had the -Schoolmen in his mind, as he described some among the Corinthians, -'derogating from the authority of the Apostles, and especially of St. -Paul, whose name ought to have had the greatest weight amongst them, -setting up institutions in the church according to their own fancy and in -their own wisdom, making the people believe that they knew all about -everything which pertained to the Christian religion, and that they could -easily solve and give an opinion upon every point of doubt that might -arise. So that, in this infant church, many things had come to be allowed -which were abhorrent from the institutions of Paul, wherefrom had arisen -divisions and factions, between which were constant contentions and -altercations, so that all things were going wrong.'[159] - -[Sidenote: St. Paul's modesty and tact.] - -Colet's almost personal affection for St. Paul enabled him also to -realise how, being the 'first parent of the Corinthian church,' he was -'troubled' at this state of things, not so much at their having tried to -undermine his own authority, as at the danger they were in of making -shipwreck of their faith, after all his pains in piloting their vessel. -'Therefore, as far as he dared and could' (writes Colet), 'he upbraided -those who wished to seem wise, and who conducted the affairs of the -Christian republic more according to their own fancies than according to -the will of God. Which, however, he did everywhere most modestly; the most -pious man seeking rather the reformation of the evils than the blame of -any.' And therefore it was (Colet thought), that St. Paul in his whole -epistle, and especially in the first part of it, strove to assert that men -of themselves can know and do nothing, to eradicate the false foundation -of trust in themselves, and to lead them to Christ, who alone is the -wisdom of God and the power of God.[160] - -And here again, after following St. Paul's statement, that the wisdom of -man being foolishness, God had chosen the foolish rather than the wise to -hear him and to preach his gospel, Colet was led off into a train of -thought which harmonises well with what has been stated in previous -chapters, in that it shows how fully he had accepted the Dionysian -writings as the genuine writings of St. Paul's disciple, and how closely -he associated in his mind the name of the disciple with that of the -master. - -[Sidenote: Dionysius the Areopagite.] - -For he exclaims, 'What if sometimes some men, endowed with secular wisdom -such as Paul and his disciple, Dionysius the Areopagite, and a few -others, were chosen both to receive the truths of his wisdom, and to teach -them to others, these indeed in teaching others what they had learned from -God, took the greatest pains to appear to know nothing according to this -world, thinking it unworthy to mix up human reason with Divine -revelations.... Hence Paul, in wise and learned Greece, was not afraid to -seem in himself a fool and weak, and to profess that he knew nothing but -Jesus Christ and Him crucified.'[161] - -Then follows a passage in which Colet states, in his own language, what -Paul meant when he preached 'Christ crucified;'[162] a passage very -similar to that already quoted from his abstract of Dionysius, and bearing -the same marks of the modes of thought of a man who, as is affirmed of -Colet, was more inclined to follow Dionysius, Origen, and Jerome, than St. -Augustine. - -[Sidenote: The election of men by God not capricious.] - -Nor did Colet in this exposition show himself to be any more inclined to -follow Augustine upon the question of election than he showed himself in -his exposition of 'the Romans.' He is indeed ready enough to admit, that -men never could of themselves rise out of the darkness of worldly wisdom -to 'accept the wonderful miracle of Christ,'--'such is the miserable and -lost condition of men;' and yet he does not fall into the pitfall of -Augustine's doctrine, that men were chosen wholly without reference to -their own characters. 'It would seem,' he said, 'that it was not without -reason that God chose, out of the crowd of men grovelling in the darkness -of worldly wisdom, those who had not fallen so far into the depths of this -darkness, and so could more easily be touched by the divine light.... If -God himself be nobility, wisdom, and power, who does not see that Peter, -John, and James, and others like them, even before the truth of God had -shone in the world, surpassed others in wisdom and strength, in proportion -as they were free from their foolishness and impotence, so that no wonder -if God chose those _held_ foolish and impotent, since indeed they were -really the most noble of all the world, most separate, and standing out -farthest from the vileness of the world; so that just as that land which -rises highest is touched by the rays of the rising sun most easily and -most quickly, so in the same way it was of necessity that, at the rising -of that light which lighteth every man coming into this world, it should -first light up those who rose highest amongst men, and stood out, like -mountains in the valleys of men.'[163] - -[Sidenote: Accommodation.] - -The striking characteristic of Colet's letters to Radulphus was the stress -laid upon the principle of _accommodation_ on the part of the teacher to -the limited capacities of the taught. This is another point which crops up -again in the MS. on Corinthians. When Colet turned to the practical -teaching of St. Paul to the Corinthians, he seems to have been struck with -the fact, that the rules which St. Paul laid down with reference to -marriage and the like, were to be explained upon this principle.[164] - -[Sidenote: Colet on marriage.] - -Carried away by the authority of the Dionysian writings, Colet seems not -only to have held the doctrine of the celibacy of the clergy, but even to -have regarded marriage as allowed to the laity only by way of concession -to the weakness of the flesh. He had expressed this view in his MS. -treatise on 'the Sacraments,' and he repeated it, under cover of St. -Paul's allusions to marriage in the Epistle to the Corinthians. - -[Sidenote: Dionysian influence visible.] - -[Sidenote: The celestial spheres and hierarchy.] - -The influence of the Dionysian writings is indeed very frequently evident. -Again and again the phraseology used by Colet betrays it, and sometimes a -Dionysian turn of thought leads to a long digression. As might be -expected, a notable example of this occurs when Colet treats of the -chapters in the epistle with which the Dionysian theory of the celestial -hierarchy was intimately connected; in which St. Paul speaks, on the one -hand, of the church as one body with many members, and, on the other, of -celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial, and their differing order of -glory. It was probably about the time that Colet was lecturing on -Corinthians that Linacre was translating the work of Proclus, a -Neo-Platonist of the Alexandrian School, 'De Sphera;' and Grocyn writing a -preface to Linacre's translation in the form of a letter to Aldus, the -great printer at Venice, by whom it was afterwards published in 1499, in -an edition of the 'Astronomi veteres.'[165] Astronomy was one of the -sciences which the revival of learning had brought into prominence.[166] -At this very moment Copernicus was pursuing in Italy those studies which -resulted in the overturning of the Ptolemaic system. That system, however, -which had become inseparably interwoven with scholastic theology, was as -yet in undisputed ascendancy. Its crystalline spheres had for generations -been devoutly believed in by the Schoolmen, and classed by them among -'things celestial;' and as Luther stood in awe at their magic motions, as -'no doubt done by some angel,'[167] so poor Colet was led, by Dionysian -influence, to draw strange fanciful analogies between their 'differing -order of glory' and that of the 'celestial hierarchy.'[168] Thus it came -to pass that his exposition of the Epistle to the Corinthians was even -disfigured with diagrams to illustrate these fancied analogies. - -[Sidenote: Colet's zeal for reform.] - -Whilst thus pointing out the evidence that Colet was led astray by his -unsuspecting confidence in the genuineness of the Dionysian writings, into -doubtful speculations of this kind, and notions upon even practical -points, from which his own English common sense, if left to itself, might -have protected him, it is but fair to point out also the evidence -contained in this manuscript, of that zeal for ecclesiastical reform which -the purity of the Dionysian ideal of the priesthood at all events helped -to inflame. There is one passage especially, in which he bursts out into -an indignant rebuke of those 'narrow and small minds' who do not see that -constant contention and litigation about secular matters on the part of -the clergy 'is a scandal to the church.' Their folly, he thinks, would be -ridiculous, were it not rather to be wept over than laughed at, seeing -that it so injures and almost destroys the church. 'These lost fools (he -continues) of which this our age is full, amongst whom there are some who, -to say the least, ought not to be clergymen at all, but who nevertheless -are regarded as bishops in the church--these lost fools, I say, utterly -ignorant of gospel and apostolic doctrine, ignorant of Divine justice, -ignorant of Christian truth, are wont to say, that the cause of God, the -rights of the church, the patrimony of Christ, the possessions of priests, -_ought_ to be defended by them, and that it would be a sin to neglect to -defend them. O narrowness, O blindness of these men!... with eyes duller -than fishes!' Colet then points out how the church is brought into -disrepute with the laity by their worldly proceedings; whereas, if the -clergy lived in the love of God and their neighbour, how soon would their -'true piety, religion, charity, goodness towards men, simplicity, -patience, tolerance of evil ... conquer evil with good! How would it stir -up the minds of men everywhere to think well of the church of Christ! How -would they favour it, love it, be good and liberal towards it, heap gift -upon gift upon it, when they saw in the clergy no avarice, no abuse of -their liberality!'... Finally, after saying that to a priesthood seeking -first the promotion and extension of the kingdom of God upon earth, -neither asking nor expecting anything, all things would have been added; -and asking with what face those, who differ from the laity only in dress -and external appearance, can demand much from the laity, Colet exclaims, -'Good God! how should we be ashamed of this descent into the world, if we -were mindful of the love of God towards us, of the example of Christ, of -the dignity of the Christian religion, of our name and profession.'[169] - -[Sidenote: Imitation of Christ.] - -[Sidenote: Character of Christ.] - -Passing from this one example of Colet's zeal for ecclesiastical reform, -there remains only to be mentioned one other feature of this exposition of -Colet's which must not be overlooked; a feature which might seem to show -that Colet was not wholly unacquainted with the writings of men of the -school of Tauler and Thomas a Kempis, and which seems to connect itself -with a remark of Colet's, reported by Erasmus, that he had met on his -travels with some German monks, amongst whom were still to be found traces -of primitive religion.[170] I allude to the warmth with which Colet urges -the necessity of following the perfect but not impossible[171] _example of -Christ_, of Christians being bound in a relationship with Him, so close -that their joint love for Christ shall form a bond of brotherhood between -themselves more close than that of blood:[172] so that what is for the -good of the brethren will become the test of what is lawful in Christian -practice[173]--the earnestness with which he tried to realise the secret -of that wonderful example, concluding that it lay in Christ's keeping -himself as retired as possible from the world--from the lust of the flesh, -the lust of the eye, and the pride of life--and as close as possible to -God--in his whole soul being dedicated to God. 'He was,' writes Colet, -altogether 'pious, kind, gentle, merciful, patient of evil, bearing -injuries, in his own integrity shunning empty popular fame, forbidding -both men and demons to publish his mighty power, in his goodness always -doing good even to the evil, as his Father makes His sun to rise on the -just and on the unjust.... His body He held altogether in obedience and -service to his blessed mind ...; eating after long fasts, sleeping after -long watching ...; caring nothing for what belongs to wealth and fortune. -His eye was single, so that his whole body was full of light.... Such is -the leader whom we have on the heavenly road ...; whom, without doubt, if -we do not follow with our whole strength toward heaven, as far as we are -able, we shall never get there!'[174] - -[Sidenote: Colet's love for St. Paul, but greater love for Christ.] - -If Colet had risen out of Neo-Platonism to Dionysius and from Dionysius to -St. Paul, it is evident that he did not rest even there. How in the -following few words, overflowing as they do with his personal love for -St. Paul, does he give vent to a still more tender love and reverence for -_Christ_! - - [Sidenote: Colet's love for Christ.] - - 'Here I stand amazed, and exclaim those words of _my Paul_, "Oh the - depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" O wisdom! - wonderfully good to men and merciful, how justly thy loving-kindness - can be called the "depth of riches"!--Thou who commending thy love - towards us hast chosen to be so bountiful to us that Thou givest - thyself for us, that we may return to Thee and to God. O holy, O kind, - O beneficent wisdom! O voice, word, and truth of God in man! - truth-speaking and truth-acting! who hast chosen to teach us humanly - that we may know divinely; who hast chosen to be in man that we may be - in God; who lastly hast chosen in man to be humbled even unto - death--the death even of the cross--that we may be exalted even unto - life, the life even of God.'[175] - -[Sidenote: Contrast between Colet's method and the Schoolmen's.] - -It may safely be concluded, that if Colet's manuscript expositions -preserved at Cambridge may be taken as evidence of the nature of his -public lectures, they may well have excited all the interest which they -seem to have done. Doctors of Divinity, coming to listen at first that -they might find something definite to censure, might well indeed find -something to learn. Amongst the students, probably, the seed found a soil -in some degree prepared to receive it. But it must have required an effort -on the part of the most candid and honest adherents of the traditional -school to reach the standpoint from which alone Colet's method of free -critical interpretation could be found to be in perfect harmony with his -evident love and reverence for the Scriptures. _They_ attributed an extent -of Divine inspiration to the apostle which placed his words on a level in -authority with those of the Saviour himself; while Colet, we are told (and -some of the passages last quoted seem to confirm the statement), was wont -to declare, 'that when he turned from the Apostles to the wonderful -majesty of Christ, their writings, much as he loved them, seemed to him to -become poor, as it were, in comparison' [with the words of their -Lord].[176] - -Yet they could hardly fail to see, whether they would or not, that while -their own system left the Scriptures hidden in the background, Colet's -method brought them out into the light, and invested them with a sense of -reality and sacredness which pressed them home at once to the heart. - - -VI. GROCYN'S DISCOVERY (1498 ?). - -Colet was not alone at Oxford in his regard for the Pseudo-Dionysian -writings. - -[Sidenote: Grocyn discovers that the Pseudo-Dionysius was not the disciple -of St. Paul.] - -Grocyn was so impressed with the genuineness and value of the 'Celestial -Hierarchy,' that he consented to deliver a course of lectures upon it, -about this time, in St. Paul's Cathedral. But having commenced his course -by very strongly asserting its genuineness, and harshly condemning -Laurentius Valla and others who had started doubts, it chanced that when -he had proceeded with his lectures for some weeks, he became himself -convinced, by strong internal evidence, that the work was not written by a -disciple of St. Paul; and being an honest man seeking for truth, and not -arguing for argument's sake, was obliged candidly to confess the -unpleasant discovery to his audience.[177] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Effect of the discovery on Colet's mind.] - -What effect this unexpected discovery of Grocyn's had upon the mind of -Colet we are not distinctly informed. Whether Grocyn was able to convince -him of the truth of his mature judgment does not directly appear.[178] He -had so earnestly embraced the Dionysian writings, and they had produced so -profound an impression upon his mind, that it may readily be believed that -he would be very unwilling to admit that they were spurious. Nor, perhaps, -was it needful that he should do so. For, however clearly it might be -proved that they were not written by the disciple of St. Paul, it did not -therefore follow that they were merely a forgery. The Pseudo-Dionysius, -whoever he was, must have been not the less a man of vast moral power and -deep Christian feeling; and possibly he may have had no fraudulent -intention in using the pseudonym of the Areopagite, if he did so. The -conscience of the age in which he lived, so lax on the point of pious -fraud, may possibly have sanctioned his doing so. - -It has already been seen that, in accepting the Dionysian speculations, -Colet did so because he believed Dionysius himself to have simply -committed to writing what he had heard from the Apostles themselves, and -because he felt bound to believe that he '_took the greatest pains to -appear to know nothing according to this world, thinking it unworthy to -mix up human reason with divine revelations_.'[179] - -Supposing that Grocyn's discovery had convinced Colet that the -speculations of the Dionysian writings were not of apostolic origin--were, -in fact, products of merely 'human reason' which the Pseudo-Dionysius had -'mixed up' with Scripture truth, as Augustine and the Schoolmen had mixed -up with it their scholastic speculations, it is clear that he would be -bound by the principle set forth in the above passage, to reject the -Dionysian speculations as he had already rejected those of the Schoolmen. - -[Sidenote: Colet driven more than ever to the Bible.] - -He would be bound to treat the speculations of the Pseudo-Dionysius as of -no more authority than those of St. Augustine or Origen, and the practical -result would be likely to be, that he would be thrown back more completely -than ever upon the Bible itself, and continue all the more earnestly to -apply to its interpretation the sound, common-sense, historical methods -which he had already applied so successfully to the exposition of the -Epistles of St. Paul. - -In the meantime it may be readily imagined that, to a man of such deep -feeling and impulsive nature, as the occasional outbursts of burning zeal -in his writings show Colet to have been, such a disappointment would leave -a sore place to which he would not care often to recur in conversation -with his friends. - -Such a shock as Grocyn's discovery must have been to him, may have simply -produced in his mind a sense of bewilderment ending in a suspended -judgment. He may have returned to his accustomed work feeling more than -ever the uncertainty of human speculations, an humbler, a stronger, though -perhaps a sadder man, more than ever inclined to cling closely to the -Scriptures and his beloved St. Paul, and even ready sometimes to turn with -relief, as we are told he did with admiration, from the involved -logic[180] of the Apostle to the simple majesty of Christ! - - - - -CHAPTER III. - - -I. ERASMUS COMES TO OXFORD (1498). - -[Sidenote: The character of Erasmus.] - -In the spring or summer of 1498, the foreign scholar--Erasmus of -Rotterdam--arrived at Oxford, brought over to England by Lord Mountjoy -from Paris.[181] Erasmus was an entire stranger in England; he did not -know a word of English, but was at once most hospitably received into the -College of St. Mary the Virgin, by the prior Richard Charnock. Colet had -indeed, as already mentioned, heard Erasmus spoken of at Paris as a -learned scholar,[182] but as yet no work of his had risen into note, nor -was even his name generally known. He was scarcely turned thirty--just the -age of Colet;[183] but in his wasted sallow cheeks and sunken eyes were -but few traces left of the physical vigour of early manhood. In place of -the glow of health and strength, were lines which told that midnight oil, -bad lodging, and the harassing life of a poor student, driven about and -ill-served as he had been, had already broken what must have been at best -a frail constitution. But the worn scabbard told of the sharpness and -temper of the steel within. His was a mind restless for mental work, now -fighting through the obstacles of ill-health and poverty, in pursuit of -its natural bent, as it had once had to fight its way out of monastic -thraldom to secure the freedom of action which such a mind required. - -[Sidenote: His object in coming to Oxford.] - -Though well schooled and stored with learning, yet he had not come to -Oxford to teach, or to make a name by display of intellectual power, but -simply to add new branches of knowledge to those already acquired. Greek -was now to be learned there--thanks to the efforts of Grocyn and -Linacre--and Erasmus had come to Oxford bent upon adding a knowledge of -Greek to his Latin lore. To belong to that little knot of men north of -the Alps who already knew Greek--whose number yet might be counted on his -fingers--this had now become his immediate object of ambition. What he -meant to do with his tools when he had got them, probably was a question -to be decided by circumstances rather than by any very definite plan of -his own. To gain his living by taking pupils, and to live the life of a -scholar at some continental university, was probably the future floating -indistinctly before him. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus is introduced to Colet.] - -Prior Charnock seems to have at once appreciated Erasmus. He did all in -his power to give him a warm welcome to the university.[184] He seems to -have taken him at once to hear Colet lecture;[185] and he very soon -informed Colet that his new guest turned out to be no ordinary man.[186] -Upon this report Colet wrote to Erasmus a graceful and gentlemanly -letter,[187] giving him a hearty welcome to England and to Oxford, and -professing his readiness to serve him. - -Erasmus replied, warmly accepting Colet's friendship, but at the same time -telling him plainly that he would find in him a man of slender or rather -of no fortune, with no ambition, but warm and open-hearted, simple, -liberal, honest, but timid, and of few words. Beyond this he must expect -nothing. But if Colet could love such a man--if he thought such a man -worthy of his friendship--he might then count him as his own.[188] - -[Sidenote: Colet and Erasmus become warm friends.] - -Colet _did_ think such a man worthy of his friendship, and from that -moment Erasmus and he were the best of friends. The lord mayor's son, born -to wealth and all that wealth could command, whilst steeling his heart -against the allurements of city and court life, eagerly received into his -bosom-friendship the poor foreign scholar, whom fortune had used so -hardly, whose orphaned youth had been embittered by the treachery of -dishonest guardians, and who, robbed of his slender patrimony and cast -adrift upon the world without resources, had hitherto scarcely been able -to keep himself from want by giving lessons to private pupils. Whether he -was likely to find in the foreign scholar the fulfilment of his yearnings -after fellowship, it will be for further chapters of this history to -disclose. - - -II. TABLE-TALK ON THE SACRIFICE OF CAIN AND ABEL (1498?). - -[Sidenote: Table-talk at Oxford.] - -It chanced that, after the delivery of a Latin sermon, the preacher--an -accomplished divine--was a guest at the long table in one of the Oxford -halls. Colet presided. The divine took the seat of honour to the left of -Colet; Charnock, the hospitable prior, sat opposite; Erasmus next to the -divine; and a lawyer opposite to him. Below them, on either side, a mixed -and nameless group filled up the table. At first the tide of table-talk -ebbed and flowed upon trivial subjects. The conversation turned at length -upon the sacrifices of Cain and Abel--why the one was accepted and the -other not. - -[Sidenote: Colet's views upon sacrifice.] - -[Sidenote: The difference between Cain and Abel in the _men_, not in the -offerings.] - -Colet--if we may judge from the earnest way in which, in his exposition of -the Epistle to the Romans, he had urged the uselessness of outward -sacrifices, unless accompanied by that _living sacrifice_ of heart and -mind which they were meant to typify--was not likely to advocate any view -which should attribute the acceptance of the one offering and the -rejection of the other, merely to any difference in the offerings -themselves. He would be sure to place the difference in the _character of -the men_. Colet seems on this occasion to have done so, and to have -fancied he saw in the different occupations chosen by the two brothers -evidence of the different spirit under which they acted. The exact course -of the conversation we have no means of following. All we know is, that -Colet took one side, and Erasmus and the divine the other, and that the -chief bone of contention was the suggestion thrown out by Colet, that Cain -had in the first instance offended the Almighty by his distrust in the -Divine beneficence, and too great confidence in his own art and industry, -and that this was proved by his having been the first to attempt to till -the cursed ground; while Abel, with greater resignation, and resting -content with what nature still spontaneously yielded, had chosen the -gentle occupation of a shepherd.[189] - -There may have been something fanciful in the view urged by Colet, but it -is evident that it covered a truth which he could not give up, however -hard and long his opponents might argue. - -Erasmus was astonished at Colet's earnestness and power. He seemed to him -'like one inspired. In his voice, his eye, his whole countenance and -mien, he seemed raised, as it were, out of himself.'[190] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus makes up a story about Cain.] - -Erasmus and the divine both felt themselves beaten; but it is not always -easy for the vanquished to yield gracefully, and the discussion, growing -warmer as it proceeded, might have risen even to intemperate heat, had not -Erasmus dexterously wound it round to a happy conclusion by pretending to -remember that he had once met with a curious story about Cain in an old -wormeaten manuscript whose title-page time had destroyed. The disputants -were all attention, and Erasmus, having thus tickled their curiosity, was -induced to tell the story, after extracting a promise from the listeners -that they would not treat it as a fable. He then drew upon his ready wit, -and improvised the following story:-- - -'This Cain was a man of art and industry, and withal greedy and covetous. -He had often heard from his parents how, in the garden from which they had -been driven, the corn grew as tall as alder-bushes unchoked by tares, -thorns, or thistles. When he brooded over these things, and saw how meagre -a crop the ground produced, after all his pains in tilling it, he was -tempted to resort to treachery. He went to the angel who was the appointed -guardian of paradise, and, plying him with crafty arts, tempted him with -promises to give him secretly just a few grains from the luxuriant crops -of Eden. He argued that so small a theft could not be noticed, and that if -it were, the angel could but fall to the condition men were in. Why was -his condition better than theirs? Men were driven out of the garden -because they had eaten the apple. He, being set to guard the gate, could -enjoy neither paradise nor heaven. He was not even free, as they were, to -wander where he liked upon earth! Many good things were still left to men. -With care and labour the world might be cultivated, and human misery so -far lessened by discoveries and arts of all kinds, that at length men -might not need to be envious even of Eden. It was true that they were -infested by diseases, but human art would find the cure for these in time. -Perhaps some day something might even be found which would make life -immortal. When man by his industry had made the earth into one great -garden, the angel would be shut out from it, as well as from heaven and -Eden. Let him do what he could for men without harm to himself, and then -men would do what they could for him in return. The worst man will carry -the weakest cause, if he be but the best talker. A few grains were -obtained by stealth, and carefully sown by Cain. These being sprung up, -produced an increased number. The multiplied seed was again sown, and the -process repeated time after time. Before many harvests had passed the -produce of the stolen seed covered a wide tract of country. When what was -taking place on earth became too conspicuous to be longer concealed from -heaven, God was exceedingly wroth. "I see," He said, "how this fellow -delights in toil and sweat; I will heap it upon him to his fill." He -spoke, and sent a dense army of ants and locusts to blight Cain's -cornfields. He added to these hailstorms and hurricanes. He sent another -angel to guard the gate of paradise, and imprisoned the one who had -favoured man in a human body. Cain tried to appease God by burnt-offerings -of fruits, but found that the smoke of his sacrifice would not rise -towards heaven. Understanding from this that the anger of God was -determined against him, _he despaired_!'[191] - -Thus, with this clever impromptu fable did Erasmus gracefully contrive to -throw the weight of his altered opinion into Colet's scale, and at the -same time to restore the whole party to wonted good-humour. Meanwhile what -he had seen of Colet made a deep impression upon him. He himself declared -that he never had enjoyed an after-dinner talk so much. It was, he said, -wanting in nothing.[192] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The position of Colet and Erasmus at Oxford.] - -This little glimpse given by Erasmus himself of his first experience of -Oxford life is of value, not only as revealing his own early impressions -of Colet and Oxford, but also as throwing some little light upon the -position which Colet himself had taken in the University after a year's -labour at his post. That he should be chosen to preside at the long table -on this occasion was a mark at least of honour and respect; while the way -in which _he_ evidently gave the tone to the conversation, and became so -thoroughly the central figure in the group, shows that this respect was -true homage paid to character, and not to mere wealth and station. Then, -again, the fact that Erasmus, a stranger, without purse or name, should -have had assigned to him the second seat of honour, second only to the -special guest of the day, was in itself a proof of the same hearty -appreciation by Charnock and Colet of character, without regard to rank -or station. Would it have been so everywhere? Had Erasmus been so treated -at Paris?[193] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus delighted with Colet and Charnock.] - -No wonder that the letters of Erasmus, written during these his first -months spent at Oxford, should bear witness to the delight with which he -found himself received, all stranger as he was, into the midst of a group -of warm-hearted friends, with whom, for the first time in his life, he -found what it was to be at _home_. 'I cannot tell you,' he wrote to his -friend Lord Mountjoy, 'how delighted I am with your England. With two such -friends as Colet and Charnock, I would not refuse to live even in -Scythia!'[194] - - -III. CONVERSATION BETWEEN COLET AND ERASMUS ON THE SCHOOLMEN (1498 or -1499). - -But although Erasmus had formed the closest friendship with Colet, and was -learning more and more to understand and admire him, it was long before he -was sufficiently one in heart and purpose to induce Colet to unburden to -him his whole mind. - -[Sidenote: Scholastic skill of Erasmus.] - -He did so only by degrees. When he thought his friend really in earnest in -any passing argument he would tell him fully what his own views were. But -Colet hated the Schoolmen's habit of arguing for argument's sake, and felt -that Erasmus was as yet not wholly weaned from it. It was a habit which -had been fostered by the current practice of asserting wiredrawn -distinctions and abstruse propositions for the mere display of logical -skill; and Colet's reverence for truth shrunk from this public vivisection -of it merely to feed the pride of the dissector. It pained and disgusted -him. - -Erasmus had been educated at Paris in the 'straitest sect' of Scholastic -theologians. He had there studied theology in the college of the Scotists, -and been trained in that logical subtlety for which the school of Duns -Scotus was distinguished.[195] - -[Sidenote: Colet dislikes the Scotists.] - -But he found Colet, instead of regarding the Scotists as wonderfully -clever, declaring that 'they seemed to him to be stupid and dull and -anything but clever. For to cavil about different sentences and words, now -to gnaw at this and now at that, and to dissect everything bit by bit, -seemed to him to be the mark of a poor and barren mind.'[196] - -But Colet had not quarrelled only with the logical method of the -Schoolmen; he owed the scholastic philosophy itself a still deeper grudge. - -[Sidenote: What the system of the Schoolmen was.] - -The system of the Schoolmen professed to embrace the whole range of -universal knowledge. It was not confined strictly to religion; it -included, also, questions of philosophy and science. And these were -settled by isolated texts from the Bible, or dicta of the earlier -Schoolmen, and not by the investigation of facts. A theology so dogmatic -and capricious could consistently admit of no progress. Every discovery of -science or philosophy, contrary to the dicta of the Schoolmen, must be -regarded as a crime. It was the logical result of an inherent vice in the -system that Brunos and Galileos, in after ages, were tortured by -successors of the Schoolmen into the denial of inconvenient truths. - -[Sidenote: The scholastic system not adapted to an age of progress and -discovery.] - -This might do all very well in stagnant times, but in an age when the new -art of printing was reviving ancient learning, and new worlds were turning -up in hitherto untracked seas, men who, like Colet, entered into the -spirit of the new era, soon found out that the _summae theologiae_ of the -Schoolmen were no sum of theology at all; that their science and -philosophy were grossly deficient; and that if Christianity must in truth -stand or fall with scholastic dogmas, then the accession of new light -would be likely to lead honest enquirers after truth to reject it, and to -accept in its place the refined semi-pagan philosophy which had -accompanied the revival of learning in Italy. Yet these were the -alternatives which the Schoolmen, in common with the champions of dogmatic -creeds in all ages, tried to force upon mankind. Their cry was, as that of -their scholastic successors has been, and is, '_Our_ Christianity or -_none_.' - -[Sidenote: Colet's faith in facts and free enquiry.] - -[Sidenote: Colet rests on the person of Christ and the 'Apostles' Creed.'] - -Colet had seen in Italy which of these two alternatives those who came -within the influence of the new learning were inclined to take. But he had -seen or heard, too, in Italy, of a third alternative. He had found a -Christianity, not scholastic, not dogmatic, which did not seem to him to -have anything to fear from free enquiry, for it was itself one of those -facts which free enquiry had brought once more to light: the reproduction -of its ancient records in their original languages was itself one of the -results of the new learning. He had found in the New Testament a simple -record of the facts of the life of Christ, and a few apostolic letters to -the churches. It had brought him, not to an endless web of propositions -to the acceptance of which he must school his mind, but to a _person_ whom -to love, in whom to trust, and for whom to work. He would not rest even in -the teaching of his beloved St. Paul. He had been taught by the Apostle to -look up from him to the 'wonderful majesty of Christ;'[197] and loyalty to -Christ had become the ruling passion of his life.[198] - -Having rejected the _summae theologiae_ of the Schoolmen, even before his -faith had been shaken, by Grocyn's discovery, in Dionysian speculations, -his disappointment also in the latter would seem to have driven him back -upon the Scriptures, upon the writings of St. Paul, above all upon Christ -himself; until at last he had seemed to find in the simple facts of the -Apostles' Creed the true sum of Christian theology. Having entrenched his -faith behind its simple bulwarks, he could look calmly out upon the world -of philosophy and nature, with a mind free to accept truth wherever he -might find it, without anxiety as to what the revival of ancient learning, -or the discoveries of new-born science, might reveal, anxious chiefly to -find out his own life's work and duty, and right heartily to do it. - -[Sidenote: Colet's advice to theological students to keep to the Bible and -the Apostles' Creed.] - -And having escaped the trammels of scholastic theology himself, he could -urge others also to do the same. When, therefore, young theological -students came to him in despair, on the point of throwing up theological -study altogether, because of the vexed questions in which they found it -involved, and dreading lest in these days, when everything was called in -question, they might be found unorthodox, he was wont, it seems, to tell -them 'to keep firmly to the Bible and the Apostles' Creed, and let -divines, if they like, dispute about the rest.'[199] - -But Erasmus as yet had far from attained the same standpoint. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus came to England disgusted with theology.] - -He was himself in the very position above described. His experience in the -Scotist college in Paris had not been lost upon him. It was not only that -its filthy chambers and diet of rotten eggs[200] had ruined his -constitution for life. He had contracted within its walls a disgust of all -theological study. He describes himself as, previously to his visit to -England, 'abhorring the study of theology;' and gives, as his double -reason for it, the fear lest he might run foul of settled opinions; and -lest, if he did so, he should be branded with the name of 'heretic.'[201] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus still a Schoolman.] - -Disgusted, however, as he was with theology, all his theological training -had hitherto been scholastic in its character, and, apart from his -disgust of theology in general, he does not seem as yet to have contracted -any special disgust of scholastic theology in particular. He was still too -much enamoured of the logic of the Schoolmen, and too often was found to -take the Schoolmen's side in his discussions with his friend. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus praises Aquinas.] - -[Sidenote: Colet's reply.] - -Colet and Erasmus[202] had been conversing one day upon the character of -the Schoolmen. Colet had expressed his sweeping disapprobation of the -whole class. Erasmus, whose knowledge of their works was, as he afterwards -acknowledged, by no means deep, at length ventured, in renewing the -conversation at another time, to except Thomas Aquinas from the common -herd, as worthy of praise, alleging in his favour that he seemed to have -studied both the Scriptures and ancient literature--which doubtless he -had. Colet made no reply. And when Erasmus pursued the subject still -further, Colet again passed it off, feigning inattention. But when -Erasmus, in the course of further conversation, again expressed the same -opinion in favour of Aquinas, and spoke more strongly even than before, -Colet turned his full eye upon him in order to learn whether he really -were speaking in earnest; and concluding that it was so--'What,' he said -passionately, 'do you extol to me such a man as Aquinas? If he had not -been very arrogant indeed, he would not surely so rashly and proudly have -taken upon himself to define _all_ things. And unless his spirit had been -somewhat worldly, he would not surely have corrupted the whole teaching of -Christ by mixing with it his profane philosophy.'[203] - -Erasmus was taken aback, as he had been at the discussion at the public -table. He had again been arguing without sufficient knowledge to justify -his having any strong opinion at all. Which side he took on the question -at issue was a matter almost of indifference to him. But he saw plainly -that it was not so with Colet. His first allusion to Aquinas, Colet had -resolutely shunned. When compelled to speak his opinion, his soul was -moved to its depths, and had burst forth into this passionate reply. There -must be something real and earnest at the bottom of Colet's dislike for -Aquinas, else he could not have spoken thus. - -So Erasmus betakes himself to the more careful study of the great -schoolman's writings. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus studies Aquinas.] - -One may picture him taking down from the shelf the 'Summa Theologiae,' and, -as the first step toward the exploration of its contents, turning to the -prologue. He reads:-- - -[Sidenote: The 'Summa.'] - -'Seeing that the teacher of catholic truth should instruct not only those -advanced in knowledge, but that it is a part of his duty to teach -_beginners_ (according to the words of the Apostle to the Corinthians, -"even as unto babes in Christ, I have fed you with milk and not with -strong meat"), it is our purpose in this book to treat of those things -which pertain to the Christian religion in a manner adapted to the -instruction of beginners. - -'For we have considered that novices in this learning have been very much -hindered in [the study of] works written by others; partly, indeed, on -account of the multiplication of useless questions, articles and -arguments, and partly [for other reasons]. To avoid these and other -difficulties we shall endeavour, relying on Divine assistance, to treat of -those things which belong to sacred learning, so far as the subject will -admit, with _brevity_ and clearness.' - -[Sidenote: Scholastic 'milk for babes.'] - -What could be better or truer than this? Erasmus might almost have fancied -that Colet himself had written these words, so fully do they seem to fall -in with his views. But turning from the prologue, nothing surely could -open the eyes of Erasmus more thoroughly to the real nature of scholastic -theology than a further glance at the body of the treatise. For what was -he to think of a system of theology a '_brief_' compendium of which -covered no fewer than 1150 folio pages, each containing 2000 words! And -what was he to think of the wisdom of that Christian doctor who prescribed -this 'Summa' as '_milk_' specially adapted for the sustenance of -theological '_babes_'! To be told first to digest forty-three propositions -concerning the nature of God, each of which embraced several distinct -articles separately discussed and concluded in the eighty-three folios -devoted to this branch of the subject; then fifteen similar propositions -regarding the nature of _angels_, embracing articles such as these:-- - - Whether an angel can be in more than one place at one and the same - time? - - Whether more angels than one can be in one and the same place at the - same time? - - Whether angels have local motion? - - And whether, if they have, they pass through intermediate space?[204] - ---then ten propositions regarding _the Creation_, consisting of an -elaborate attempt to bring into harmony the work of the six days recorded -in Genesis with mediaeval notions of astronomy; then forty-five -propositions respecting the nature of _man_ before and after the Fall, the -physical condition of the human body in Paradise, the mode by which it was -preserved immortal by eating of the tree of life, the place where man was -created before he was placed in Paradise, &c.; and then, having mastered -the above subtle propositions, stated 'briefly and clearly' in 216 of the -aforesaid folio pages, to be told for his consolation and encouragement -that he had now mastered _not quite one-fifth_ part of this 'first book' -for beginners in theological study, and that these propositions, and more -than five times as many, were to be regarded by him as the settled -doctrine of the Catholic Church!--what student could fail either to be -crushed under the dead weight of such a creed, or to rise up, and, like -Samson, bursting its green withes, discard and disown it altogether? - -[Sidenote: Erasmus goes over to Colet's view.] - -No marvel that Erasmus was obliged to confess that, in the process of -further study of the works of Aquinas, his former high opinion had been -modified.[205] He could understand now how it was that Colet could hardly -control his indignation at the thought, how the simple facts of -Christianity had been corrupted by the admixture of the subtle philosophy -of this 'best of the Schoolmen.' - -And yet we may well be free to own that Colet's not unnatural hatred of -the scholastic philosophy had blinded him in some degree to the personal -merits of the early Schoolmen. Deeper knowledge of the history of their -times, and study of the personal character at least of some of them, might -have enabled him not only to temper his hatred, but even to recognise that -they occupied in their day a standpoint not widely different altogether -even from his own. - -[Sidenote: The merit of the early Schoolmen.] - -For as earnestly as Colet himself was now seeking to bring the -Christianity and advanced thought of _his_ age into harmony, the early -Schoolmen had tried to do the same thing in _theirs_. The misfortune of -the Schoolmen was, that they had inherited from St. Augustine, and the -Pseudo-Dionysius, the vicious tendency to fill up blanks in theology by -indulging in hypotheses, capable of receiving the sanction of -ecclesiastical authority, and then to be treated as established, although -altogether unverified by facts. They had also to harmonise the dogmatic -theology so manufactured with a scientific system as dogmatic as itself. -For while theologians had been indulging in hypotheses respecting -'original sin,' 'absolute predestination,' and 'irresistible grace,' -natural philosophers had been indulging in similar hypotheses respecting -the 'crystalline spheres,' 'epicycloids,' and '_primum mobile_.'[206] And -seeing that the method by which the Schoolmen attempted to fuse these -_two_ dogmatic systems into _one_, itself consisted of a still further -indulgence in the same vicious mode of procedure, it was but natural that -their attempt as a whole, however well meant, should leave 'confusion -worse confounded.' - -[Sidenote: The demerits of their successors.] - -Still it must not be forgotten that they did succeed by this vicious -process in reconciling theology and science to the satisfaction of their -own dogmatic age. This praise is, at least, their due. On the other hand, -their successors in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries could not put -forward any such claims for themselves. _They_ did not succeed in -harmonising the theology and the advanced thought of _their_ age. They -strained every nerve to keep them hopelessly apart. They blindly held on -to a worn-out system inherited from their far worthier predecessors, and -spent their strength in denouncing, in no measured terms, the scientific -spirit and inductive method of the 'new learning.' - -Hence there can be little doubt that Colet's hatred of what in his day was -in truth a huge and bewildering mass of dreary and lifeless subtlety, was -a just and righteous hatred. And though it took some time for Erasmus -thoroughly to accept it, he could in after years, when Colet was no more, -endorse, from the bottom of his heart, Colet's advice to young theological -students: '_Keep to the Bible and the Apostles' Creed; and let divines, if -they like, dispute about the rest_.' - - -IV. ERASMUS FALLS IN LOVE WITH THOMAS MORE (1498). - -Amongst the broken gleams of light which fall, here and there only, upon -the Oxford intercourse of Erasmus with Colet, there are one or two which -reveal an already existing friendship with Thomas More, but unfortunately -without disclosing how it had begun. - -[Sidenote: Introduction of More to Erasmus.] - -Erasmus, when passing through London on his way to Oxford, had probably -been introduced by Lord Mountjoy to his brilliant young friend. It is even -possible that there may be a foundation of fact in the story that they had -met for the first time, unknown to each other, at the lord mayor's table, -or, as is more likely still, at the table of the _ex_-lord mayor, Sir -Henry Colet. Erasmus, having perhaps been told Colet's saying, that there -was but one genius in England, and that his name was Thomas More, may have -been set opposite to him at table without knowing who he was. More in his -turn may have been told of the logical subtlety of the great scholar newly -arrived from the Scotist college in Paris, without having been personally -introduced to him. If this were so, the rest of the story may easily be -true. They are said to have got into argument during dinner, Erasmus, in -Scotist fashion, 'defending the worser part,' till finding in his young -opponent 'a readier wit than ever he had before met withal,' he broke -forth into the exclamation, '_Aut tu es Morus aut nullus_;' to which the -ready tongue of More retorted--so runs the story, '_Aut tu es Erasmus aut -Diabolus_.'[207] Whether at the lord mayor's table, or elsewhere, they -_had_ become acquainted, and a correspondence had grown up between them, -one letter of which, like a solitary waif, has been left stranded on the -shore of the gulf which has swallowed the rest. It reads thus:-- - - _Erasmus Thomae Moro suo, S.D._ - - 'I scarcely can get any letters, wherefore I have showered down curses - on the head of this letter-carrier, by whose laziness or treachery I - fancy it must be that I have been disappointed of the most eagerly - expected letters of my dear More (Mori mei). For that you have failed - on your part I neither want nor ought to suspect. Albeit, I - expostulated with you most vehemently in my last letter. Nor am I - afraid that you are at all offended by the liberty I took, for you are - not ignorant of that Spartan method of fighting "usque ad cutem." - This, joking aside, I do entreat you, sweetest Thomas, that you will - make amends with interest for the suffering occasioned me by the too - long continued deprivation of yourself and your letters. I expect, in - short, not a letter, but a huge bundle of letters, which would weigh - down even an Egyptian porter,' - - * * * * * - - 'Vale jucundissime More.[208] - - 'Oxoniae: Natali Simonis et Judae. 1499.' - -[Sidenote: Friendship between More and Erasmus.] - -Such being the friendship already existing between them, and beginning to -show itself in the use of those endearing superlatives without which -Erasmus, from the first to the last, never could write a letter to More, -it is not surprising that, as winter came on, Erasmus should take the -opportunity afforded by the approaching vacation for a visit to London. -Accordingly we get one chance glimpse of him there, writing a letter to -one of his friends, and expressing his delight with everything he had met -with in England. - -Staying as he most likely was with Mountjoy or with More, enjoying the -warmth of their friendship, and feeling himself at home in London as he -had done in Oxford, but never had done before anywhere else, it was -natural that the foreign scholar should paint, in the warmest colours, -this land of friends. Especially of Mountjoy, who had brought him to -England, and who found him the means of living at Oxford, he would -naturally speak in the highest terms. Such was the politeness, the -goodnature, and affectionateness of his noble patron, that he would -willingly follow him, he said, _ad inferos_, if need be. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus delighted with England, and with Mountjoy, Colet, -Grocyn, Linacre, and More.] - -Nor was it only the warm-heartedness of his English friends which filled -him with delight. His purpose in coming to Oxford he declared to be fully -answered. He had come to England because he could not raise the means for -a longer journey to Italy. To prosecute his studies in Italy had been for -years an object of anxious yearning; but now, after a few months' -experience of Oxford life, he wrote to his friend, who was himself going -to Italy, 'that he had found in England so much polish and learning--not -showy, shallow learning, but profound and exact, both in Latin and -Greek--that now he would hardly care much about going to Italy at all, -except for the sake of having been there.' 'When,' he added, 'I listen to -my friend Colet it seems to me like listening to Plato himself. In Grocyn, -who does not admire the wide range of his knowledge? What could be more -searching, deep, and refined than the judgment of Linacre?' And after this -mention of Colet, Grocyn, and Linacre, he adds: 'Whenever did nature mould -a character more gentle, endearing, and happy than Thomas More's?'[209] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus falls in love with More.] - -So that while here, as elsewhere, Colet seems to take his place again as -the chief of the little band of English friends, we learn from this letter -that the picture would not have been complete without the figure of the -fascinating youth with whom Erasmus, like the rest of them, had fallen in -love. - -The letter itself was written to Robert Fisher, from London 'tumultuarie,' -5th December, in 1498 or 1499. - - -V. DISCUSSION BETWEEN ERASMUS AND COLET ON 'THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN,' AND -ON THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES (1499). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus attributes the agony of Christ to fear of death.] - -The greater part of 1499 was spent by Erasmus apparently at Oxford. On one -occasion Colet and Erasmus were spending an afternoon together.[210] Their -conversation fell upon the agony of Christ in the garden. They soon, as -usual, found that they did not agree. Erasmus, following the common -explanation of the Schoolmen, saw only in the agony suffered by the -Saviour that natural fear of a cruel death to which in his human nature he -submitted as one of the incidents of humanity. It seemed to him that in -His character as truly _man_, left for the moment unaided by His divinity, -the prospect of the anguish in store for Him might well wring from Him -that cry of fearful and trembling human nature, 'Father, if it be -possible, let this cup pass from me!' while the further words, 'not my -will but Thine be done,' proved, he thought, that He had not only felt, -but conquered, this human fear and weakness. Erasmus further supported -this view by adducing the commonly received scholastic distinction between -what Christ felt as _man_ and what He felt as _God_, alleging that it was -only as _man_ that He thus suffered. - -[Sidenote: Colet objects to this view.] - -[Sidenote: Christ was thinking of the Jews, not of Himself.] - -Colet dissented altogether from his friend's opinion. It might be the -commonly received interpretation of recent divines, but in spite of that -he declared his own entire disapproval of it. Nothing could, he thought, -be more inconsistent with the exceeding love of Christ, than the -supposition that, when it came to the point, He shrank in dread from that -very death which He desired to die in His great love of men. It seemed -utterly absurd, he said, to suppose that while so many martyrs have gone -to torture and death patiently and even with joy--the sense of pain being -lost in the abundance of their love--Christ, who was love itself, who came -into the world for the very purpose of delivering guilty man by his own -innocent death, should have shrunk either from the ignominy or from the -bitterness of the cross. The sweat of great drops of blood, the exceeding -sorrow even unto death, the touching entreaty to His Father that the cup -might pass from Him--was all this to be attributed to the mere fear of -death? Colet had rather set it down to anything but that. For it lies in -the essence of love, he said, that it should cast out fear, turn sorrow -into joy, think nothing of itself, sacrifice everything for others. It -could not be that He who loved the human race more than anyone else should -be inconstant and fearful in the prospect of death. In confirmation of -this view he referred to St. Jerome, who alone of all the church fathers -had, he thought, shown true insight into the real cause of Christ's agony -in the garden. St. Jerome had attributed the Saviour's prayer, that the -cup might pass from Him, not to the fear of death but to the sense felt by -Him of the awful guilt of the Jews, who, by thus bringing about that death -which He desired to die for the salvation of _all mankind_, seemed to be -bringing down destruction and ruin on themselves--an anxiety and dread -bitter enough, in Colet's view, to wring from the Saviour the prayer that -the cup might pass from Him, and the drops of bloody sweat in the garden, -seeing that it afterwards did wring from Him, whilst perfecting his -eternal sacrifice on the cross, that other prayer for the very ministers -of his torture, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!' -Such was the view expressed by Colet in reply to Erasmus, and in -opposition to the view which he was aware was generally received by -scholastic divines. - -Whilst they were in the heat of the discussion it happened that Prior -Charnock entered the room. Colet, with a delicacy of feeling which Erasmus -afterwards appreciated, at once broke off the argument, simply remarking, -as he took leave, that he did not doubt that were his friend, when alone, -to reconsider the matter with care and accuracy, their difference of -opinion would not last very long. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus writes to Colet.] - -When Erasmus found himself alone and at leisure in his chambers he at -once followed Colet's advice. He reconsidered Colet's argument and his -own. He consulted his books. By far the most of the authorities, both -Fathers and Schoolmen, he found beyond dispute to be on his own side. And -his reconsideration ended in his being the more convinced that he had -himself been right and Colet wrong. Naturally finding it hard to yield -when there was no occasion, and feeling sure that this time he had the -best of the argument, he eagerly seized his pen, and with some parade, -both of candour and learning, stated at great length what he thought might -be said on both sides. After having written what, in type, would fill -about fifty of these pages, he confidently wound up his long letter by -saying that, so far as he could see, he had demonstrated his own opinion -to be in accordance with that of the Schoolmen and most of the early -Fathers, and, whilst not contrary to nature, clearly consistent with -reason. But he knew, he said, to whom he was writing, and whether he had -convinced _Colet_ he could not tell. For, he wrote in conclusion, 'how -rash it is in me, a mere tyro, to dare to encounter a commander--for one, -_whom you call a rhetorician_, to venture upon theological ground, to -enter an arena which is not mine! Still I have not shrunk from daring -everything even with _you_, who are so skilled in all elegant and ancient -lore, who have brought with you from Italy such stores of Greek and Latin, -and who, on this very account, are not as yet appreciated as you ought to -be by theologians. Wherefore, in discussing with you, I have chosen to use -the old and free way of arguing; not only because I prefer it myself, but -also because I knew your dislike to the modern and new-fangled method of -disputation, which, keen and ready as it may seem to some, is in your view -complicated, superstitious, spiritless, and plainly sophistical. And -perhaps you are right.... Yet I would have you take care lest you should -not be able to stand _alone_ against so many thousands. Let us not, -contented with the plain homespun sense of Origen, Ambrose, Jerome, -Augustine, Chrysostom, and others as ancient, grudge to these modern -disputants their more elaborated doctrines. - -'And now I await your attack. I await your mighty war-trumpet. I await -those "Coletian" arrows, surer even than the arrows of Hercules. In the -meantime I will array the forces of my mind; I will concentrate my ranks; -I will prepare my reserves of books, lest I should not be able to stand -your first charge. - -'As to the rest, the matters which you have propounded from the Epistles -of St. Paul, since they are such as it would be dangerous to dispute of, I -had rather enter into them by word of mouth when we are together than by -letter. _Vale!_' - -The reply of Colet was short, and very characteristic of the man. - -[Sidenote: Colet replies.] - -[Sidenote: Colet's love of truth.] - -'Your letter, most learned Erasmus, as it is very long, so also is it most -eloquent and happy. It is a proof of a tenacious memory, and gives a -faithful review of our discussion.... But it contains nothing to alter or -detract from the opinions which I imbibed from St. Jerome. Not that I am -perverse and obstinate with an uncandid pertinacity, but that (though I -may be mistaken) I think I hold and defend the truth, or what is most like -the truth.... I am unwilling, just now, to grapple with your letter as a -whole; for I have neither leisure nor strength to do so at once, and -without preparation. But I will attack the first part of it--your first -line of battle as it were.... In the meantime do you patiently hear me, -and let us both, if, when striking our flints together, any spark should -fly out, eagerly catch at it. For we seek, not for victory in argument, -but for _truth_, which perchance may be elicited by the clash of argument -with argument, as sparks are by the clashing of steel against steel!'[211] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus had followed the theory of the 'manifold senses' of -Scripture.] - -Erasmus, at the commencement of his long letter, feeling, perhaps, that -after all there might be some truth in Colet's view not embraced in his -own, had fallen back upon the strange theory, already alluded to as held -by scholastic divines, that the words of the Scriptures, because of their -magic sacredness and absolute inspiration, might properly be interpreted -in several distinct senses. 'Nothing' (he had said) 'forbids our drawing -various meanings out of the wonderful riches of the sacred text, so as to -render the same passage in more than one way. I know that, according to -Job, "the word of God is manifold." I know that the manna did not taste -alike to all. But if you so embrace _your_ opinion that you condemn and -reject the received opinion, then I freely dissent from you.' - -[Sidenote: Colet's view.] - -This was the first line of battle which Colet, in his letter, declared -that he would at once attack. It was a notion of Scripture interpretation -altogether foreign to his own. He yielded to none in his admiration of -the wonderful fulness and richness of the Scriptures. He had made it the -chief matter of his remark to the priest who had called on him during the -winter vacation of 1496-7, and had written to the Abbot of Winchcombe an -account of the priest's visit in order to press the same point upon him. -But from the method adopted in his expositions of St. Paul's Epistles, and -the first chapter of Genesis, it appears that he did not hold the theory -of uniform verbal inspiration, which ignored the human element in -Scripture, round which had grown this still stranger theory of the -manifold senses, and upon which alone it could be at all logically held. - -It is true that, in his abstract of the Dionysian writings, he had, upon -Dionysian authority, accepted, in a modified form,[212] the doctrine of -the 'four senses' of Scripture; and in his letters to Radulphus, whilst -confining himself to the literal sense, he guarded himself against the -denial of the same theory. But he had never sanctioned the gross abuse of -the doctrine to which Erasmus had appealed, which asserted that even the -_literal_ sense of the same passage might be interpreted to mean different -things. It was one thing to hold that some passages must be allegorically -understood and not literally, and that other passages have both a literal -and an allegorical meaning (which Colet seems to have held), or even that -_all_ passages have both a literal and an allegorical meaning (which Colet -did not hold). It was quite another thing to hold that the words of the -same passage might, in their _literal_ sense, mean several different -things, and be used as _texts_ in support of statements not within the -direct intention of their human writer. - -[Sidenote: Aquinas on the 'manifold senses.'] - -Thomas Aquinas, in his 'Summa,' had indeed laid down a proposition, which -practically amounted to this. For in discussing the doctrine of the 'four -senses' of Scripture, he had not only stated that the spiritual sense of -Scripture was threefold, viz. allegorical, moral, and anagogical, but also -that the _literal sense was manifold_. He had laid down the doctrine, that -'Inasmuch as the literal sense is that which _the author intends_, and -_God_ is the author of Holy Scripture, who comprehends all things in His -mind at one and the same time, it is not inconsistent, as Augustine says -in his twelfth Confession, if even according to the literal sense in the -one letter of the Holy Scriptures there are many senses.'[213] - -It may, however, well be doubted whether Aquinas would have sanctioned -altogether the absurd length to which this doctrine was carried by -scholastic disputants. - -[Sidenote: Colet on the 'manifold senses.'] - -Whether Colet, since Grocyn's discovery, had or had not altogether -repudiated the doctrine of 'manifold senses,' as one of the notions which -he had once held on Dionysian authority, but which the authority of the -_Pseudo_-Dionysius was not sufficient to establish, it is clear that in -his reply to Erasmus he utterly repudiated the abuse of it to which -Erasmus had appealed. 'In the first place' (he wrote), 'I cannot agree -with you when you state, along with many others, and as I think -mistakenly, that the Holy Scriptures, at least _uno in aliquo genere_, are -so prolific that they give birth to many senses. Not that I would not have -them to be as prolific as possible--their overflowing fecundity and -fulness I, more than others, admire--but that I consider their fecundity -to consist in their giving birth not to many [senses], but to only one, -and that the most true one.' - -[Sidenote: Colet's views on 'Inspiration.'] - -After remarking that whilst the lower forms of life produce the most -numerous offspring, the highest forms of life tend towards _unity_ of -offspring, he argues that the Holy Spirit gives birth in the Scripture, -according to its own power, to one and the same simple truth. What if from -the simple, divine, and truth-speaking words of the Scriptures of the -Spirit of Truth, whether heard or read, many and various persons draw many -and varying senses? He set that down, he said, not to the fecundity of the -Scriptures, but to the sterility of men's minds, and their incapacity of -getting at the pure and simple truth. If they could but reach _that_, -they would as completely agree as now they differ. He then remarked how -mysterious the inspiration of the Scriptures was; how the Spirit seemed to -him, by reason of its majesty, to have a peculiar method of its own, -singularly absolute and free, blowing where it lists, making prophets of -whom it will, yet so that the spirit of the prophets is subject to the -prophets. He repeated, in conclusion, that he admired the fulness of the -Scriptures, not because each word may be construed in several senses--that -would be want of fulness--but because _quot sententiae totidem sunt verba, -et quot verba tot sententiae_. Having said this, he was ready to descend -into the arena, and to join battle with Erasmus on the matter in dispute, -but he could not do so now; he was called away by other engagements, and -must end his letter for the present.[214] - -The letters which followed in which Colet further pursued the subject of -the Agony in the Garden, have unfortunately been lost. But enough remains -to give, by a passing glimpse, some idea of the pleasant colloquies and -earnest converse, both by mouth and letter, in which the happy months of -college intercourse glided swiftly by. - - -VI. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN COLET AND ERASMUS ON THE INTENTION OF ERASMUS -TO LEAVE OXFORD (1499-1500). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus at Court.] - -The winter vacation of 1499-1500 had apparently dispersed for a while the -circle of Oxford students. Erasmus having, it would seem, some friend at -Court, had joined the Royal party, probably spending Christmas at -Woodstock or some other hunting station. He was at first delighted with -Court manners and field sports, and in a letter,[215] written about this -time, he jocosely told a Parisian friend, that the Erasmus whom he once -had known was now a hunter, and his manners polished up into those of an -experienced courtier. He was greatly struck, he added, with the beauty and -grace of the English ladies, and urged him to let nothing less than the -gout hinder his coming to England. - -[Sidenote: But soon tires of Court life.] - -But while Court life might captivate at first, Erasmus had soon found out -that its glitter was not gold. As the wolf in the fable lost his relish -for the dainties and delicate fare of the house-dog when he saw the mark -of the collar on his neck, so when Erasmus had seen how little of freedom -and how much of bondage there was in the courtier's life he had left it -with disgust; choosing rather to return to Oxford to share the more -congenial society of what students might be found there during these -vacation weeks, than to remain longer with 'be-chained courtiers.'[216] He -was waiting only for time and tide to return to Paris. At present the -weather was too rough for so bad a sailor; and, owing to political -disquiet and danger, it was difficult to obtain the needful permission to -leave the realm. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Erasmus proposes to leave Oxford.] - -[Sidenote: Colet urges him to remain at Oxford.] - -The fear that Erasmus was so soon to leave Oxford was one which troubled -Colet's vacation thoughts. To be left alone at Oxford again to fight his -way single-handed was by no means a cheering prospect. But his saddest -feeling was one not merely of sorrow at parting with his new friend--it -was a feeling of disappointment. He had hoped for more than he had found -in Erasmus. That he could have won over Erasmus all at once to his own -views and plans he had never dreamed. The scholar had his own bent of -mind, and of course his own plans. Such was his love of learning for its -own sake, that he was bent on constant and persevering study; and his stay -at Oxford he looked upon merely as one step in the ladder, valuable -chiefly because it led to the next. But Colet longed for fellowship. In -his friend he had sought, and in some measure found, fellow-feeling. But -feeling and action to him were too closely linked to make that all he -wanted. Fellow-feeling was to him but a half-hearted thing unless it -ripened into fellow work; and he had hoped for this in Erasmus. He had -purposely left Erasmus to find out his views and to discern his spirit by -degrees. He had not tried to force him in anywise. He had shown his wisdom -in this. But now that Erasmus talked of leaving Oxford, it was Colet's -duty to speak out. He could not let him go without one last appeal. He -therefore wrote to him, telling him plainly of his disappointment. He -urged him to remain at Oxford. He urged him, once for all, to come out -boldly, as he himself had done, and to do his part in the great work of -restoring that old and true theology of Christ, so long obscured by the -subtle webs of the Schoolmen, in its pristine brightness and dignity. What -could he do more noble than this? There was plenty of room for both of -them. He himself was doing his best to expound the New Testament. Why -should not Erasmus take some book of the Old Testament, say Genesis or -Isaiah, and expound it, as he had done the Epistles of St. Paul? If he -could not make up his mind to do this at once, Colet urged that, as a -temporary alternative, he should lecture on some secular branch of study. -Anything was better than that he should leave Oxford altogether.[217] - -Erasmus received this letter soon after his return from his short -experience of Court life. The tone of disappointment and almost reproof -pervading it Erasmus felt was undeserved on his part, yet it evidently -made a deep impression upon him. Looking back upon his intercourse with -Colet at Oxford, he must have seen how much it had done to change his -views, and felt how powerfully Colet's influence had worked upon him. Yet -he knew how far his views were from being matured like Colet's, and how -foolish it would be to begin publicly to teach before his own mind was -fully made up. He knew that Colet had brought him over very much to his -way of thinking, and he was ready to confess himself a disciple of -Colet's; but he must digest what he had learned, and make it thoroughly -his own, before he could publicly teach it. Perhaps he might one day be -able to join Colet in his work at Oxford; but he thought, and probably -wisely, that the time had not yet come. This at least may be gathered from -his reply to Colet's letter. With some abridgment and unimportant -omissions, it may be translated thus:-- - - - _Erasmus to Colet._[218] - - [Sidenote: Reply of Erasmus to Colet's entreaties.] - - ... 'In what you say of your dislike to the modern race of divines, - who spend their lives in mere logical tricks and sophistical cavils, - in very truth I entirely agree with you. - - [Sidenote: Agrees with Colet in disliking the Scholastic System.] - - 'Not that, valuing as I do all branches of study, I condemn the - studies of these men _as such_, but that when they are pursued for - themselves alone, unseasoned by more ancient and elegant literature, - they seem to me to be calculated to make men sciolists and - contentious; whether they can make men wise I leave to others. For - they exhaust the mental powers by a dry and biting subtlety, without - infusing any vigour or spirit into the mind. And, worst of all, - theology, the queen of all science--so richly adorned by ancient - eloquence--they strip of all her beauty by their incongruous, mean, - and disgusting style. What was once so clear, thanks to the genius of - the old divines, they clog with some subtlety or other, thus involving - everything in obscurity while they try to explain it. It is thus we - see that theology, which was once most venerable and full of majesty, - now almost dumb, poor, and in rags. - - 'In the meantime we are allured by a never-satiated appetite for - strife. One dispute gives rise to another, and with wonderful gravity - we fight about straws. Then, lest we should seem to have added nothing - to the discoveries of the old divines, we audaciously lay down certain - positive rules according to which God has performed his mysteries, - when sometimes it might be better for us to believe that a thing _was_ - done, leaving the question of _how_ it was done to the omnipotence of - God. So, too, for the sake of showing our ingenuity, we sometimes - discuss questions which pious ears can hardly bear to hear; as, for - instance, when it is asked whether the Almighty could have taken upon - Him the nature of the devil or of an ass. - - 'Besides all this, in our times those men in general apply themselves - to theology, the chief of all studies, who by reason of their - obtuseness and lack of sense are hardly fit for any study at all. I - say this not of learned and upright professors of theology, whom I - highly respect and venerate, but of that sordid and haughty pack of - divines who count all learning as worthless except their own. - - [Sidenote: He honours Colet and his work.] - - 'Wherefore, my dear Colet, in having joined battle with this - redoubtable race of men for the restoration, in its pristine - brightness and dignity, of that old and true theology which they have - obscured by their subtleties, you have in very truth engaged in a work - in many ways of the highest honour--a work of devotion to the cause of - theology, and of the greatest advantage to all students, and - especially the students of this flourishing University of Oxford. - Still, to speak the truth, it is a work of great difficulty, and one - sure to excite ill-will. Your learning and energy will, however, - conquer every difficulty, and your magnanimity will easily overlook - ill-will. There are not a few, even among divines themselves, both - able and willing to second your honest endeavours. There is no one, - indeed, who would not give you a hand, since there is not even a - doctor in this celebrated University who has not given attentive - audience to your public readings on the Epistles of St. Paul, now of - three years' standing. And which is the most praiseworthy in this, - _their_ modesty in not being ashamed to learn from a young man without - doctor's degree, or _your_ remarkable learning, eloquence, and - integrity of life, which they have thought worthy of such honour? - - [Sidenote: Erasmus agrees with Colet but is not ready yet to join him - in fellow-work.] - - 'I do not wonder that _you_ should put your shoulder under so great, a - burden, for you are able to bear it, but I do wonder greatly that you - should call _me_, who am nothing of a man, into the fellowship of so - glorious a work. For you exhort,--yes, you almost reproachfully urge - me, that, by expounding either the ancient Moses[219] or the eloquent - Isaiah, in the same way as you have expounded St. Paul, I should try, - as you say, to kindle up the studies of this University, now chilled - by these winter months. But I, who have learned to live in solitude, - know well how imperfectly I am furnished for such a task; nor do I lay - claim to sufficient learning to justify my undertaking it. Nor do I - judge that I have strength of mind enough to enable me to sustain the - ill-will of so many men stoutly maintaining their own ground. Matters - of this kind require not a tyro, but a practised general. Nor can you - rightly call me immodest in refusing to do what I should be far more - immodest to attempt. You act, my dear Colet, in this matter as wisely - as they who (as Plautus says) "demand water from a rock." With what - face can I teach what I myself have not learned? How shall I kindle - the chilled warmth of others while I am altogether trembling and - shivering myself?... - - 'But you say you expected this of me, and now you complain that you - were mistaken. You should rather blame yourself than me for this. For - I have not deceived you. I have neither promised nor held out any - prospect of any such thing. But you have deceived yourself in not - believing me when I told you truly what I meant to do. - - [Sidenote: Erasmus is returning to Paris.] - - 'Nor indeed did I come here to teach poetry and rhetoric, for these - ceased to be pleasant to me when they ceased to be necessary. I refuse - the one task because it does not come up to my purpose, the other - because it is beyond my strength. You unjustly blame me in the one - case, my dear Colet, because I never intended to follow the profession - of what are called secular studies. As to the other, you exhort me in - vain, as I know myself to be too unfit for it. But even though I were - most fit, still it must not be. For soon I must return to Paris. - - 'In the meantime, whilst I am detained here, partly by the winter, and - partly because departure from England is forbidden, owing to the - flight of some duke,[220] I have betaken myself to this famous - University that I might rather spend two or three months with men of - your class than with those be-chained courtiers. - - [Sidenote: But some day will join Colet in fellow-work.] - - 'Be it, indeed, far from me to oppose your glorious and sacred - labours. On the contrary, I will promise (since not fitted as yet to - be a coadjutor) sedulously to encourage and further them. For the - rest, whenever I feel that I have the requisite firmness and strength - I will join you, and, by your side, and in theological teaching, I - will zealously engage, if not in successful at least in earnest - labour. In the meantime, nothing could be more delightful to me than - that we should go on as we have begun, whether daily by word of mouth, - or by letter, discussing the meaning of Holy Scripture. - - 'Vale, mi Colete. - - 'Oxford: at the College of the Canons of the Order of St. Augustine, - commonly called the College of St. Mary.'[221] - - -VII. ERASMUS LEAVES OXFORD AND ENGLAND (1500). - -Erasmus took leave of Colet, and left Oxford early in January, 1500. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus at Lord Mountjoy's.] - -He proceeded to Greenwich, to the country seat of Lord and Lady Mountjoy; -for his patron had, apparently, since his arrival in England, married a -wife.[222] - -While he was resting under this hospitable roof, Thomas More came down to -pay him a farewell visit. He brought with him another young lawyer named -Arnold--the son of Arnold the merchant, a man well known in London, and -living in one of the houses built upon the arches of London Bridge.[223] - -[Sidenote: More and Erasmus visit the Royal Nursery.] - -More, whose love of fun never slept, persuaded Erasmus, by way of -something to do, to take a walk with himself and his friend to a -neighbouring village. - -He took them to call at a house of rather imposing appearance. As they -entered the hall, Erasmus was struck with the style of it; it rivalled -even that of the mansion of his noble patron. It was in fact the Royal -Nursery, where all the children of Henry VII., except Arthur the Prince of -Wales, were living under the care of their tutor. In the middle of the -group was Prince Henry (afterwards Henry VIII.), then a boy of nine years -old. To his right stood the Princess Margaret, who afterwards was married -to the King of Scotland. On the left was the Princess Maria, a mere child -at play. The nurse held in her arms the Prince Edmund, a baby about ten -months old.[224] - -[Sidenote: They see the Prince Henry.] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus writes verses upon England.] - -More and Arnold at once accosted Prince Henry, and presented him with some -verses, or other literary offering. Erasmus, having brought nothing of -the kind with him, felt awkward, and could only promise to prove his -courtesy to the Prince in the same way on some future occasion. They were -invited to sit down to table, and during the meal the Prince sent a note -to Erasmus to remind him of his promise. The result was that More received -a merited scolding from Erasmus, for having led him blindfold into the -trap; and Erasmus, after parting with More, had to devote three of the few -remaining days of his stay in England to the composition of Latin verses -in honour of England, Henry VII., and the Royal children.[225] He was in -good humour with England. He had been treated with a kindness which he -never could forget; and he was leaving England with a purse full of golden -crowns, generously provided by his English friends to defray the expenses -of his long-wished-for visit to Italy. Under these circumstances it was -not surprising if his verses should be laudatory.[226] - -[Sidenote: Leaves for Dover.] - -By the 27th January,[227] he was off to Dover, to catch the boat for -Boulogne. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: The three friends are scattered.] - -So the three friends were scattered. Each had evidently a separate path of -his own. Their natures and natural gifts were, indeed, singularly -different. They had been brought into contact for one short year, as it -were by chance, and now again their spheres of life seemed likely to lie -wide apart. - -How could it be otherwise? Even Colet, who had longed that his friendship -for Erasmus might ripen into the fellowship of fellow-work, could not hope -against hope. The chances that his dream might yet be realised, seemed -slight indeed. 'Whenever I feel that I have the requisite firmness and -strength, I will join you!' So Erasmus had promised. But Colet might well -doubtfully ask himself--'When will that be?' - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - - -I. COLET MADE DOCTOR AND DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S (1500-5.) - -Colet, left alone to pursue the even tenor of his way at Oxford, worked -steadily at his post. It mattered little to him that for years he toiled -on without any official recognition on the part of the University -authorities of the value of his work. What if a Doctor's degree had never -during these years been conferred upon him? The want of it had never -stopped his teaching. Its possession would have been to him no triumph. - -[Sidenote: Colet's work at Oxford.] - -That young theological students were beginning more and more to study the -Scriptures instead of the Schoolmen--for this he cared far more. For this -he was casting his bread upon the waters, in full faith that, whether he -might live to see it or not, it would return after many days. And in -truth--known or unknown to Colet--young Tyndale, and such as he, yet in -their teens, were already poring over the Scriptures at Oxford.[228] The -leaven, silently but surely, was leavening the surrounding mass. But -Colet probably did not see much of the secret results of his work. That it -was his duty to do it was reason enough for his doing it; that it bore at -least some visible fruit was sufficient encouragement to work on with good -heart. - -So the years went by; and as often as each term came round, Colet was -ready with his gratuitous course of lectures on one or another of St. -Paul's Epistles.[229] - -[Sidenote: Colet made Doctor and Dean of St. Paul's.] - -It happened that, in 1504, Robert Sherborn, Dean of St. Paul's, was -nominated, being then in Rome on an embassy, to the vacant see of St. -David's. It was probably at the same time[230] that Colet was called to -discharge the duties of the vacant deanery, though, as Sherborn was not -formally installed in his bishopric till April 1505, Colet did not receive -the temporalities of his deanery till May in the same year.[231] - -Colet is said to have owed this advancement to the patronage of King Henry -VII. The title of Doctor was at length conferred upon him, preparatory to -his acceptance of this preferment, and it would appear as an honorary mark -of distinction.[232] - -[Sidenote: Colet's work in London.] - -It was to the work, writes Erasmus, and not to the dignity of the deanery, -that Colet was called. To restore the relaxed discipline of the -College--to preach sermons from Scripture in St. Paul's Cathedral as he -had done at Oxford--to secure permanently that such sermons should be -regularly preached--this was his first work.[233] - -By his remove from Oxford to St. Paul's the field of his influence was -changed, and in some respects greatly widened. His work now told directly -upon the people at large. The chief citizens of London, and even stray -courtiers, now and then, heard the plain facts of Christian truth, instead -of the subtleties of the Schoolmen, earnestly preached from the pulpit of -St. Paul's by the son of an ex-lord mayor of London. The citizens found -too, in the new Dean, a man whose manner of life bore out the lessons of -his pulpit. - -[Sidenote: The habits of the new Dean.] - -He retained as Dean of St. Paul's the same simplicity of character and -earnest devotion to his work for which he had been so conspicuous at -Oxford. As he had not sought ecclesiastical preferment, so he was not -puffed up by it. Instead of assuming the purple vestments which were -customary, he still wore his plain black robe. The same simple woollen -garment served him all the year round, save that in winter he had it lined -with fur. The revenues of his deanery were sufficient to defray his -ordinary household expenses, and left him his private income free. He gave -it away, instead of spending it upon himself.[234] The rich living of -Stepney, which, in conformity with the custom of the times, he might well -have retained along with his other preferment, he resigned at once into -other hands on his removal to St. Paul's.[235] - -It would seem too that he shone by contrast with his predecessor, whose -lavish good cheer had been such as to fill his table with jovial guests, -and sometimes to pass the bounds of moderation.[236] - -[Sidenote: The Dean's table.] - -There was no chance of this with Colet. His own habits were severely -frugal. For years he abstained from suppers, and there were no nightly -revels in his house. His table was neatly spread, but neither costly nor -excessive. After grace, he would have a chapter read from one of St. -Paul's Epistles or the Proverbs of Solomon, and then contrive to engage -his guests in serious table-talk, drawing out the unlearned, as well as -the learned, and changing the topics of conversation with great tact and -skill. Thus, when the citizens dined at his table, they soon found, as his -Oxford friends had found at _their_ public dinners, that, without being -tedious or overbearing, somehow or other he contrived so to exert his -influence as to send his guests away better than they came.[237] - -[Sidenote: Inner circle of intimate friends.] - -[Sidenote: Colet's personal loyalty to Christ.] - -Moreover, Colet soon gathered around him here in London, as he had done at -Oxford, an inner circle of personal friends.[238] These were wont often to -meet at his table and to talk on late into the night, conversing sometimes -upon literary topics, and sometimes speaking together of that invisible -Prince whom Colet was as loyally serving now in the midst of honour and -preferment as he had done in an humbler sphere.[239] Colet's loyalty to -_Him_ seemed indeed to have been deepened rather than diminished by -contact with the outer world. The place which St. Paul's character and -writings had once occupied in his thoughts and teaching, was now filled by -the character and words of St. Paul's Master and his.[240] He never -travelled, says Erasmus, without reading some book or conversing of -Christ.[241] He had arranged the sayings of Christ in groups, to assist -the memory, and with the intention of writing a book on them.[242] His -sermons, too, in St. Paul's Cathedral bore witness to the engrossing -object of his thoughts. It was now no longer St. Paul's Epistles but the -'Gospel History,' the 'Apostles' Creed,' the 'Lord's Prayer,'[243] which -the Dean was expounding to the people. And highly as he had held, and -still held, in honour the apostolic writings, yet, as already mentioned, -they seemed to him to shrink, as it were, into nothing, compared with the -wonderful majesty of Christ himself. - -[Sidenote: Colet's sermons at St. Paul's.] - -The same method of teaching which he had applied at Oxford to the writings -of St. Paul he now applied in his cathedral sermons in treating of these -still higher subjects. For he did not, we are told, take an isolated text -and preach a detached discourse upon it, but went continuously through -whatever he was expounding from beginning to end in a course of -sermons.[244] Thus these cathedral discourses of Colet's were continuous -expositions of the facts of the Saviour's life and teaching, as recorded -by the Evangelists, or embodied in that simple creed which in Colet's view -contained the sum of Christian theology. And thus was he practically -illustrating, by his own public example in these sermons, his advice to -theological students, to 'keep to the Bible and the Apostles' Creed, -letting divines, if they like, dispute about the rest.' - - -II. MORE CALLED TO THE BAR--IN PARLIAMENT--OFFENDS HENRY VII.--THE -CONSEQUENCES (1500-1504). - -After the departure of Erasmus, More worked on diligently at his legal -studies at Lincoln's Inn. A few more terms and he received the reward of -his industry in his call to the bar. - -[Sidenote: More's legal studies.] - -During the years devoted to his legal curriculum, he had been wholly -absorbed in his law books. - -[Sidenote: Grocyn, Linacre, and More all in London.] - -[Sidenote: More lectures on the 'De Civitate Dei.'] - -Closely watched by his father, and purposely kept with a stinted -allowance, as at Oxford, so that 'his whole mind might, be set on his -book,' the law student had found little time or opportunity for other -studies. But being now duly called to the bar, and thus freed from the -restraints of student life, his mind naturally reverted to old channels of -thought. Grocyn and Linacre in the meantime had left Oxford and become -near neighbours of his in London. Thus the old Oxford circle partially -formed itself again, and with the renewal of old intimacies returned, if -ever lost, the love of old studies. For no sooner was More called to the -bar than he commenced his maiden lectures in the church of St. -Lawrence,[245] in the Old Jewry, and chose for a subject the great work of -St. Augustine, 'De Civitate Dei.' - -His object, we are told, in these lectures was not to expound the -theological creed of the Bishop of Hippo, but the philosophical and -historical[246] arguments contained in those first few books in which -Augustine had so forcibly traced the connection between the history of -Rome and the character and religion of the Romans, attributing the former -glory of the great Roman Commonwealth to the valour and virtue of the old -Romans; tracing the recent ruin of the empire, ending in the sack of Rome -by Alaric, to the effeminacy and profligacy of the modern Romans; -defending Christianity from the charge of having undermined the empire, -and pointing out that if it had been universally adopted by rulers and -people, and carried out into practice in their lives, the old Pagan empire -might have become a truly Christian empire and been saved,--those books -which, starting from the facts of the recent sack of Rome, landed the -reader at last in a discussion of the philosophy of free-will and fate. - -Roper tells us that the young lawyer's readings were well received, being -attended not only by Grocyn, his old Greek master, but also by 'all the -chief learned of the city of London.'[247] - -[Sidenote: More a reader at Furnival's Inn.] - -More was indeed rising rapidly in public notice and confidence. He was -appointed a reader at Furnival's Inn about this time, and when a -Parliament was called in the spring of 1503-4, though only twenty-five, -he was elected a member of it. - -[Sidenote: More in Parliament.] - -Sent up thus to enter public life in a Parliament of which the notorious -Dudley was the speaker,[248] the last and probably the most subservient -Parliament of a king who now in his latter days was becoming more and more -avaricious, the mettle of the young member was soon put to the test, and -bore it bravely. - -[Sidenote: Demands of the King.] - -[Sidenote: More opposes the King's demands;] - -At the last Parliament of 1496-7,[249] the King, in prospect of a war with -Scotland, had exacted from the Commons a subsidy of two-fifteenths, and, -finding they had submitted to this so easily, had, even before the close -of the session, pressed for and obtained the omission of the customary -clauses in the bill, releasing about 12,000_l._ of the gross amount in -relief of decayed towns and cities.[250] Now all was peace. The war with -Scotland had ended in the marriage of the Princess Margaret, whom More had -seen in the royal nursery a few years before, to the King of Scots. But by -feudal right the King, with consent of Parliament,[251] could claim a -'reasonable aid' in respect of this marriage of the Princess Royal, in -addition to another for the knighting of Prince Arthur, who, however, in -the meantime, had died. This Parliament of 1503-4 was doubtless called -chiefly to obtain these 'reasonable aids.' But with Dudley as speaker the -King meant to get more than his strictly feudal rights. Instead of the two -'aids,' he put in a claim (so Roper was informed[252]) for -three-fifteenths! i.e. for half as much again as he had asked for to -defray the cost of the Scottish war. And Dudley's flock of sheep were -going to pass this bill in silence! Already it had passed two readings, -when 'at the last debating thereof,' More, probably the youngest member of -the House, rose from his seat 'and made such arguments and reasons there -against,' that the King's demands (says Roper) 'were thereby clean -overthrown.' 'So that' (he continues) 'one of the King's Privy Chamber, -named Maister Tyler,[253] being present thereat, brought word to the King, -out of the Parliament House, that a beardless boy had disappointed all his -purpose.' - -[Sidenote: and successfully.] - -Instead of three-fifteenths, which would have realised 113,000_l._[254] or -more, the Parliament Rolls bear witness that the King, with royal clemency -and grace, had to accept a paltry 30,000_l._, being less than a third of -what he had asked for![255] - -[Sidenote: Henry VII. offended with More.] - -No wonder that, soon after, the King devised a quarrel with More's father -(who, by the way, was one of the commissioners for the collection of the -subsidy),[256] threw him into the Tower, and kept him there till he had -paid a fine of 100_l._ No wonder that young More himself was compelled at -once to retire from public life, and hide himself from royal displeasure -in obscurity.[257] - - -III. THOMAS MORE IN SECLUSION FROM PUBLIC LIFE (1504-5). - -[Sidenote: More and Lilly think of becoming monks or priests.] - -Compelled to seek safety in seclusion, More shut himself up in his -lodgings near the Charterhouse with William Lilly, another old Oxford -student, a contemporary of Colet's, if not of More's, at Oxford, who -having spent some years travelling in the East, had recently returned home -fresh from Italy. More seems to have shared with him the intention of -becoming a monk or a priest.[258] - -It was possibly not the first time his thoughts had turned in this -direction; but he had hitherto gone cautiously to work, taking no vow, -determined to feel his way, and not to rush blindly into what he might -afterwards repent of. - -[Sidenote: More thinks of entering the Charterhouse.] - -He had now taken to wearing an 'inner sharp shirt of hair,' and to -sleeping on the bare boards of his chamber, with a log under his head for -a pillow, and was otherwise schooling, by his powerful will, his quick and -buoyant nature into accordance with the strict rules of the Carthusian -brotherhood.[259] - -[Sidenote: Escapes a royal trap laid for him.] - -It was a critical moment in his life. Soon after his father had been -imprisoned and fined, having some business with Fox, Bishop of Winchester, -that great courtier called him aside, pretending to be his friend, and -promised that if he would be ruled by him, he would not fail to restore -him into the King's favour. But Fox was only setting a trap for him, from -which he was saved by a friendly hint from Whitford,[260] the bishop's -chaplain. This man told More that his master would not stick to agree to -his own father's death to serve the King's turn, and advised him to keep -quite aloof from the King. This hint was not reassuring, but it may have -saved More's life. - -What would have happened to him had he been left alone with misadvising -friends to give hasty vent to the disappointment which thus had crushed -his hopes at the very outset of his career--whether the cloister would -have received him as it did his friend Whitford afterwards, to be another -'_wretch of Sion_,' none can tell. - -[Sidenote: When Colet comes to London, More chooses him as his spiritual -guide.] - -Happily for him it was at this critical moment that Colet came up to -London to assume his new duties at St. Paul's. More was a diligent -listener to his sermons, and chose him as his father confessor. Stapleton -has preserved a letter from More to Colet,[261] which throws much light -upon the relation between them. It was written in October, 1504, whilst -Colet, after preaching during the summer, was apparently spending his long -vacation in the country. It shows that, under Colet's advice, More was not -altogether living the life of a recluse. - -[Sidenote: More's letter to Colet.] - -[Sidenote: More alludes to Colet's preaching at St. Paul's.] - -Colet had for some time been absent from his pulpit at St. Paul's. As More -was one day walking up and down Westminster Hall, waiting while other -people's suits were being tried, he chanced to meet Colet's servant. -Learning from him that his master had not yet returned to town, More wrote -to Colet this letter, to tell him how much he missed his wonted delightful -intercourse with him. He told him how he had ever prized his most wise -counsel; how by his most delightful fellowship he had been refreshed; how -by his weighty sermons he had been roused, and by his example helped on -his way. He reminded him how fully he relied upon his guidance--how he had -been wont to hang upon his very beck and nod. Under his protection he had -felt himself gaining strength, now without it he was flagging and undone. -He acknowledged that, by following Colet's leading, he had escaped almost -from the very jaws of hell; but now, amid all the temptations of city life -and the noisy wrangling of the law courts, he felt himself losing ground -without his help. No doubt the country might be much more pleasant to -Colet than the city, but the city, with all its vice, and follies, and -temptations, had far more need of his skill than simple country folk! -'There sometimes come, indeed,' he added, 'into the pulpit at St. Paul's, -men who promise to heal the diseases of the people. But, though they seem -to have preached plausibly enough, their lives so jar with their words -that they stir up men's wounds, rather than heal them.' But, he said, his -fellow-citizens had confidence in Colet, and all longed for his return. He -urged him, therefore, to return speedily, for their sake and for his, -reminding Colet again that he had submitted himself in all things to his -guidance. 'Meanwhile,' he concluded, 'I shall spend my time with Grocyn, -Linacre, and Lilly; the first, as you know, is the director of my life in -your absence; the second, the master of my studies; the third, my most -dear companion. Farewell, and, as you do, ever love me.' - -'London: 10 Calend. Novembris' [1504].[262] - -[Sidenote: More buries himself in his studies with Lilly.] - -Surrounded as he was by Colet, Grocyn, and Linacre, More soon began to -devote his leisure to his old studies. Lilly, too, had returned home well -versed in Greek. He had spent some years in the island of Rhodes, to -perfect his knowledge of it.[263] Naturally enough, therefore, the two -friends busied themselves in jointly translating Greek epigrams;[264] and -as, with increasing zeal, they yielded to the charms of the new learning, -it is not surprising if the fascinations of monastic life began to lose -their hold upon their minds. The result was that More was saved from the -false step he once had contemplated. - -He had, it would seem, seen enough of the evil side of the 'religious -life' to know that in reality it did not offer that calm retreat from the -world which in theory it ought to have done. He had cautiously abstained -from rushing into vows before he had learned well what they meant; and his -experience of ascetic practices had far too ruthlessly destroyed any -pleasant pictures of monastic life in which he may have indulged at first, -to admit of his ever becoming a Carthusian monk. - -Still we may not doubt that, in truth, he had a real and natural yearning -for the pure ideal of cloister holiness. Early disappointed love -possibly,[265] added to the rude shipwreck made of his worldly fortunes on -the rock of royal displeasure, had, we may well believe, effectually -taught him the lesson not to trust in those 'gay golden dreams' of worldly -greatness, from which, he was often wont to say, 'we cannot help awaking -when we die;' and even the penances and scourgings inflicted by way of -preparatory discipline upon his 'wanton flesh,' though soon proved to be -of no great efficacy, were not the less without some deep root in his -nature; else why should he wear secretly his whole life long the '_sharp -shirt of hair_' which we hear about at last?[266] - -So much as this must be conceded to More's Catholic biographers, who -naturally incline to make the most of this ascetic phase of his life.[267] - -[Sidenote: More disgusted with the cloister.] - -But that, on the other hand, he did turn in disgust from the impurity of -the cloister to the better chances which, he thought, the world offered of -living a chaste and useful life, we know from Erasmus; and this his -Catholic biographers have, in their turn, acknowledged.[268] - - -IV. MORE STUDIES PICO'S LIFE AND WORKS. HIS MARRIAGE (1505). - -More appears to have been influenced in the course he had taken, mainly by -two things:--first, a sort of hero-worship for the great Italian, Pico -della Mirandola; and, secondly, his continued reverence for Colet. - -[Sidenote: More translates the life and works of Pico.] - -[Sidenote: Pico's warm piety and zeal.] - -[Sidenote: A layman to the end.] - -The 'Life of Pico,' with divers Epistles and other 'Works' of his, had -come into More's hands. Very probably Lilly may have brought them home -with him amongst his Italian spoils. More had taken the pains to -translate them into English. He had doubtless heard all about Pico's -outward life from those of his friends who had known him personally when -in Italy. But here was the record of Pico's inner history, for the most -part in his own words; and reading this in More's translation, it is not -hard to see how strong an influence it may have exercised upon him. It -told how, suddenly checked, as More himself had been, in a career of -worldly honour and ambition, the proud vaunter of universal knowledge had -been transformed into the humble student of the Bible; how he had learned -to abhor scholastic disputations, of which he had been so great a master, -and to search for truth instead of fame. It told how, 'giving no great -force to outward observances,' 'he cleaved to God in very fervent love,' -so that, 'on a time as he walked with his nephew in an orchard at Ferrara, -in talking of the love of Christ, he told him of his secret purpose to -give away his goods to the poor, and fencing himself with the crucifix, -barefoot, walking about the world, in every town and castle to preach of -Christ.' It told how he, too, 'scourged his own flesh in remembrance of -the passion and death that Christ suffered for our sake;' and urged others -also ever to bear in mind two things, 'that the Son of God died for thee, -and that thou thyself shall die shortly;' and how, finally, in spite of -the urgent warnings of the great Savonarola, he remained a layman to the -end, and in the midst of indefatigable study of the Oriental languages, -and, above all, the Scriptures, through their means, died at the early age -of thirty-five, leaving the world to wonder at his genius, and Savonarola -to preach a sermon on his death.[269] - -[Sidenote: The Works of Pico.] - -And turning from the '_Life_ of Pico' to his '_Works_,' and reading these -in More's translation, they present to the mind a type of Christianity, so -opposite to the ceremonial and external religion of the monks, that one -may well cease to wonder that More, having caught the spirit of Pico's -religion, could no longer entertain any notion of becoming a Carthusian -brother. - -It will be worth while to examine carefully what these works of Pico's -were. - -[Sidenote: Pico's letter to his nephew.] - -The first is a letter from Pico to his nephew--a letter of advice to a -young man somewhat in More's position, longing to live to some 'virtuous -purpose,' but finding it hard to stem the tide of evil around him. To -encourage his nephew, he speaks of the 'great peace and felicity it is to -the mind when a man hath nothing that grudgeth his conscience, nor is -appalled with the secret touch of any privy crime.'... 'Doubtest thou, my -son, whether the minds of wicked men be vexed or not with continual -thought and torment?... The wicked man's heart is like the stormy sea, -that may not rest. There is to him nothing sure, nothing peaceable, but -all things fearful, all things sorrowful, all things deadly. Shall we, -then, envy these men? Shall we follow them, forgetting our own -country--heaven, and our own heavenly Father--where we were free-born? -Shall we wilfully make ourselves bondmen, and with them, wretched living, -more wretchedly die, and at the last most wretchedly in everlasting fire -be punished?' - -[Sidenote: Pico's faith in Christianity.] - -Having warned his nephew against wicked companions, Pico proceeds to make -evident allusion to the sceptical tendencies of Italian society. 'It is -verily a great madness' (he says) 'not to believe the Gospel, whose -_truth_ the blood of martyrs crieth, the voice of Apostles soundeth, -miracles prove, _reason confirmeth_, the world testifieth, the elements -speak, devils confess!'[270] 'But,' he continues, 'a far greater madness -is it, if thou doubt not but that the Gospel is true, to live then as -though thou doubtest not but that it were false.' - -[Sidenote: Its reasonableness and harmony with the laws of nature.] - -And it is worth notice, that the perception of the reasonableness of -Christianity, and its harmony with the laws of nature, breaks out again a -little further on. Pico writes to his nephew: 'Take no heed what thing -_many_ men do, but [take heed] _what thing the very law of nature_, what -thing _very reason_, what thing _our Lord himself showeth thee to be -done_.' - -[Sidenote: Pico on prayer.] - -[Sidenote: Pico on the Scriptures.] - -A little further on Pico points out two remedies, or aids, whereby his -nephew may be strengthened in his course. First, charity; and secondly, -prayer. With regard to the first he wrote:--'Certainly He shall not hear -thee when thou callest on _Him_, if thou hear not first the poor man when -he calleth upon _thee_.' With regard to prayer, he wrote thus:--'When I -stir thee to prayer, I stir thee not to the prayer that standeth in many -words, but to that prayer which, in the secret chamber of the mind, in the -privy-closet of the soul, with very affect speaketh unto God, and in the -most lightsome darkness of contemplation, not only presenteth the mind to -the Father, but also uniteth it with Him by unspeakable ways, which only -_they_ know that have assayed. Nor I care not how long or how short thy -prayer be, but how effectual, how ardent.... Let no day pass, then, but -thou once at the leastwise present thyself to God by prayer, and falling -down before Him flat to the ground, with an humble affect of devout mind, -not from the extremity of thy lips, but out of the inwardness of thine -heart, cry these words of the prophet: "The offences of my youth, and mine -ignorances, remember not, good Lord, but after thy goodness remember me." -What thou shalt in thy prayer ask of God, both the Holy Spirit, which -prayeth for us and eke thine own necessity, shall every hour put into thy -mind, and also what thou shalt pray for thou shalt find matter enough _in -the reading of Holy Scripture_, which that thou wouldst now (setting -poets, fables, and trifles aside) take ever in thine hand I heartily pray -thee; ... there lieth in _them_ a certain heavenly strength quick and -effectual, which with marvellous power transformeth and changeth the -readers' mind into the love of God, if they be clean and lowly entreated.' -Lastly, he said he would 'make an end with this one thing. I warn thee (of -which when we were last together I often talked with thee) that thou never -forget these two things; that both the Son of God died for thee, and that -thou thyself shalt die shortly!'[271] - -This, then, was the doctrine which Pico, 'fencing himself with a crucifix, -barefoot, walking about the world, in every town and castle,' purposed to -preach! - - * * * * * - -The next letter is a reply to a friend of his who had urged him to leave -his contemplative and studious life, and to mix in political affairs, in -which, as an Italian prince, lay his natural sphere. He replied, that his -desire was 'not _so to embrace Martha as utterly to forsake Mary_'--to -'love them and use them both, as well study as worldly occupation.' 'I -set more' (he continued) 'by my little house, my study, the pleasure of my -books, the rest and peace of my mind, than by all your king's palaces, all -your business, all your glory, all the advantage that ye hawke after, and -all the favour of the court!' - -[Sidenote: Pico's study of Eastern languages.] - -Then he tells his friend that what he looks to do is, '_to give out some -books of mine to the common profit_,' and that he is mastering the Hebrew, -Chaldee, and Arabic languages.[272] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Another letter to his nephew.] - -Then follows another letter to his nephew, who, in trying to follow the -advice given in his first letter, finds himself slandered and called a -hypocrite by his companions at court. It is a letter of noble -encouragement to stand his ground, and to heed not the scoffs and sneers -of his fellows. - -These letters are followed by an exposition of Psalm xvi., in which Pico -incidentally uses his knowledge of the Hebrew text and of Eastern -customs.[273] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Pico's verses.] - -All the foregoing are in prose; after them come More's translations of -some of Pico's verses. - -The first is entitled, 'Twelve rules, partly exciting and partly directing -a man in spiritual battle,' and reminds one of the 'Enchiridion' of -Erasmus. The second is named, 'The twelve weapons of spiritual battle.' -The striking feature in both these metrical works is the holding up of -Christ's example as an incentive to duty and to love. Thus:-- - - 'Consider, when thou art moved to be _wroth_, - He who that was God and of all men the best, - Seeing himself scorned and scourged both, - And as a thief between two thieves threst, - With all rebuke and shame; yet from his breast - Came never sign of wrath or of disdain, - But patiently endured all the pain!' - -And again, after speaking of the shortness of life-- - - 'How fast it runneth on, and passen shall - As doth a dream or shadow on a wall.' - -he continues:-- - - 'Think on the very lamentable pain, - Think on the piteous cross of woeful Christ, - Think on his blood, beat out at every vein, - Think on his precious heart carved in twain: - Think how for thy redemption all was wrought. - _Let him not lose, what he so dear hath bought._' - -There is another poem in which the feelings of a lover towards his love -are made to show what the Christian's feelings ought to be to Christ; and -lastly, there is a solemn and beautiful 'Prayer of Picus Mirandola to -God,' glowing with the same adoration of - - ... 'that mighty love - Which able was thy dreadful majesty - To draw down into earth from heaven above - And crucify God, that we poor wretches, _we_ - Should from our filthy sin yclensed be!' - -and the same earnest longing - - 'That when the journey of this deadly life - My silly ghost hath finished, and thence - Departen must,' ... - 'He may Thee find ... - In thy lordship, not as a lord, but rather - As a very tender, loving father!' - -[Sidenote: Pico's enlightened piety.] - -I have made these quotations, and thus endeavoured to put the reader in -possession of the contents of this little volume, which More in his -seclusion was translating, because I think they throw some light upon the -current in which his thoughts were moving, and because, whilst the name of -Pico is known to fame as that of a great linguist and most precocious -genius, his enlightened piety and the extent of the influence of his -heroic example have scarcely been appreciated. - -This little book, indeed, has a special significance in relation to the -history of the Oxford Reformers. Whatever doubt may rest upon the direct -connection between _their_ views and those of Savonarola, there is here in -More's translation of these writings of a disciple of Savonarola, another -_in_direct connection between them and that little knot of earnest -Christian men in Italy of which Savonarola was the most conspicuous. - -[Sidenote: Position of the Neo-Platonic philosophers of Florence.] - -The extracts made and translated by More from Pico's writings may also -help us to recognise in the Neo-Platonic philosophers of Florence, by -whose writings Colet had been so profoundly influenced, a vein of earnest -Christian feeling of which it may be that we know too little. Like their -predecessors of a thousand years before, they stood between the old world -and the new. They were the men who, when the learning of the old Pagan -world was restored to light, and backed against the dogmatic creed of -priest-ridden degraded Christendom, built a bridge, as it were, between -Christian and Pagan thought. That their bridge was frail and insecure it -may be, but, to a great extent, it served its end. A passage was effected -by it from the Pagan to the Christian shore. Ficino, the representative -Neo-Platonist, who, as has been seen, had aided in its building, had -himself passed over it. Savonarola too had crossed it. Pico had crossed -it. It is true that these men may, to some extent, have Platonised -Christianity in becoming Christian; but it will be recognised at once that -the earnest Christian feeling found by More in Pico, so to speak, rose far -above his Platonism. - -[Sidenote: More calls Savonarola a 'man of God.'] - -That the life and writings of such a man should have awakened in his -breast something of hero-worship[274] is, therefore, not surprising. That -he should have singled out these passages, and taken the trouble to -translate them, is some proof that he admired Pico's practical piety more -than his Neo-Platonic speculations; that he shared with Colet those -yearnings for practical Christian reform with which Colet had returned -from Italy ten years before. That a few years after this translation -should be published and issued in English in More's name was further proof -of it. For here was a book not only in its drift and spirit boldly taking -Cole's side against the Schoolmen, and in favour of the study of Scripture -and the Oriental languages, but as boldly holding up Savonarola as 'a -preacher, as well in cunning as in holiness of living, most famous,'--'a -holy man'--'a man of God'[275]--in the teeth of the fact that he had been -denounced by the Pope as a 'son of blasphemy and perdition,' -excommunicated, tortured, and, refusing to abjure, hung and burned as a -heretic![276] - -[Sidenote: Colet's influence on More.] - -And if the fire of hero-worship for Pico had lit up something of heroism -in More's heart--something which yearned for the battle of life, and not -for the rest of the cloister--so the living example of Colet was ready to -feed the flame into strength and steadiness. - -[Sidenote: More marries under Colet's advice.] - -The result was that, in 1505,[277] in spite of early disappointments, and, -it is said, under Colet's 'advice and direction,'[278] More married Jane -Colt, of New Hall in Essex, took a house in Bucklersbury, and gave up for -ever all longings for monastic life. - - -V. HOW IT HAD FARED WITH ERASMUS (1500-5). - -Soon after Colet's elevation to the dignities of Doctor and Dean, a letter -of congratulation arrived from Erasmus. - -Colet had written no letter to him, and had almost lost sight of him -during these years. It would seem that, after his departure from Oxford, -Colet had given up all hopes of his aid. Nor had any other kindred soul -risen up to take that place in fellow-work beside him, which at one time -he had hoped the great scholar might have filled. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus had not forgotten Colet.] - -[Sidenote: The legal robbery of Erasmus at Dover.] - -But Erasmus on his side had not forgotten Colet. His intercourse with -Colet at Oxford had changed the current of his thoughts, and the course of -his life. Colet little knew by what slow and painful steps he had been -preparing to redeem the promise he had made on leaving Oxford. - -We left him making the best of his way to Dover, with his purse full of -golden crowns, kindly bestowed by his English friends in order that he -might now carry out his long-cherished intention of going to Italy. But -the Fates had decreed against him. King Henry VII. had already reached the -avaricious period of his life and reign. Under cover of an old obsolete -statute, he had given orders to the Custom House officers to stop the -exportation of all precious metals, and the Custom House officers in their -turn, construing their instructions strictly to the letter, had seized -upon Erasmus's purseful of golden crowns, and relieved him of the burden, -for the benefit of the King's exchequer.[279] The poor scholar proceeded -without them to cross to Boulogne. - -He was a bad sailor, and the hardships of travel soon told upon his -health. He was heart-sick also; as well he might be, for this unlucky loss -of his purse had utterly disconcerted once more his long-cherished plans. -On his arrival at Paris, after a wretched and dangerous journey,[280] he -was taken ill, and recovered only to bear his bitter disappointment as -best he could. Before he had yet recovered from his illness he wrote this -touching letter to Arnold, the young legal friend of More, with whom a few -weeks before he and More had visited the Royal nursery. - - _Erasmus to Arnold._[281] - - [Sidenote: Erasmus gives up all hope of going to Italy.] - - 'Salve, mi Arnolde. Now for six weeks I having been suffering much - from a nocturnal ague, of a lingering kind but of daily recurrence, - and it has nearly killed me. I am not yet free from the disease, but - still somewhat better. I don't yet _live_ again, but some hope of life - dawns upon me. You ask me to tell you my plans. Take this only, to - begin with: To mortify myself to the world, I dash my hopes. I long - for nothing more than to give myself rest, in which I might live - wholly to God alone, weep away the sins of a careless life, devote - myself to the study of the Holy Scriptures, either read somewhat or - write. This I cannot do in a monastery or college. One could not be - more delicate than I am; my health will bear neither vigils, nor - fasts, nor any disturbance, even when at its best. Here, where I live - in such luxury, I often fall ill; what should I do amid the labours of - college life? - - [Sidenote: Cost of going to Italy.] - - 'I had determined to go to Italy this year, and to work at theology - some months at Bologna; also there to take the degree of Doctor; then - in the year of Jubilee to visit Rome; which done, to return to my - friends and then to settle down. But I am afraid that these things - that I _would_, I shall _not be able_ to accomplish. I fear, in the - first place, that my health would not stand such a journey and the - heat of the climate. Lastly, I reckon that I could not go to Italy, - nor live there without great expense. It costs a great deal also to - prepare for a degree. And the Bishop of Cambray gives very sparingly. - He altogether loves more liberally than he gives, and promises - everything much more largely than he performs. It is partly my own - fault for not pressing him. There are so many who are even - _extorting_. In the meantime I shall do what seems for the best. - Farewell.' - -What was he to do? It was clear that he did not know what to do. The worst -of it was that the unfortunate loss of the price of many months' -leisure,[282] not only obliged him to postpone _sine die_ his project of -visiting Italy, but also to spend a large portion of his time and strength -for the next few years in a struggle almost for subsistence. For the wolf -must in some way or other be kept from the door; and Erasmus was _poor_! - -[Sidenote: Poverty of Erasmus.] - -[Sidenote: His Greek studies.] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus visits Holland.] - -For a few months he struggled on at Paris, living in lodgings with an old -fellow student 'sparingly,'[283] hard at work at a collection of Greek and -Latin proverbs--his _Adagia_--partly in order to raise the wind, partly to -improve himself in Greek. Sometimes borrowing and sometimes begging, -whatever money came to his hands went forthwith first in buying Greek -books and then in clothes.[284] Later in the year, the prevalence of the -Plague in Paris drove him to Orleans. He would have gone to Italy, but he -had not the means.[285] In December he returned to Paris to continue his -struggling life.[286] In a letter written in January, 1501, on the -anniversary of his misfortune at Dover, he described himself 'as having -now for a whole year been sailing under a stormy sky against the waves and -against the winds.'[287] To add to his troubles, the Plague again broke -out in Paris; and, terrified by the number of funerals passing his door, -the poor scholar fled from the city to spend a few weeks in his native -country.[288] During his stay in Holland he visited the monastery at -Stein,[289] where in early years he had tasted the bitters of the monastic -life. Neither there nor elsewhere in Holland did he find a resting-place. - -[Sidenote: Princess of Vere and Battus.] - -Fortunately for him, one true friend at least turned up, willing and able -to enter into sympathy with him. This was Battus, tutor to the Marchioness -of Vere. Erasmus had already corresponded with him from Paris, pouring out -his troubles to him, and declaring that he had no other hope but in him -alone.[290] Kept away from Paris by the Plague, and finding not even a -temporary home in Holland, he at last found a refuge for a while from his -fears and cares in a visit to the castle of Tornahens,[291] the residence -of the Marchioness of Vere and of Battus. It had the additional -attraction of being near to St. Omer, where lived a former patron of -Erasmus, the Abbot of St. Bertin. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus would like to visit Colet again.] - -Whilst staying with Battus he wrote to a friend, that he sometimes thought -of returning to England to spend a month or two more with Colet, in order -to confer further with him on some theological questions. He knew well, he -said, how much good he should gain from doing so, but he could not get -over the unlucky experience of his last voyage. As to his journey to -Italy, that, too, was knocked on the head. He told his friend that he -longed to visit Italy as ardently as ever, but it was out of the question; -for, according to the adage of Plautus, 'Sine pennis volare haud facile -est.'[292] - -[Sidenote: Writes his 'Enchiridion.'] - -Battus also wrote to Lord Mountjoy to tell him with what pleasure he had -embraced Erasmus, but, 'alas, how ill-treated and spoiled!' He told him -how he had been commiserating Erasmus on his ill-fortune in England, and -how the philosopher had smiled and bade him put a good face on it, He did -not regret having visited England; he cared more for the friends he had -found in England than for all the gold of Croesus. Battus concluded by -telling Lord Mountjoy how Erasmus had described to him the courtesy of the -Prior Charnock, the learning of Colet, the good nature of More, the -virtues of his noble patron.[293] It was during this visit to St. Omer, in -the summer of 1501, that Erasmus wrote his 'Enchiridion.' - -There happened to be staying in the castle a lady, a friend of Battus, who -had a bad husband. The latter, whilst holding other divines at arm's -length, took to Erasmus. The wife, thinking that he possibly might have -some influence over her husband, begged him, without betraying that it -was at her instigation, to write something which might produce in him some -religious impressions.[294] The 'Enchiridion' was the result, of which -more will be said by and by. - -[Sidenote: John Vitrarius.] - -It was at St. Omer also that Erasmus became acquainted with John -Vitrarius--a second John Colet in the earnestness of his Christian zeal -against the corruptions of the church and vices of the clergy, in his love -for St. Paul, in his outspoken preaching, and even in his manner of -preaching, in his dislike of the Scholastic subtlety of Scotus, and even -in his preference for Ambrose, Cyprian, Jerome, and Origen over Augustine. -Erasmus ever afterwards linked the names of Colet and Vitrarius together, -and admitted them both deservedly into his calendar of uncanonised -saints.[295] The 'Enchiridion' was submitted to the judgment of Vitrarius, -and obtained his approval.[296] - -[Sidenote: Return of Erasmus to Paris.] - -After many refreshing days passed at St. Omer, Erasmus returned to Paris -to pursue his literary labours. These, notwithstanding all the hindrances -of ill-health and poverty, never seemed to have flagged.[297] He had -already made up his mind to devote himself to the Herculean task of -correcting the text of St. Jerome's voluminous works, with a view to their -publication.[298] The first edition of his 'Adagia' had been printed in -1501; and during a visit to Louvain and Antwerp, in 1503, he was able to -publish some other works--his afterwards famous 'Enchiridion' amongst the -rest.[299] But notwithstanding all his indomitable energy, and the often -repeated kindness of Battus and the Marchioness, it would be difficult to -imagine a longer catalogue of troubles and disappointments--and these too -of that harassing and vexatious kind which are most trying to the -temper--than is contained in the letters of Erasmus during these dreary -years.[300] - -He might well have been excused if, lost sight of as it would seem by his -English friends, he had himself forgotten his promise to Colet on leaving -Oxford, amidst the cares of his continental life. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus remembers his promise to Colet.] - -But whilst these necessities not a little interrupted, as was likely, -those studies to which Colet's example and precept had urged him, and -lengthened out the preliminary labours which Erasmus had made up his mind -must precede his active participation in Colet's work, they did not, it -seems, damp his energy, or induce him to look back after putting his hand -to the plough. This and more lies touchingly hinted in the following -letter written by Erasmus to Colet on receipt of the news of the elevation -of his friend to the dignity of Doctor and Dean. - - _Erasmus to Colet._[301] - - 'If our friendship, most learned Colet, had been of a common-place - kind, or your habits those of the common run of men, I should indeed - have been somewhat fearful lest it might have been extinguished, or at - least cooled, by our long and wide separation.... But I prefer to - believe that the cause of my having received no letter from you now - for _several years_, lies rather in your press of business, or - ignorance of my whereabouts, or even in myself, than in your - forgetfulness of an old friend.... - - 'I am much surprised that you have not yet given to the world any of - your commentaries on St. Paul and the Gospels. I know your modesty, - but surely you ought to conquer that, and print them for the _public - good_. - - [Sidenote: Erasmus congratulates Colet on his preferment.] - - 'As to the title of Doctor and Dean, I do not so much congratulate - _you_ about these--for I know well they will bring you nothing but - labour--as those for whose good you are to bear them. - - [Sidenote: Wants to devote himself to Scripture studies.] - - [Sidenote: Greek and Hebrew studies.] - - 'I cannot tell you, dearest Colet, how, by hook and by crook, I - struggle to devote myself to the study of sacred literature--how I - regret everything which either delays me or detains me from it. But - constant ill-fortune has prevented me from extricating myself from - these hindrances. When in France, I determined that if I could not - conquer these difficulties I would cast them aside, and that once - freed from them, with my whole mind I would set to work at these - sacred studies, and devote the rest of my life to them. Although three - years before I had attempted something on St. Paul's Epistle to the - Romans,[302] and had completed four volumes at one pull, I was - nevertheless prevented from going on with it, owing chiefly to the - want of a better knowledge of Greek. Consequently, for nearly these - three years past, I have buried myself in Greek literature; nor do I - think the labour has been thrown away. I began also to dip into - Hebrew, but, deterred by the strangeness of the words, I desisted, - knowing that one man's life and genius are not enough for too many - things at a time. I have read through a good part of the works of - Origen, under whose guidance I seemed really to get on, for he opened - to me, as it were, the springs and the method of theological science. - - [Sidenote: The 'Enchiridion.'] - - 'I send you [herewith], as a little literary present, some - lucubrations of mine. Among them is our discussion, when in England, - on the Agony of Christ, but so altered that you will hardly know it - again. Besides, your reply and my rejoinder to it could not be found. - The "Enchiridion" I wrote to display neither genius nor eloquence, but - simply for this--to counteract the vulgar error of those who think - that religion consists in ceremonies, and in more than _Jewish_ - observances, while they neglect what really pertains to piety. I have - tried to teach, as it were, the _art_ of piety in the same way as - others have laid down the rules of [military] discipline.... The rest - were written against the grain, especially the "Paean" and - "Obsecratio," which I wrote to please Battus and Anna, the Princess - of Vere. As to the "Panegyric,"[303] it was so contrary to my taste, - that I do not remember ever having written anything more reluctantly; - for I saw that such a thing could not be done without adulation.... - - [Sidenote: The 'Adagia.'] - - [Sidenote: Erasmus wants help from his friends.] - - 'I wrote, if you recollect, sometime past, about the 100 copies of the - "Adagia" which I sent at my own expense into England, now three years - ago. Grocyn wrote me word that he would arrange with the greatest - fidelity and diligence that they should be sold according to my wish, - and I do not doubt but that he has performed his promise, for he is - the best and most honourable man that ever lived in England. Will you - be so good as to aid me in this matter, so far as to advise and spur - on those by whom you think the business ought to be settled? For one - cannot doubt but that, in so long a time, the books must be sold; and - the money must of necessity have come to somebody's hand; and it is - likely to be of more use to me now than ever before. For, by some - means or other, I must contrive to have a few months entirely to - myself, that I may extricate myself somehow from my labours in secular - literature. This I trusted I could have done this winter, had not so - many hopes proved illusive. Nor, indeed, "with a great sum can I - obtain this freedom," even for a few months. I entreat you, therefore, - to do what you can to aid me, panting as I do eagerly after sacred - studies, in disengaging myself from those [secular] studies which have - now ceased to be pleasant to me. It would not do for me to beg of my - friend, Lord Mountjoy, although it would not seem unreasonable or - impertinent if, of his own good will, he had chosen to aid me, both - on the ground of his habitual patronage of my studies, and also - because the "Adagia" were undertaken at his suggestion, and inscribed - with his name. I am ashamed of the first edition [of the "Adagia"] - both on account of the blundering mistakes of the printers, which seem - made almost on purpose, and because, urged on by others, I hurried - over the work which had now begun to seem to me dry and poor after my - study of the Greek authors. Consequently, another edition is resolved - upon, in which the errors of both author and printer are to be - corrected, and the work made as useful as possible to students. - - [Sidenote: His Greek studies not thrown away.] - - 'Although, however, I may for a while be engaged upon an humble task, - yet whilst thus working in the Garden of the Greeks, I am gathering - much fruit by the way for the time to come, which may hereafter be of - use to me in sacred studies. For I have learned this by experience, - that without Greek one can do nothing in any branch of study; for it - is one thing to conjecture, and quite another thing to judge--one - thing to see with other people's eyes, and quite another thing to - believe what you see with your own. - - 'But to what a length this letter has grown! Love, however, will - excuse loquacity. Farewell, most learned and excellent Colet. - - 'Pray let me know what has happened to our friend Sixtinus; also what - your friend the Prior Richard Charnock is doing. - - 'In order that whatever you may write or send to me may duly come to - hand, be so good as to have them addressed to Christopher Fisher (a - most loving friend and patron of all learned men, and you amongst the - rest), in whose family I am now a guest.' Paris, 1504 [in error for - 1505]. - -Thus had the poor scholar worked on, for the most part in silence, during -these years, struggling alone, yet manfully, in the midst of the manifold -hindrances cast in his way by ill-health and straitened means, neither -free-born (as his friend Colet was), and thus able to tread unencumbered -the path of duty, nor finding himself able even 'with a great sum to -obtain freedom' for a while. Yet through all had Erasmus kept courageously -to the collar, steadily toiling on through five years of preliminary -labours, with earnest purpose to redeem his promise to Colet--first, fully -to equip himself with the proper tools and then, but not till then, to -join him in fellow work. - -[Sidenote: Why Colet had not written.] - -Colet surely had forgotten the promise of Erasmus on leaving Oxford, or -perchance the hope it held out was too slender for him to rest on, else he -would hardly have left him during these years without letters of brotherly -encouragement. - -It is true that Erasmus still confessed himself to be occupied in merely -preliminary labours. His great work, no less than it had been five years -before, was still in the future. Yet the fire caught from his contact with -Colet at Oxford was at least flickering on the hearth, and with fresh -stirring and fuel might perhaps after all be kindled into active flame. - -Colet's reply to this letter has not come down to us, but from the result -we may be sure that it contained a pressing invitation to revisit England, -and the promise of a warm reception. - - -VI. THE 'ENCHIRIDION,' ETC. OF ERASMUS (1501-5). - -In the meantime, closer inspection of the literary present sent by -Erasmus, must have proved to Colet to how large an extent, after so long a -process of study and digestion, his friend had really adopted the views -which he himself had held and consistently preached for the last ten -years. - -[Sidenote: The 'Enchiridion.'] - -The 'Enchiridion' was, in truth, a re-echo of the very key-note of Colet's -faith. It openly taught, as Colet now for so many years had been teaching, -that the true Christian's religion, instead of consisting in the -acceptance of scholastic dogmas, or the performance of outward rites and -ceremonies, really consists in a true, self-sacrificing loyalty to Christ, -his ever-living Prince; that life is a warfare, and that the Christian -must sacrifice his evil lusts and passions, and spend his strength, not in -the pursuit of his own pleasure, but in active service of his -Prince;--such was the drift and spirit of this 'Handybook of the Christian -Soldier.'[304] - -It must not be assumed, however, that Erasmus had adopted all the views -which Colet had expressed in their many conversations at Oxford. On the -contrary, I think there may be traced in the 'Enchiridion'[305] a tendency -to interpret the text of Scripture _allegorically_, rather than to seek -out its _literal_ meaning--a tendency which must have been somewhat -opposed to the strong convictions of Colet, and even to those of Erasmus, -in after years. But he had just then been studying Origen, and it is not -strange that he should for a while be fascinated, as so many others have -been, by the allegorical method of interpretation adopted by that father. -He had learned so much from his writings, that he yielded the more readily -perhaps in this particular to the force of Origen's rich imagination.[306] - -[Sidenote: Not a success at first.] - -[Sidenote: A favourite with the Protestants.] - -But if Colet did not find his own views reflected in all points in this -early production of Erasmus, he would not the less rejoice to find its -general tone so spiritual, so anti-ceremonial, and so free from -superstitious adherence to ecclesiastical authority. That it was so, no -stronger proof could be given than the fact that, whilst for years after -it was written it was known only in select circles, and was far from being -a popular book; yet no sooner had the Protestant movement commenced than, -with a fresh preface, it passed through almost innumerable editions with -astonishing rapidity. Nor was it read only by the learned. It was -translated into English by Tyndale, and again in an abridged form reissued -in English by Coverdale. And whilst in this country it was thus treated -almost as a Protestant book, so in Spain also it had a remarkably wide -circulation. 'The work,' wrote the Archdeacon of Alcor, in 1527--twenty -years after its first silent publication--'has gained such applause and -credit to your name, and has proved so useful to the Christian faith, that -there is no other book of our time which can be compared with the -"Enchiridion" for the extent of its circulation, since it is found in -everybody's hands. There is scarcely anyone in the court of the Emperor, -any citizen of our cities, or member of our churches and convents, no not -even a hotel or country inn, that has not a copy of the "Enchiridion" of -Erasmus in Spanish. The Latin version was read previously by the few who -understood Latin, but its full merit was not perfectly perceived even by -these. Now in the Spanish it is read by all without distinction; and this -short work has made the name of Erasmus a household word in circles where -it was previously unknown and had not been heard of.'[307] - -[Sidenote: Anti-Augustinian on free will and grace.] - -Strong as must have been the Protestant tendencies of this little book to -have made it so great a favourite with Protestant Reformers, it is worthy -of note that its tone was as moderate and anti-Augustinian upon the great -questions of free will and grace, and in this respect as decidedly opposed -to the extreme Augustinian views adopted by the Protestant Reformers, as -anything that Erasmus ever afterwards wrote during the heat of the -controversy. - -To abridge what is said in the 'Enchiridion' on this subject into a few -sentences, but retaining, as nearly as may be, the words of Erasmus, it is -this:-- - -'The good man is he whose body is a temple of the Holy Spirit; the bad man -is like a whited sepulchre full of dead men's bones. If the soul loathes -its proper food, if it cannot see what is truth, if it cannot discern the -Divine voice speaking in the inner ear; if, in fact, it has become -_senseless_, it is _dead_. And wherefore dead? Because God, who is its -life, has forsaken it. Now if the soul be dead it cannot be raised into -life again but by the gracious power of God only. But we have God on our -side. Our enemy has been conquered by Christ. In ourselves we are weak; in -Him we are strong. The victory lies in his hands, but he has put it also -in ours. No one need fail to conquer, unless he does not choose to -conquer. Aid is withheld from none who desire it. If we accept it, he will -fight for us, and impute his love as merit to us. The victory is to be -ascribed to him, who alone being sinless, overcame the tyranny of sin; but -we are not on that account to expect it without our own exertions. We must -steer our course between Scylla and Charybdis. We must neither sit down in -idle security, relying on Divine grace; nor, in view of the hardness of -the struggle, lay down our arms in despair.'[308] - -Thus early had Erasmus, following the lead of Colet, taken up the position -as regards this question to which he adhered through life. - -[Sidenote: Other works of Erasmus.] - -[Sidenote: Conversation at Oxford on the 'Agony of Christ.'] - -But the 'Enchiridion' was not the only work published by Erasmus during -this interval. Probably annexed to it, and under the same cover, he had -published his long report of the conversation between himself and Colet at -Oxford on the causes of the Agony of Christ in the Garden. This showed at -least that he had not forgotten what had passed between them on that -occasion. As, however, he did not append to it Colet's reply, it cannot be -concluded that he had given up his own opinion, either on the question -directly in dispute, or on the still more important one, which came out -of it, on the inspiration of the Scriptures and the theory of 'manifold -senses.' - -[Sidenote: The 'Adagia.'] - -Very clearly, however, did the letter which accompanied these works show -that Erasmus had already resolved to dedicate his life to the great work -of bringing out the Scriptures into their proper prominence, and thereby -throwing into the background all that mass of scholastic subtlety which -had for so long formed the food of theologians. If now for years he had -been wading through Greek literature, it was not merely for its own sake, -but with this great object in view. If, on account of his learning and -eloquence, his friends at the court of the Netherlands had pressed him -into their service, and induced him to compose a flattering oration on the -occasion of the return of Philip from Spain, he had counted the labour as -lost, except so far as it probably helped to keep the wolf from the door -for a week or two. Even the two editions of the 'Adagia' were evidently -regarded only as stepping-stones to that knowledge without which he felt -that it would be useless for him to attempt to master the Greek New -Testament. Of this he gave further practical proof before his arrival -again in England. For whilst still under the hospitable roof of his friend -Fisher, the Papal protonotary at Paris, he brought out his edition of -Laurentius Valla's 'Annotations upon the New Testament;' a copy of which -he had chanced to light upon in an old library during the previous summer. -And to this edition was prefixed a prefatory letter to this kind host, -remarkable for the boldness of its tone and the freedom of its thought. - -[Sidenote: Preface to an edition of Valla's 'Annotations on the New -Testament.'] - -[Sidenote: Correction of the text of Scripture.] - -He knew well, he wrote, that some readers would cry out, 'Oh, Heavens!' -before they had got to the end of the titlepage; but such as these he -reminded of the advice of Aristophanes: 'First listen, my friends, and -then you may shriek and bluster!' He knew, he went on to say, that -theologians, who ought to get more good out of the book than any one else, -would raise the greatest tumult against it; that they would resent as a -sacrilegious infringement of their own sacred province, any interference -of Valla, the grammarian, with the sacred text of the Scriptures. But he -boldly vindicated the right and the necessity of a fair criticism, as in -many passages the Vulgate was manifestly at fault, was a bad rendering of -the original Greek, or had itself been corrupted. If any one should reply -that the theologian is above the laws of grammar, and that the work of -interpretation depends solely upon inspiration, this were, he said, indeed -to claim a new dignity for divines. Were they alone to be allowed to -indulge in bad grammar? He quoted from Jerome to show that he claimed no -inspiration for the translator; and asked what would have been the use of -Jerome's giving directions for the translation of Holy Scripture if the -power of translating depended upon inspiration. Again, how was it that -Paul was evidently so much more at home in Hebrew than in Greek? Finally -he urged, if there be errors in the Vulgate, is it not lawful to correct -them? Many indeed he knew would object to change any word in the Bible, -because they fancy that in every letter is hid some mystic meaning. -Suppose that it were so, would it not be all the more needful that the -exact original text should be restored?[309] - -This was a bold public beginning of that work of Biblical criticism to -which Colet's example so powerfully urged Erasmus. - -The edition of Valla's 'Annotations,' with this letter prefixed to it, was -published at Paris in 1505, while he was busily engaged in bringing out -the second edition of the 'Adagia.' And it would seem that he only waited -for the completion of these works before again crossing the Straits to pay -another visit to his English friends. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - - -I. SECOND VISIT OF ERASMUS TO ENGLAND (1505-6). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus again is More's guest.] - -Towards the close of 1505, Erasmus arrived in England, to renew his -intimacy with his English friends.[310] He had not this time to visit -Oxford in order to meet them. Colet, Grocyn, Linacre, More, and his friend -Lilly, all were ready to receive him with open arms in London. He seems, -for a time at least, to have been More's guest.[311] - -Since Erasmus had last seen him, the youth had matured into the man. He -had passed through much discipline and mental struggle. But his grey eye -sparkled still with native wit, and a hasty glance round his rooms was -enough to assure his old friend that his tastes were what they used to -be--that in heart and mind, in spite of all that had befallen him, he was -the same high-toned and happy-hearted soul he always had been. - -[Sidenote: More's wife.] - -More's young and gentle wife, fresh from the retirement of her father's -country home, was too uncultured to attract much notice from the learned -foreigner; but he tells us More had purposely chosen a wife whom he could -mould to his own liking for a life companion. Both were young, and she was -apt to learn. Whilst, therefore, he himself found time to devote to his -favourite Greek books and his lyre, he was imparting by degrees to her his -own fondness for literature and music.[312] - -[Sidenote: More's epigrams.] - -Erasmus found him writing Latin epigrams and verses, in which the pent-up -bitter thoughts of the past year or two were making their escape. Some -were on priests and monks--sharp biting satires on their evil side, and by -no means showing abject faith in monkhood.[313] - -Nor was he courting back again the favour of offended royalty by melodious -and repentant whinings. Rather his pen gave vent to the chafed and untamed -spirit of the man who knew he had done his duty, and was unjustly -suffering for it. His unrelenting hatred of the king's avarice and tyranny -may be read in the very headings of his epigrams.[314] - -[Sidenote: Translations from Lucian.] - -[Sidenote: Fascination of Erasmus for More.] - -Erasmus joined More in his studies.[315] He was translating into Latin -some of Lucian's Dialogues and his 'Declamatio pro Tyrannicida.' At More's -suggestion they both wrote a full answer to Lucian's arguments in favour -of tyrannicide, imitating Lucian's style as nearly as possible; and -Erasmus, in sending a copy of these essays to a friend, spoke of More in -terms which show how fully he had again yielded to the fascination and -endearing charms of his character. As he had once spoken of the youth, so -now he spoke of the man. Never, he thought, had nature united so fully in -one mind so many of the qualities of genius--the keenest insight, the -readiest wit, the most convincing eloquence, the most engaging manners--he -possessed, he said, every quality required to make a perfect -advocate.[316] - -Such a man, with fair play and opportunity, was sure to rise into -distinction. But as yet he must bide his time, waiting for the day when he -could pursue his proper calling at the bar without risk of incurring royal -displeasure. - - -II. ERASMUS AGAIN LEAVES ENGLAND FOR ITALY (1506). - -Erasmus seems to have spent some months during the spring of 1506 with his -English friends, busying himself, as already mentioned, in translating in -More's company portions of Lucian's works, and, so far as his letters show -at first sight, not very eagerly pursuing those sacred studies at which he -had told Colet that he longed to labour. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus longs to visit Italy, but wants funds.] - -Nor was there really anything inconsistent in this. The truth was that, in -order to complete his knowledge of Greek, without which he had declared he -could do nothing thoroughly, he had yet to undertake that journey to Italy -which had been the dream of his early manhood, and the realisation of -which six years ago had only been prevented by his unlucky accident at -Dover. This journey to Italy lay between him and the great work of his -life, and still the adage of Plautus remained inexorable, 'Sine pennis -volare haud facile est.' - -It was therefore that he was translating Lucian. It was therefore that he -dedicated one dialogue to one friend, another to another.[317] It was -therefore that he paid court to this patron of learning and that. It was -not that he was importunate and servilely fond of begging, but that, by -hook or by crook, the necessary means must be found to carry out his -project. - -It was thus that we find Grocyn rowing with him to Lambeth to introduce -him to Archbishop Warham, and the two joking together as they rowed back -to town, upon the small pecuniary result of their visit.[318] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus leaves for Italy, with two pupils.] - -Funds, it appeared, did not come in as quickly as might have been wished, -but at length the matter was arranged. Erasmus was to proceed to Italy, -taking under his wing two English youths, sons of Dr. Baptista, chief -physician to Henry VII. A young Scotch nobleman, the Archbishop of St. -Andrew's, was also to be placed under the scholar's care.[319] By this -arrangement Erasmus was, as it were, to work his passage; which he -thankfully agreed to do, and set out accordingly. With what feelings he -left England, and with what longings to return, may be best gathered from -the few lines he wrote to Colet from Paris, after having recovered from -the effects of the journey, including a rough toss of four days across the -Straits:-- - - _Erasmus to Colet._ - - 'Paris: June 19, 1506. - - [Sidenote: Letter to Colet from Paris.] - - 'When, after leaving England, I arrived once more in France, it is - hard to say how mingled were my feelings. I cannot easily tell you - which preponderated, my joy in visiting again the friends I had before - left in France, or my sadness in leaving those whom I had recently - found in England. For this I can say truly, that there is no whole - country which has found me friends so numerous, so sincere, learned, - obliging, so noble and accomplished in every way, as the one City of - London has done. Each has so vied with others in affection and good - offices, that I cannot tell whom to prefer. I am obliged to love all - of them alike. The absence of these must needs be painful; but I take - heart again in the recollection of the past, keeping them as - continually in mind as if they were present, and hoping that it may so - turn out that I may shortly return to them, never again to leave them - till death shall part us. I trust to you, with my other friends, to do - your best for the sake of your love and interest for me to bring this - about as soon and as propitiously as you can. - - 'I cannot tell you how pleased I am with the disposition of the sons - of Baptista: nothing could be more modest or tractable; nor could they - be more diligent in their studies. I trust that this arrangement for - them may answer their father's hopes and my desires, and that they may - hereafter confer great honour upon England. Farewell.'[320] - -[Sidenote: Letter to Linacre.] - -To Linacre, too, Erasmus wrote in similar terms. He alluded to the -unpleasant consequences to his health of his four days' experience of the -winds and waves, and wished, he said, that Linacre's medical skill were at -hand to still his throbbing temples. He expressed, as he had done to -Colet, the hope that he soon might be able to return to England, and that -the task he had undertaken with regard to his two pupils, might turn out -well; and he ended his letter by urging his friend to write to him often. -Let it be in few words, if he liked, but he must write.[321] - - -III. ERASMUS VISITS ITALY AND RETURNS TO ENGLAND (1507-10). - -At length Erasmus really was on his way to Italy, trudging along on -horseback, day after day, through the dirt of continental roads, -accompanied by the two sons of Dr. Baptista, their tutor, and a royal -courier, commissioned to escort them as far as Bologna. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus on his way to Italy.] - -[Sidenote: German inns.] - -It is not easy to realise the toil of such a journey to a jaded delicate -scholar, already complaining of the infirmities of age, though as yet not -forty. Strange places, too, for a fastidious student were the roadside -inns of Germany, of which Erasmus has left so vivid a picture, and into -which he turned his weary head each successive night, after grooming his -own horse in the stable. One room serves for all comers, and in this one -room, heated like a stove, some eighty or ninety guests have already -stowed themselves--boots, baggage, dirt and all. Their wet clothes hang on -the stove iron to dry, while they wait for their supper. There are footmen -and horsemen, merchants, sailors, waggoners, husbandmen, children, and -women--sound and sick--combing their heads, wiping their brows, cleaning -their boots, stinking of garlic, and making as great a confusion of -tongues as there was at the building of Babel! At length, in the midst of -the din and stifling closeness of this heated room, supper is spread--a -coarse and ill-cooked meal--which our scholar scarcely dares to touch, and -yet is obliged to sit out to the end for courtesy's sake. And when past -midnight Erasmus is shown to his bedchamber, he finds it to be rightly -named--there is nothing in it but a _bed_; and the last and hardest task -of the day is now to find between its rough unwashed sheets some chance -hours of repose. - -[Sidenote: Journey over the Alps.] - -So, almost in his own words,[322] did Erasmus fare on his way to Italy. -Nor did comforts increase as Germany was left behind. For as the party -crossed the Alps, the courier quarrelled with the tutor, and they even -came to blows. After this, Erasmus was too angry with both to enjoy the -company of either, and so rode apart, composing verses on those -infirmities of age which he felt so rapidly encroaching upon his own frail -constitution.[323] At length the Italian frontier was reached, and -Erasmus, as Luther did three or four years after,[324] began the painful -task of realising what that Italy was about which he had so long and so -ardently dreamed. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus in Italy.] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus returns to England.] - -It is not needful here to trace Erasmus through all his Italian -experience. It presents a catalogue of disappointments and discomforts -upon which we need not dwell. How his arrangement with the sons of -Baptista, having lasted a year, came to an end, and with it the most -unpleasant year of his life;[325] how he took his doctor's degree at -Turin; how he removed to Bologna to find the city besieged by Roman -armies,[326] headed by Pope Julius himself; how he visited Florence[327] -and Rome;[328] how he went to Venice to superintend a new edition of the -'Adagia;' how he was flattered, and how many honours he was promised, and -how many of these promises he found to be, as injuries ought to be, -written on sand;--these and other particulars of his Italian experience -may be left to the biographer of Erasmus. In 1509, on the accession of -Henry VIII. to the English throne, the friends of Erasmus sent him a -pressing invitation to return to England,[329] which he gladly accepted. -For our present purpose it were better, therefore, to see him safely on -his horse again, toiling back on the same packhorse roads, lodging at the -same roadside inns, and meeting the same kind of people as before, but his -face now, after three or four years' absence, set towards England, where -there are hearts he can trust, whether he can or cannot those in Rome, and -where once again, safely housed with More, he can write and talk to Colet -as he pleases, and forget in the pleasures of the present the toils and -disappointments of the past.[330] - -[Sidenote: '_Praise of Folly._'] - -For what most concerns the history of the Oxford Reformers is this--that -it was to beguile these journeys that Erasmus conceived the idea of his -'Praise of Folly,' a satire upon the follies of the times which had grown -up within him at these wayside inns, as he met in them men of all classes -and modes of life, and the keen edge of which was whetted by his recent -visit to Italy and Rome.[331] What most concerns the subject of these -pages is the mental result of the Italian journey, and it was not long -before it was known in almost every wayside inn in Europe. - - -IV. MORE RETURNS TO PUBLIC LIFE ON THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII. (1509-10). - -But little can be known of what happened to Colet and More during the -absence of Erasmus in Italy. - -That Colet was devoted to the work of his Deanery may well be imagined. - -[Sidenote: More thinks of fleeing from England.] - -As to More; during the remaining years of Henry VII.'s reign, he was -living in continual fear--thinking of flying the realm[332]--going so far -as to pay a visit to the universities of Louvain and Paris,[333] as though -to make up his mind where to flee to, if flight became needful.[334] - -[Sidenote: Empson and Dudley.] - -[Sidenote: Henry VII.'s exactions.] - -[Sidenote: Henry VII. dies.] - -Nor were these fears imaginary. More was not alone in his dread of the -King. Daily the royal avarice was growing more unbounded. Cardinal -Morton's celebrated fork--the two-pronged dilemma with which benevolences -were extracted from the rich by the clever prelate--had been bad enough. -The legal plunder of Empson and Dudley was worse. It filled every one with -terror. 'These two ravening wolves,' writes Hall, who lived near enough to -the time to feel some of the exasperation he described, 'had such a guard -of false perjured persons appertaining to them, which were by their -commandment empannelled on every quest, that the King was sure to win -whoever lost. Learned men in the law, when they were required of their -advice, would say, "to agree is the best counsel I can give you." By this -undue means, these covetous persons filled the King's coffers and enriched -themselves. At this unreasonable and extortionate doing noblemen grudged, -mean men kicked, poor men lamented, preachers openly at Paul's Cross and -other places exclaimed, rebuked, and detested, but yet they would never -amend.'[335] Then came the general pardon, the result, it was said, of the -remorse of the dying King, and soon after the news of his death. - -[Sidenote: Accession of Henry VIII.] - -Henry VIII. was proclaimed King, 23rd April, 1509. The same day Empson and -Dudley were sent to the Tower, and on the 17th of August, in the following -year, they were both beheaded. - -More was personally known to the new King, and presented to him on his -accession a richly illuminated vellum book, containing verses of -congratulation.[336] These verses have been disparaged as too adulatory in -their tone. And no doubt they were so; but More had written them evidently -with a far more honest loyalty than Erasmus was able to command when he -wrote a welcome to Philip of Spain on his return to the Netherlands. More -honestly did rejoice, and with good reason, on the accession of Henry -VIII. to the throne. It not only assured him of his own personal safety; -it was in measure like the rise of his own little party into power. - -[Sidenote: The Oxford Reformers in favour with the King; but no mere -courtiers.] - -Not that More and Colet and Linacre were suddenly transformed into -courtiers, but that Henry himself, having been educated to some extent in -the new learning, would be likely at least to keep its enemies in check -and give it fair play. There had been some sort of connection and sympathy -between Prince Henry in his youth and More and his friends; witness More's -freedom in visiting the royal nursery. Linacre had been the tutor of -Henry's elder brother, and was made royal physician on Henry's -accession.[337] From the tone of More's congratulatory verses it may be -inferred that he and his friends had not concealed from the Prince their -love of freedom and their hatred of his father's tyranny. For these -verses, however flattering in their tone, were plain and outspoken upon -this point as words well could be. With the _suaviter in modo_ was united, -in no small proportion, the _fortiter in re_. It would be the King's own -fault if, knowing, as he must have done, More's recent history, he should -fancy that these words were idle words, or that he could make the man, -whose first public act was one of resistance to the unjust exactions of -his father, into a pliant tool of his own! If he should ever try to make -More into a courtier, he would do so at least with his royal eyes open. - -[Sidenote: More made under-sheriff of London.] - -How fully Henry VIII. on his part sided with the people against the -counsellors of his father was not only shown by the execution of Dudley, -but also by the appointment, almost immediately after, of Thomas More to -the office of under-sheriff in the City, the very office which Dudley -himself had held at the time when, as speaker of the House of Commons, he -had been a witness of More's bold conduct--an office which he and his -successor had very possibly used more to the King's profit than to the -ends of impartial justice. - -The young lawyer who had dared to incur royal displeasure by speaking out -in Parliament in defence of the pockets of his fellow-citizens, had -naturally become a popular man in the City. And his appointment to this -judicial office was, therefore, a popular appointment. - -[Sidenote: More's tested high principle.] - -The spirit in which More entered upon its responsible duties still more -endeared him to the people. Some years after, by refusing a pension -offered him by Henry VIII., he proved himself more anxious to retain the -just confidence of his fellow-citizens, in the impartiality of his -decisions in matters between them and the King, than to secure his own -emolument or his Sovereign's patronage.[338] The spirit too in which he -_re_entered upon his own private practice as a lawyer was illustrated both -by his constant habit of doing all he could to get his clients to come to -a friendly agreement before going to law, and also by his absolute refusal -to undertake any cause which he did not conscientiously consider to be a -rightful one.[339] It is not surprising that a man of this tested high -principle should rapidly rise upon the tide of merited prosperity. Under -the circumstances in which More was now placed, his practice at the bar -became rapidly extensive.[340] Everything went well with him. Once more he -was drinking the wine of life. - -[Sidenote: More's domestic happiness.] - -There was probably no brighter home--brighter in present enjoyment, or -more brilliant in future prospects--than that home in Bucklersbury, into -which Erasmus, jaded by the journey, entered on his arrival from Italy. He -must have found More and his gentle wife rejoicing in their infant son, -and the merry voices of three little daughters echoing the joy of the -house.[341] - - -V. ERASMUS WRITES THE 'PRAISE OF FOLLY' WHILE RESTING AT MORE'S HOUSE -(1510 OR 1511). - -For some days Erasmus was chained indoors by an attack of a painful -disease to which he had for long been subject. His books had not yet -arrived, and he was too ill to admit of close application of any kind. - -[Sidenote: The 'Praise of Folly,' written in More's house.] - -To beguile his time, he took pen and paper, and began to write down at his -leisure the satirical reflections on men and things which, as already -mentioned, had grown up within him during his recent travels, and served -to beguile the tedium of his journey from Italy to England. It was not -done with any grave design, or any view of publication; but he knew his -friend More was fond of a joke, and he wanted something to do, to take his -attention from the weariness of the pain which he was suffering. So he -worked away at his manuscript. One day when More came home from business, -bringing a friend or two with him, Erasmus brought it out for their -amusement. The fun would be so much the greater, he thought, when shared -by several together. He had fancied Folly putting on her cap and bells, -mounting her rostrum, and delivering an address to her votaries on the -affairs of mankind. These few select friends having heard what he had -already written, were so delighted with it that they insisted on its being -completed. In about a week the whole was finished.[342] This is the simple -history of the 'Praise of Folly.' - -It was a satire upon follies of all kinds. The bookworm was smiled at for -his lantern jaws and sickly look; the sportsman for his love of butchery; -the superstitious were sneered at for attributing strange virtues to -images and shrines, for worshipping another Hercules under the name of St. -George, for going on pilgrimage when their proper duty was at home. The -wickedness of fictitious pardons and the sale of indulgences,[343] the -folly of prayers to the Virgin in shipwreck or distress, received each a -passing censure. - -[Sidenote: Grammarians and schools.] - -Grammarians were singled out of the regiment of fools as the most servile -votaries of folly. They were described as 'A race of men the most -miserable, who grow old in penury and filth in their schools--_schools_, -did I say? _prisons! dungeons!_ I should have said--among their boys, -deafened with din, poisoned by a foetid atmosphere, but, thanks to their -folly, perfectly self-satisfied, so long as they can bawl and shout to -their terrified boys, and box, and beat, and flog them, and so indulge in -all kinds of ways their cruel disposition.'[344] - -[Sidenote: The scholastic system.] - -After criticising with less severity poets and authors, rhetoricians and -lawyers, Folly proceeded to re-echo the censure of Colet upon the dogmatic -system of the Schoolmen. - -[Sidenote: Scholastic science.] - -She ridiculed the logical subtlety which spent itself on splitting hairs -and disputing about nothing, and to which the modern followers of the -Schoolmen were so painfully addicted. She ridiculed, too, the prevalent -dogmatic philosophy and science, which having been embraced by the -Schoolmen, and sanctioned by ecclesiastical authority, had become a part -of the scholastic system. 'With what ease do they dream and prate of the -creation of innumerable worlds, measuring sun, moon, stars, and earth as -though by a thumb and thread; rendering a reason for thunder, wind, -eclipses, and other inexplicable things; never hesitating in the least, -just as though they had been admitted into the secrets of creation, or as -though they had come down to us from the council of the Gods--_with whom, -and whose conjectures, Nature is mightily amused_!'[345] - -[Sidenote: Scholastic theology.] - -[Sidenote: Foolish questions.] - -From dogmatic science Folly turned at once to dogmatic theology, and -proceeded to comment in her severest fashion on a class whom, she -observes, it might have been safest to pass over in silence--divines.[346] -'Their pride and irritability are such (she said) that they will come down -upon me with their six hundred conclusions, and compel me to recant; and, -if I refuse, declare me a heretic forthwith.... They explain to their own -satisfaction the most hidden mysteries: how the universe was constructed -and arranged--through what channels the stain of original sin descends to -posterity--how the miraculous birth of Christ was effected--how in the -Eucharistic wafer the accidents can exist without a substance, and so -forth. And they think themselves equal to the solution of such questions -as these:--Whether ... God could have taken upon himself the nature of a -woman, a devil, an ass, a gourd, or a stone? And how in that case a gourd -could have preached, worked miracles, and been nailed to the cross? _What_ -Peter would have consecrated if he had consecrated the Eucharist at the -moment that the body of Christ was hanging on the Cross? Whether at that -moment Christ could have been called a man? Whether we shall eat and drink -after the resurrection?'[347] In a later edition[348] Folly is made to say -further:--'These Schoolmen possess such learning and subtlety that I fancy -even the Apostles themselves would need another Spirit, if they had to -engage with this new race of divines about questions of this kind. Paul -was able "to keep the faith," but when he said, "Faith is the substance of -things hoped for," he defined it very loosely. He was full of _charity_, -but he treated of it and defined it very illogically in the thirteenth -chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians.... The Apostles knew the -mother of Jesus, but which of them demonstrated so philosophically as our -divines do in what way she was preserved from the taint of original sin? -Peter received the keys, and received them from Him who would not have -committed them to one unworthy to receive them, but I know not whether -_he_ understood (certainly he never touched upon the subtlety!) in what -way the _key of knowledge_ can be held by a man who _has no knowledge_. -They often baptized people, but they never taught what is the formal, what -the material, what the efficient, and what the ultimate cause of baptism; -they say nothing of its delible and indelible character. They worshipped -indeed, but _in spirit_, following no other authority than the gospel -saying, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in -spirit and in truth." But it hardly seems to have been revealed to them, -that in one and the same act of worship the picture of Christ drawn with -charcoal on a wall was to be adored, as well as Christ _himself_.... -Again, the Apostles spoke of "grace," but they never distinguished between -"gratiam gratis datam," and "gratiam gratificantem." They preached -charity, but did not distinguish between charity "infused" and "acquired," -nor did they explain whether it was an accident or a substance, created or -_un_created. They abhorred "_sin_," but I am a fool if they could define -scientifically _what we call sin_, unless indeed they were inspired by the -spirit of the Scotists!'[349] - -[Sidenote: There are some who hate the scholastic method.] - -After pursuing the subject further, Folly suggests that an army of them -should be sent against the Turks, not in the hope that the Turks might be -converted by them so much as that Christendom would be relieved by their -absence, and then she is made quietly to say:[350]--'You may think all -this is said in joke, but seriously, there are some, even amongst divines -themselves, versed in better learning, who are disgusted at these (as they -think) frivolous subtleties of divines. There are some who execrate, as a -kind of sacrilege, and consider as the greatest impiety, these attempts to -dispute with unhallowed lips and profane arguments about things so holy -that they should rather be adored than explained, to define them with so -much presumption, and to pollute the majesty of Divine theology with cold, -yea and sordid, words and thoughts. But, in spite of these, with the -greatest self-complacency divines go on spending night and day over their -foolish studies, so that they never have any leisure left for the perusal -of the gospels, or the epistles of St. Paul.'[351] - -Finally, Folly exclaims, 'Are they not the most happy of men whilst they -are treating of these things? whilst describing everything in the infernal -regions as exactly as though they had lived there for years? whilst -creating new spheres at pleasure, one, the largest and most beautiful, -being finally added, that, forsooth, happy spirits might have room enough -to take a walk, to spread their feasts, or to play at ball?'[352] - -With this allusion to the 'empyrean' heavens of the Schoolmen, the satire -of Folly upon their dogmatic theology reaches its climax. And in the notes -added by Lystrius to a later edition, it was thus further explained in -terms which aptly illustrate the relation of theology and science in the -scholastic system:-- - -[Sidenote: Dogmatic theology and dogmatic science.] - -'The ancients believed ... in seven spheres--one to each planet--and to -these they added the one sphere of the fixed stars. Next, seeing that -these eight spheres had two motions, and learning from Aristotle that only -one of these motions affected all the spheres, they were compelled to -regard the other motion as _violent_. A superior sphere could not, -however, be moved in its violent motion by an inferior one. So outside all -they were obliged to place a ninth sphere, which they called "primum -mobile." To these, in the next place, _divines added a tenth_, which they -called the "empyrean sphere," as though the saints could not be happy -unless they had a heaven of their own!'[353] - -And that the ridicule and satire of Erasmus were aimed at the dogmatism of -both science and theology is further pointed out in a previous note, where -the presumption of 'neoteric divines' in attempting to account for -everything, however mysterious, is compared to the way in which -'astronomers, not being able to find out the cause of the various motions -of the heavens, constructed eccentrics and epicycles on the spheres.'[354] - -Thus were the scholastic divines censured for just those faults to which -the eyes of Erasmus had been opened ten years before by his conversation -with Colet at Oxford, and words of more bitter satire could hardly have -been used than those now chosen. - -[Sidenote: On Monks.] - -_Monks_ came in for at least as rough a handling. There is perhaps no more -severe and powerful passage anywhere in the whole book than that in which -Folly is made to draw a picture of their appearance on the Judgment Day, -finding themselves with the goats on the left hand of the Judge, pleading -hard their rigorous observance of the rules and ceremonies of their -respective orders, but interrupted by the solemn question from the Judge, -'Whence this race of new Jews? I know only of one law which is really -mine; but of that I hear nothing at all. When on earth, without mystery or -parable, I openly promised my Father's inheritance, not to cowls, matins, -or fastings, but to the practice of faith and charity. I know you not, ye -who know nothing but your own works. Let those who wish to be thought more -holy than I am inhabit their newly-discovered heavens; and let those who -prefer their own traditions to my precepts, order new ones to be built for -them.' When they shall hear this (continues Folly), 'and see sailors and -waggoners preferred to themselves, how do you think they will look upon -each other?'[355] - -[Sidenote: On kings, &c.] - -Kings, princes, and courtiers next pass under review, and here again may -be traced that firm attitude of resistance to royal tyranny which has -already been marked in the conduct of More. If More in his congratulatory -verses took the opportunity of publicly asserting his love of freedom and -hatred of tyranny in the ears of the new King, his own personal friend, as -he mounted the throne, so Erasmus also, although come back to England full -of hope that in Henry VIII. he might find a patron, not only of learning -in general but of himself in particular, took this opportunity of putting -into the mouth of Folly a similar assertion of the sacred rights of the -people and the duties of a king:-- - -[Sidenote: Duties of princes.] - -[Sidenote: Their practice.] - -'It is the duty (she suggests) of a true prince to seek the public and not -his own private advantage. From the laws, of which he is both the author -and executive magistrate, he must not himself deviate by a finger's -breadth. He is responsible for the integrity of his officials and -magistrates.... But (continues Folly) by my aid princes cast such cares as -these to the winds, and care only for their own pleasure.... They think -they fill their position well if they hunt with diligence, if they keep -good horses, if they can make gain to themselves by the sale of offices -and places, if they can daily devise new means of undermining the wealth -of citizens, and raking it into their own exchequer, disguising the -iniquity of such proceedings by some specious pretence and show of -legality.'[356] - -If the memory of Henry VII. was fresh in the minds of More and Erasmus, so -also his courtiers and tools, of whom Empson and Dudley were the -recognised types, were not forgotten. The cringing, servile, abject, and -luxurious habits of courtiers were fair game for Folly. - -From this cutting review of kings, princes, and courtiers, the satire, -taking a still bolder flight, at length swooped down to fix its talons in -the very flesh of the Pope himself. - -[Sidenote: On the Pope.] - -The Oxford friends had some personal knowledge of Rome and her pontiffs. -When Colet was in Italy, the notoriously wicked Alexander VI. was Pope, -and what Colet thought of him has been mentioned. While Erasmus was in -Italy Julius II. was Pope. He had succeeded to the Papal chair in 1503. - -[Sidenote: Pope Julius II.] - -Julius II., in the words of Ranke, 'devoted himself to the gratification -of that innate love of war and conquest which was indeed the ruling -passion of his life.... It was the ambition of Julius II. to extend the -dominions of the Church. He must therefore be regarded as the founder of -the Papal States.'[357] Erasmus, during his recent visit, had himself been -driven from Bologna when it was besieged by the Roman army, led by Julius -in person. He had written from Italy that 'literature was giving place to -war, that Pope Julius was warring, conquering, triumphing, and openly -acting the Caesar.'[358] Mark how aptly and boldly he now hit off his -character in strict accordance with the verdict of history, when in the -course of his satire he came to speak of popes. Folly drily observes -that-- - -[Sidenote: On the folly of war.] - -'Although in the gospel Peter is said to have declared, "_Lo, we have left -all, and followed thee_," yet these Popes speak of "_St. Peter's -patrimony_" as consisting of lands, towns, tributes, customs, lordships; -for which, when their zeal for Christ is stirred, they fight with fire and -sword at the expense of much Christian blood, thinking that in so doing -they are Apostolical defenders of Christ's spouse, the Church, from her -enemies. As though indeed there were any enemies of the Church more -pernicious than impious Popes!... Further, as the Christian Church was -founded in blood, and confirmed by blood, and advanced by blood, now in -like manner, as though Christ were _dead_ and could no longer defend his -own, they take to the sword. And although war be a thing so savage that it -becomes wild beasts rather than men, so frantic that the poets feigned it -to be the work of the Furies, so pestilent that it blights at once all -morality, so unjust that it can be best waged by the worst of ruffians, so -impious that it has nothing in common with Christ, yet to the neglect of -everything else they devote themselves to war alone.'[359] - -[Sidenote: Pope Julius II. and his fondness for war.] - -And this bold satire upon the warlike passions of the Pope was made still -more direct and personal by what followed. To quote Ranke once -more:--'_Old as Julius now was_, worn by the many vicissitudes of good and -evil fortune, and most of all by the consequences of intemperance and -licentious excess, in the extremity of age he still retained an -indomitable spirit. It was from the tumults of a general war that he hoped -to gain his objects. He desired to be the lord and master of the game of -the world. In furtherance of his grand aim he engaged in the boldest -operations, risking all to obtain all.'[360] Compare with this picture of -the old age of the warlike Pope the following words put by Erasmus into -the mouth of Folly, and printed and read all over Europe in the lifetime -of Julius himself! - -'Thus you may see even decrepid old men display all the vigour of youth, -sparing no cost, shrinking from no toil, stopped by nothing, if only they -can turn law, religion, peace, and all human affairs upside down.'[361] - -In conclusion, Folly, after pushing her satire in other directions, was -made to apologise for the bold flight she had taken. If anything she had -said seemed to be spoken with too much loquacity or petulance, she begged -that it might be remembered that it was spoken by _Folly_. But let it be -remembered, also, she added, that - - A fool oft speaks a seasonable truth. - -She then made her bow, and descended the steps of her rostrum, bidding her -most illustrious votaries farewell--_valete, plaudite, vivite, bibite_! - -[Sidenote: Editions of the 'Praise of Folly.'] - -Such was the 'Praise of Folly,' the manuscript of which was snatched from -Erasmus by More or one of his friends, and ultimately sent over to Paris -to be printed there, probably in the summer of 1511, and to pass within a -few months through no less than seven editions.[362] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus settled at Cambridge.] - -Meanwhile, after recruiting his shattered health under More's roof, -spending a few months with Lord Mountjoy[363] and Warham,[364] and paying -a flying visit to Paris, it would seem that Erasmus, aided and encouraged -by his friends, betook himself to Cambridge to pursue his studies, hoping -to be able to eke out his income by giving lessons in the Greek language -to such pupils as might be found amongst the University students willing -to learn,--the chance fees of students being supplemented by the promise -of a small stipend from the University.[365] - -It seems to have been taken for granted that the 'new learning' was now to -make rapid progress, having Henry VIII. for its royal patron, and Erasmus -for its professor of Greek at Cambridge. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - - -I. COLET FOUNDS ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL (1510). - -Fully as Colet joined his friends in rejoicing at the accession to the -throne of a king known to be favourable to himself and his party, he had -drunk by far too deeply of the spirit of self-sacrifice to admit of his -rejoicing with a mere courtier's joy. - -[Sidenote: Colet inherits his father's fortune.] - -Fortune had indeed been lavish to him. His elevation unasked to the -dignity of Doctor and Dean; the popular success of his preaching; the -accession of a friendly king, from whom probably further promotion was to -be had for the asking; and, lastly, the sudden acquisition on his father's -death of a large independent fortune in addition to the revenues of the -deanery;--here was a concurrence of circumstances far more likely to -foster habits of selfish ease and indulgence than to draw Colet into paths -of self-denial and self-sacrificing labour. Had he enlisted in the ranks -of a great cause in the hasty zeal of enthusiasm, it had had time now to -cool, and here was the triumphal arch through which the abjured hero might -gracefully retire from work amidst the world's applause. - -But Colet, in his lectures at Oxford, had laid great stress upon the -necessity of that living sacrifice of men's hearts and lives without which -all other sacrifices were empty things, and it seems that after he was -called to the deanery he gave forth 'A right fruitfull Admonition -concerning the Order of a good Christian Man's Life,'[366] which passed -through many editions during the sixteenth century, and in which he made -use of the following language:-- - -[Sidenote: Colet on the duty of self-sacrifice.] - -'Thou must know that thou hast nothing that good is of thyself, but of -God. For the gift of nature and all other temporal gifts of this world ... -well considered have come to thee by the infinite goodness and grace of -God, and not of thyself.... But in especial is it necessary for thee to -know that God of his great grace has made thee his image, having regard to -thy memory, understanding, and free will, and that God is thy maker, and -thou his wretched creature, and that thou art redeemed of God by the -passion of Jesus Christ, and that God is thy helper, thy refuge, and thy -deliverance from all evil.... And, therefore, think, and thank God, and -utterly despise thyself, ... in that God hath done so much for thee, and -thou hast so often offended his highness, and also done Him so little -service. And therefore, by his infinite mercy and grace, call unto thy -remembrance the degree of dignity which Almighty God hath called thee -unto, and according thereunto yield thy debt, and do thy duty.' - -Colet was not the man to preach one thing and practise another. No sooner -had he been appointed to the deanery of St. Paul's, than he had at once -resigned the rich living of Stepney,[367] the residence of his father, and -now of his widowed mother. And no sooner had his father's fortune come -into his hands, than he earnestly considered how most effectually to -devote it to the cause in which he had laboured so unceasingly at Oxford -and St. Paul's. - -[Sidenote: Colet founds St. Paul's School.] - -[Sidenote: Colet's object in founding it.] - -After mature deliberation he resolved, whilst living and in health, to -devote his patrimony[368] to the foundation of a school in St. Paul's -Churchyard, wherein 153 children,[369] without any restriction as to -nation or country, who could already read and write, and were of 'good -parts and capacities,' should receive a sound Christian education. The -'Latin adulterate, which ignorant blind fools brought into this world,' -poisoning thereby 'the old Latin speech, and the very Roman tongue used in -the time of Tully and Sallust, and Virgil and Terence, and learned by St. -Jerome, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine,'--all that 'abusion which the -later blind world brought in, and which may rather be called Blotterature -than Literature,'--should be 'utterly abanished and excluded' out of this -school. The children should be taught good literature, both Latin and -Greek, 'such authors that have with wisdom joined pure chaste -eloquence'--'specially Christian authors who wrote their wisdom in clean -and chaste Latin, whether in prose or verse; for,' said Colet, '_my intent -is by this school specially to increase knowledge, and worshipping of God -and Our Lord Jesus Christ, and good Christian life and manners in the -children_.'[370] - -And, as if to keep this end always prominently in view, he placed an image -of the 'Child Jesus,' to whom the school was dedicated, standing over the -master's chair in the attitude of teaching, with the motto, 'Hear ye -him;'[371] and upon the front of the building, next to the cathedral, the -following inscription:--'Schola catechizationis puerorum in Christi Opt. -Max. fide et bonis Literis. Anno Christi MDX.'[372] - -The building consisted of one large room, divided into an upper and lower -school by a curtain, which could be drawn at pleasure; and the charge of -the two schools devolved upon a high-master and a sub-master respectively. - -[Sidenote: Salaries of the masters.] - -[Sidenote: Cost of Colet's school.] - -The forms were arranged so as each to seat sixteen boys, and were provided -each with a raised desk, at which the head boy sat as president. The -building also embraced an entrance-porch and a little chapel for divine -service. Dwelling-houses were erected, adjoining the school, for the -residence of the two masters; and for their support Colet obtained, in the -spring of 1510, a royal license to transfer to the Wardens and Guild of -Mercers in London, real property to the value of 53_l._ per annum[373] -(equivalent to at least 530_l._ of present money). Of this the headmaster -was to receive as his salary 35_l._ (say 350_l._) and the under-master -18_l._ (say 180_l._) per annum. Three or four years after, Colet made -provision for a chaplain to conduct divine service in the chapel, and to -instruct the children in the Catechism, the Articles of the faith, and the -Ten Commandments--in _English_; and ultimately, before his death, he -appears to have increased the amount of the whole endowment to 122_l._ -(say 1,200_l._) per annum. So that it may be considered, roughly, that the -whole endowment, including the buildings, cannot have represented a less -sum than 30,000_l._ or 40,000_l._ of present money.[374] - -And if Colet thus sacrificed so much of his private fortune to secure a -liberal (and it must be conceded his was a liberal) provision for the -remuneration of the masters who should educate his 153 boys, he must -surely have had deeply at heart the welfare of the boys themselves. And, -in truth, it was so. Colet was like a father to his schoolboys. It has -indeed been assumed that a story related by Erasmus, to exhibit the low -state of education and the cruel severity exercised in the common run of -schools, was intended by him to describe the severe discipline maintained -by Colet and his masters; but I submit that this is a pure assumption, -without the least shadow of proof, and contrary to every kind of -probability. The story itself is dark enough truly, and, in order that -Colet's name may be cleared once for all from its odium, may as well be -given to the reader as it is found in Erasmus's work 'On the Liberal -Education of Boys.' - -[Sidenote: Abuses in private schools.] - -It occurs, let it be remembered, in a work written by Erasmus to expose -and hold up to public scorn the private schools, including those of -monasteries and colleges, in which honest parents were blindly induced to -place their children--at the mercy, it might be, of drunken dames, or of -men too often without knowledge, chastity, or judgment. It was a work in -which he described these schools as he had described them in his 'Praise -of Folly,' and in which he detailed scandals and cruelty too foul to be -translated, with the express object of enforcing his opinion, that if -there were to be any schools at all, they ought to be _public_ schools--in -fact, precisely such schools as that which Colet was establishing. The -story is introduced as an example of the scandals which were sometimes -perpetrated by incompetent masters, in schools of the class which he had -thus harshly, but not _too_ harshly, condemned. - -After saying that no masters were more cruel to their boys than those who, -from ignorance, can teach them least (a remark which certainly could not -be intended to refer to Colet's headmaster), he thus proceeded:-- - -[Sidenote: Cruelty of some schoolmasters.] - -[Sidenote: Story of cruelty, wrongly attributed to Colet.] - -'What can such masters do in their schools but get through the day by -flogging and scolding? I once knew a divine, and intimately too--a man of -reputation--who seemed to think that no cruelty to scholars could be -enough, since he would not have any but flogging masters. He thought this -was the only way to crush the boys' unruly spirits, and to subdue the -wantonness of their age. Never did he take a meal with his flock without -making the comedy end in a tragedy. So at the end of the meal one or -another boy was dragged out to be flogged.... I myself was once by when, -after dinner, as usual, he called out a boy, I should think, about ten -years old. He had only just come fresh from his mother to school. His -mother, it should be said, was a pious woman, and had especially commended -the boy to him. But he at once began to charge the boy with unruliness, -since he could think of nothing else, and must find something to flog him -for, and made signs to the proper official to flog him. Whereupon the poor -boy was forthwith floored then and there, and flogged as though he had -committed sacrilege. The divine again and again interposed, "That will -do--that will do;" but the inexorable executioner continued his cruelty -till the boy almost fainted. By-and-by the divine turned round to me and -said, "He did nothing to deserve it, but the boys' spirits must be -subdued."'[375] - -This is the story which we are told it would be difficult to apply to -anyone but Colet,[376] as though Colet were the only 'divine of -reputation' ever intimately known to Erasmus! or as though Erasmus would -thus hold up his friend Colet to the scorn of the world! - -[Sidenote: Colet's gentleness and love of children.] - -The fact is that no one could peruse the 'precepts of living' laid down by -Colet for his school without seeing not only how practical and sound were -his views on the education of the heart, mind, and body of his boys, but -also how at the root of them lay a strong undercurrent of warm and gentle -feelings, a real love of youth.[377] - -In truth, Colet was fond of children, even to tenderness. Erasmus relates -that he would often remind his guests and his friends how that Christ had -made children the examples for men, and that he was wont to compare them -to the angels above.[378] And if any further proof were wanted that Colet -showed even a touching tenderness for children, it must surely be found in -the following 'lytell proheme' to the Latin Grammar which he wrote for his -school, and of which we shall hear more by-and-by:-- - -[Sidenote: Colet's preface to his grammar.] - -[Sidenote: Colet's tenderness towards little children.] - -'Albeit many have written, and have made certain introductions into Latin -speech, called _Donates_ and _Accidens_, in Latin tongue and in English; -in such plenty that it should seem to suffice, yet nevertheless, for the -love and zeal that I have to the new school of Paul's, and to the children -of the same, I have also ... of the eight parts of grammar made this -little book.... In which, if any new things be of me, it is alonely that I -have put these "parts" in a more clear order, and I have made them a -little more easy to young wits, than (methinketh) they were before: -judging that nothing may be too soft, nor too familiar for little -children, specially learning a tongue unto them all strange. In which -little book I have left many things out of purpose, considering the -tenderness and small capacity of little minds....[378] I pray God all may -be to his honour, and to the erudition and profit of children, my -countrymen _Londoners_ specially, whom, digesting this little work, I had -always before mine eyes, considering more what was for _them_ than to -show any great cunning; willing to speak the things often before spoken, -in such manner as gladly young beginners and tender wits might take and -conceive. Wherefore I pray you, all little babes, all little children, -learn gladly this little treatise, and commend it diligently unto your -memories, trusting of this beginning that ye shall proceed and grow to -perfect literature, and come at the last to be _great clerks_. _And lift -up your little white hands for me_, which prayeth for you to God, to whom -be all honour and imperial majesty and glory. Amen.' - -The man who, having spent his patrimony in the foundation of a school, -could write such a preface as this to one of his schoolbooks, was not -likely to insist 'upon having none but flogging masters.' - -[Sidenote: Colet will not trouble them with many rules.] - -Moreover, this preface was followed by a short note, addressed to his -'well-beloved masters and teachers of grammar,' in which, by way of -apology for its brevity, and the absence of the endless rules and -exceptions found in most grammars, he tells them: 'In the beginning men -spake not Latin because such rules were made, but, contrariwise, because -men spake such Latin the rules were made. That is to say, Latin speech was -before the rules, and not the rules before the Latin speech.' And -therefore the best way to learn 'to speak and write clean Latin is busily -to learn and read good Latin authors, and note how they wrote and spoke.' -'Wherefore,' he concludes, 'after "the parts of speech" sufficiently known -in your schools, read and expound plainly unto your scholars good authors, -and show to them every word, and in every sentence what they shall note -and observe; warning them busily to follow and to do like, both in writing -and in speaking, and be to them your own self also, speaking with them -the pure Latin, very present, and _leave the rules_. For reading of good -books, diligent information of taught masters, studious advertence and -taking heed of learners, hearing eloquent men speak, and finally busy -imitation with tongue and pen, more availeth shortly to get the true -eloquent speech, than all the traditions, rules, and precepts of masters.' - -[Sidenote: Lilly's Epigram.] - -Nor would it seem that Colet's first headmaster, at all events, failed to -appreciate the practical common-sense and gentle regard for the -'tenderness of little minds,' which breathes through these prefaces; for -at the end of them he himself added this epigram:-- - - Pocula si linguae cupias gustare Latinae, - Quale tibi monstret, ecce _Coletus_ iter! - Non per Caucaseos montes, aut summa Pyrene; - Te ista per Hybleos sed via ducit agros.[379] - - -II. HIS CHOICE OF SCHOOLBOOKS AND SCHOOLMASTERS (1511). - -[Sidenote: Linacre's rejected Grammar.] - -[Sidenote: 'Lilly's Grammar.'] - -The mention of Colet's 'Latin Grammar' suggests one of the difficulties in -the way of carrying out of his projected school, his mode of surmounting -which was characteristic of the spirit in which he worked. It was not to -be expected that he should find the schoolbooks of the old grammarians in -any way adapted to his purpose. So at once he set his learned friends to -work to provide him with new ones. The first thing wanted was a Latin -Grammar for beginners. Linacre undertook to provide this want, and wrote -with great pains and labour a work in six books, which afterwards came -into general use. But when Colet saw it, at the risk of displeasing his -friend, he put it altogether aside. It was too long and too learned for -his 'little beginners.' So he condensed within the compass of a few pages -two little treatises, an 'Accidence' and a 'Syntax,' in the preface to the -first of which occur the gentle words quoted above.[380] These little -books, after receiving additions from the hands of Erasmus, Lilly, and -others, finally became generally adopted and known as _Lilly's -Grammar_.[381] - -This rejection of his Grammar seems to have been a sore point with -Linacre, but Erasmus told Colet not to be too much concerned about it: he -would, he said, get over it in time,[382] which probably he did much -sooner than Colet's school would have got over the loss which would have -been inflicted by the adoption of a schoolbook beyond the capacity of the -boys. - -[Sidenote: 'De Copia Verborum.'] - -Erasmus, in the same letter in which he spoke of Linacre's rejected -grammar, told Colet that he was working at his 'De Copia Verborum,' which -he was writing expressly for Colet's school. He told him, too, that he had -sometimes to take up the cudgels for him against the 'Thomists and -Scotists of Cambridge;' that he was looking out for an -under-schoolmaster, but had not yet succeeded in finding one. Meanwhile he -enclosed a letter, in which he had put on paper his notions of what a -schoolmaster ought to be, and the best method of teaching boys, which he -fancied Colet might not altogether approve, as he was wont somewhat more -to despise rhetoric than Erasmus did. He stated his opinion that-- - -[Sidenote: Erasmus on the true method of education.] - -'In order that the teacher might be thoroughly up to his work, he should -not merely be a master of one particular branch of study. He should -himself have travelled through the whole circle of knowledge. In -philosophy he should have studied Plato and Aristotle, Theophrastus and -Plotinus; in Theology the Sacred Scriptures, and after them Origen, -Chrysostom, and Basil among the Greek fathers, and Ambrose and Jerome -among the Latin fathers; among the poets, Homer and Ovid; in geography, -which is very important in the study of history, Pomponius Mela, Ptolemy, -Pliny, Strabo. He should know what ancient names of rivers, mountains, -countries, cities, answer to the modern ones; and the same of trees, -animals, instruments, clothes, and gems, with regard to which it is -incredible how ignorant even educated men are. He should take note of -little facts about agriculture, architecture, military and culinary arts, -mentioned by different authors. He should be able to trace the origin of -words, their gradual corruption in the languages of Constantinople, Italy, -Spain, and France. Nothing should be beneath his observation which can -illustrate history or the meaning of the poets. But you will say what a -load you are putting on the back of the poor teacher! It is so; but I -burden the one to relieve the many. I want the teacher to have traversed -the whole range of knowledge, that it may spare each of his scholars doing -it. A diligent and thoroughly competent master might give boys a fair -proficiency in both Latin and Greek, in a shorter time and with less -labour than the common run of pedagogues take to teach their babble.'[383] - -On receipt of this letter and its enclosure, Colet wrote to Erasmus:-- - - _Colet to Erasmus._ - - 'London, 1511.[384] - - [Sidenote: Colet agrees with Erasmus.] - - '"What! I shall not approve!" So you say! What is there of Erasmus's - that I do not approve? I have read your letter "De Studiis" hastily, - for as yet I have been too busy to read it carefully. Glancing through - it, not only do I approve everything, but also greatly admire your - genius, skill, learning, fulness, and eloquence. I have often longed - that the boys of my school should be taught in the way in which you - say they should be. And often also have I longed that I could get such - teachers as you have so well described. When I came to that point at - the end of the letter where you say that you could educate boys up to - a fair proficiency in both tongues in fewer years than it takes those - pedagogues to teach their babble, O Erasmus, how I longed that I could - make you the master of my school! I have indeed some hope that you - will give us a helping hand in teaching our teachers when you leave - those "Cantabrigians." - - 'With respect to our friend Linacre, I will follow your advice, so - kindly and prudently given. - - 'Do not give up looking for an undermaster, if there should be anyone - at Cambridge who would not think it beneath his dignity to be under - the headmaster. - - [Sidenote: The Scotists of Cambridge.] - - 'As to what you say about your occasional skirmishes with the ranks of - the Scotists on my behalf, I am glad to have such a champion to defend - me. But it is an unequal and inglorious contest for you; for what - glory is it to you to put to rout a cloud of flies? What thanks do you - deserve from me for cutting down reeds? It is a contest more necessary - than glorious or difficult!' - -While Colet acquiesced in the view expressed by Erasmus as to the high -qualities required in a schoolmaster, he gave practical proof of his sense -of the dignity of the calling by the liberal remuneration he offered to -secure one. - -[Sidenote: Salaries of Colet's masters.] - -[Sidenote: Lilly headmaster of Colet's school.] - -[Sidenote: An undermaster wanted.] - -[Sidenote: Story of a Cambridge doctor.] - -At a time when the Lord Chancellor of England received as his salary 100 -marks, with a similar sum for the commons of himself and his clerk, making -in all 133_l._ per annum,[385] Colet offered to the high-master of his -school 35_l._ per annum, and a house to live in besides. This was -practical proof that Colet meant to secure the services of more than a -mere common grammarian. He had in view for his headmaster, Lilly, the -friend and fellow-student of More, who had mastered the Latin language in -Italy, and even travelled farther East to perfect his knowledge of Greek. -He was well versed not only in the Greek authors, but in the manners and -customs of the people, having lived some years in the island of -Rhodes.[386] He had returned home, it is said, by way of Jerusalem, and -had recently opened a private school in London.[387] He was, moreover, the -godson of Grocyn, and himself an Oxford student. He had at one time, as -already mentioned, shared with More some ascetic tendencies, but, like his -friend, had wisely stopped short of Carthusian vows. He was, in truth, -thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Colet and his friends, and, in the -opinion of Erasmus, 'a thorough master in the art of educating -youth.'[388] Thus Colet had found a high-master ready to be fully -installed in his office, as soon as the building was completed. But an -under-master was not so easy to find. Colet had written to Erasmus, in -September, 1511, wishing him to look one out for him,[389] and in the -letter last quoted had again repeated his request. Erasmus wrote again in -October, and informed him that he had mentioned his want to some of the -college dons. One of them had replied by sneeringly asking, 'Who would put -up with the life of a schoolmaster who could get a living in any other -way?' Whereupon Erasmus modestly urged that he thought the education of -youth was the most honourable of all callings, and that there could be no -labour more pleasing to God than the Christian training of boys. At which -the Cambridge doctor turned up his nose in contempt, and scornfully -replied, 'If anyone wants to give himself up entirely to the service of -Christ, let him enter a monastery!' Erasmus ventured to question whether -St. Paul did not place true religion rather in works of charity--in doing -as much good as possible to our neighbours? The other rejected altogether -so crude a notion. 'Behold,' said he, 'we must leave all; in that is -perfection.' '_He_ scarcely can be said to leave all,' promptly returned -Erasmus, 'who, when he has a chance of doing good to others, refuses the -task because it is too humble in the eyes of the world.' 'And then,' wrote -Erasmus, 'lest I should get into a quarrel, I bade the man good-bye.'[390] - -This, he said, was an example of 'Scotistical wisdom,' and he told Colet -that he did not care often to meddle with these self-satisfied Scotists, -well knowing that no good would come of it. - - * * * * * - -It would seem that, after all, a worthy under-master did turn up at -Cambridge, willing to work under Lilly, and thereafter to become his -son-in-law;[391] so that with schoolmasters already secured, and -schoolbooks in course of preparation, Colet's enterprise seemed likely -fairly to get under way so soon as the building should be completed in St. -Paul's Churchyard. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - - -I. CONVOCATION FOR THE EXTIRPATION OF HERESY (1512). - -[Sidenote: Lollards go to hear Colet's sermons.] - -[Sidenote: Two heretics burned at Smithfield.] - -Colet's labours in connection with his school did not interfere with his -ordinary duties. He was still, Sunday after Sunday, preaching those -courses of sermons on 'the Gospels, the Apostles' Creed, and the Lord's -Prayer,' which attracted by their novelty and unwonted earnestness so many -listeners. The Dean was no Lollard himself, yet those whose leanings were -toward Lollard views naturally found, in Colet's simple Scripture teaching -from his pulpit at St. Paul's, what they felt to be the food for which -they were in search, and which they did not get elsewhere. They were wont, -it seems, to advise one another to go and hear Dr. Colet; and it was not -strange if, in the future examination of heretics, a connection should be -traced between Colet's sermons and the increase of heresy.[392] That -heresy was on the increase could not be doubted. Foxe has recorded that -several Lollards suffered in 1511 under Archbishop Warham, and, strange to -say, Colet's name appears on the list of judges.[393] Foxe also mentions -no fewer than twenty-three heretics who were compelled by Fitzjames, -Bishop of London, to abjure during 1510 and 1511. And so zealous was the -Bishop in his old age against them that he burned at least two of them in -Smithfield during the autumn of 1511.[394] So common, indeed, were these -martyr-fires, that Ammonius, Latin secretary to Henry VIII., writing from -London, a few weeks after, to Erasmus at Cambridge, could jestingly say, -that 'he does not wonder that wood is so scarce and dear, the heretics -cause so many holocausts; and yet (he said) their numbers grow--nay, even -the brother of Thomas, my servant, dolt as he is, has himself founded a -sect, and has his disciples!'[395] - -It was under these circumstances that a royal mandate was issued, in -November 1511, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to summon a convocation of -his province to meet in St. Paul's Cathedral, February 6, 1512.[396] - -[Sidenote: Convocation summoned.] - -The King--under the instigation, it was thought, of Wolsey[397]--was just -then entering into a treaty with the Pope and other princes with a view to -warlike proceedings against France; and the King's object in calling this -convocation was doubtless to procure from the clergy their share of the -taxation necessary to meet the expenses of equipping an army, which it was -convenient to represent as required 'for the defence of the _Church_ as -well as the kingdom of England;' but there was another object for which a -convocation was required besides this of taxation--one more palatable to -Bishop Fitzjames and his party--that of the '_extirpation of -heresy_.'[398] - -On Friday, February 6, 1512, members of both Houses of Convocation -assembled, it would seem, in St. Paul's Cathedral, to listen to the sermon -by which it was customary that their proceedings should be opened. - -[Sidenote: Colet appointed to preach the opening sermon.] - -Dean Colet was charged by the Archbishop with the duty of preaching this -opening address. - -It was a task by no means to be envied, but Colet was not the man to shirk -a duty because it was unpleasant. He had accepted the deanery of St. -Paul's not simply to wear its dignities and enjoy its revenues, but to do -its duties; and one of those duties, perhaps _the_ one to which he had -felt himself most clearly called, had been the duty of _preaching_. -Probably, there was not a pulpit in England which offered so wide a sphere -of influence to the preacher as that of St. Paul's. - -[Sidenote: St. Paul's Cathedral.] - -[Sidenote: St. Paul's Walk.] - -The noble cathedral itself was _then_, in a sense which can hardly be -realised _now_, the centre of the metropolis of England. In architectural -merits, in vastness, and in the beauty of its proportions, it was rivalled -by few in the world; but it was not from these alone that it derived its -importance. Under the shadow of its gracefully-tapering spire, 534 feet in -height, its nave and choir and presbytery extended 700 feet in one long -line of Gothic arches, broken only by the low screen between the nave and -choir. And pacing up and down this nave might be seen men of every class -in life, from the merchant and the courtier down to the mendicant and the -beggar. _St. Paul's Walk_ was like a 'change, thronged by men of business -and men of the world, congregated there to hear the news, or to drive -their bargains; while in the long aisles kneeled the devotees of saints or -Virgin, paying their devotions at shrines and altars, loaded with costly -offerings and burning tapers; and in the chantries, priests in monotonous -tones sang masses for departed souls. - -[Sidenote: Colet had now preached at St. Paul's seven years.] - -In _this_ cathedral had Colet preached now for seven successive years. He -had preached to the humblest classes in their own English tongue,[399] -and, in order to bring down his teaching to their level, had given them an -English translation of the Paternoster[400] for their use. He had seen -them kneeling before the shrines, and had faithfully warned them against -the worship of images.[401] He had preached to the merchants and citizens -of London, and they had recognised in him a preacher who practised what he -preached, whose life did not give the lie to what he taught; and he had -done all this in spite of any talk his plain-speaking might create amongst -the orthodox, and notwithstanding the open opposition of his bishop. If -poor Lollards found in him an earnestness and simple faith they did not -find elsewhere, he knew that it was not _his_ fault. It was not _he_ who -was making heretics so fast, but the priests and bishops themselves, who -were driving honest souls into heretical ways by the scandal of their -worldly living, and the pride and dryness of their orthodox profession. -And now, when he was called upon to preach to these very priests and -bishops, was he to shrink from the task? - -Colet had already, in his lectures at Oxford, given expression to the pain -which ecclesiastical scandals had given him; and in his abstracts of the -Dionysian treatises he had recorded, with grief and tears, his longings -for ecclesiastical reform. These, however, had never been printed. They -lay in manuscript in his own hands, and could easily be suppressed. It -remained to be seen whether seven years' enjoyment of his own preferment -had closed his lips to the utterance of unpopular truths. - -[Sidenote: Condition of the clergy.] - -If it were possible so far to look behind the screen of the past as to see -the bishops of the province of Canterbury with the sight and knowledge of -Colet, as he saw them assembled at St. Paul's on that Friday morning, -then, and then only, would it be possible to appreciate fairly what it -must have cost him to preach the sermon he did on this occasion. - -[Sidenote: The bishops and their benefices.] - -The Archbishop and some of the bishops were friends of his and of the new -learning; but even some of these were so far carried away by the habits of -the times, as to fall inevitably under the censure of any honest preacher -who should dare to apply the Christian standard to their episcopal -conduct. There might be honourable exceptions to the rule, but, _as a -rule_, the bishops looked upon their sees as _property_ conferred upon -them often for political services, or as the natural result of family -position or influence. The pastoral duties which properly belonged to -their position were too often lost sight of. A bishopric was a thing to be -sued for or purchased by money or influence. It mattered little whether -the aspirant were a boy or a greyheaded old man, whether he lived abroad -or in England, whether he were illiterate or educated. There was one -bishop, for instance, whom Erasmus speaks of as a 'youth,' and who was so -illiterate that he had offered Erasmus a benefice and a large sum of money -if he would undertake his tuition for a year--a bribe which Erasmus, -albeit at the time anxiously seeking remunerative work of a kind which -would not interfere with his studies, refused with contempt.[402] Then -there was James Stanley, an old man, whose only title to preferment was -his connection with the Royal Family and a noble house, who, in spite of -his absolute unfitness, had been made Bishop of Ely in 1506, and was now -living, it is said, a life of open profligacy, to the great scandal of the -English Church, and of the noble house to which he belonged.[403] - -There was a bishop, too, whom More satirised repeatedly in his epigrams, -under the name of 'Posthumus;' at whose promotion he expresses his -delight, inasmuch as, whilst bishops were 'generally selected at _random_, -this bishop had evidently been chosen with _exceptional care_. If an error -had been made in this case, it could not certainly have arisen from -_haste_ in selection; for had the choice been made out of a thousand, a -_worse or more stupid_ bishop could not possibly have been found!'[404] -From another epigram, it may be inferred that this 'Posthumus' was one of -the ignorant Scotists whose opposition the Oxford Reformers had so often -to combat; for More represents him as fond of quoting the text, '_The -letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life_,'--the text which is mentioned -by Tyndale as quoted by the Scotists against the literal interpretation of -Scripture;--and then he drily remarks, that this bishop was too illiterate -for any '_letters_ to have killed him, and that, if they had, he had no -_spirit_ to bring him to life again!'[405] - -[Sidenote: The bishops and their benefices.] - -These may, indeed, have been exceptional or, at all events, extreme cases; -but, however the bishops of the province of Canterbury had come by their -bishoprics, their general practice seems to have been to use their -benefices only as stepping-stones to higher ones. No sooner were they -promoted to one see than they aspired to another, of higher rank and -greater revenue. This, at least, was no exceptional thing. The Bishop of -Bath and Wells had been Bishop of Hereford; the Bishop of Chichester had -been translated from the see of St. David's. The Bishop of Lincoln had -been Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. Audley had filled the sees of -Rochester and Hereford in succession, and was now Bishop of Salisbury. -Fitzjames had been first promoted to the see of Rochester, after that to -the see of Chichester, and from thence, in his old age, to the most -lucrative of all--the see of London. Fox had commenced his episcopal -career as Bishop of Exeter; he had from thence been translated, in -succession, to the sees of Bath and Wells, and Durham, and was now Bishop -of Winchester. And be it remembered that these numerous promotions were -not in reward for the successful discharge of pastoral duties: those who -had earned the most numerous and rapid promotions were the men who were -the most deeply engaged in _political_ affairs, sent on embassies, and so -forth, whose benefices were thus the reward of purely secular services, -and who, consequently, had hardly had a chance of discharging with -diligence their spiritual duties. The Bishop of Bath and Wells was a -foreigner, and lived abroad; and so also the Bishop of Worcester owed his -bishopric to Papal provision, and lived and died at Rome. His predecessor -and his successor also both were foreigners.[406] - -[Sidenote: Wolsey.] - -[Sidenote: Wolsey's ambition.] - -There was also, amongst the clergy of the province of Canterbury, a man -who was to surpass all others in these particulars; who was to be handed -down to posterity as the very type of an ambitious churchman; who was -already high in royal favour, always engaged in political affairs, and -considered to be the instigator of the approaching war; who had the whole -charge of equipping the army committed to his care; who had lately been -promoted to the deanery of Lincoln, and was waiting for the bishopric as -soon as it should be vacant; who had already had conferred upon him, in -addition to the deanery, two rectories, a prebend, and a canonry; who, -before another year was out, without giving up any of these preferments, -was to be made Dean of York; and who was destined to aspire from bishopric -to archbishopric, to hold abbeys and bishoprics _in commendam_, sue for -and obtain from the Pope a cardinal's hat and legatine authority, and to -rule England in Church and State--England's king amongst the rest--failing -only in his attempt to get himself elected to the Papal chair. This Dean -of Lincoln, so aspiring, ambitious, fond of magnificence and state, was -sure to be found at his place in a convocation called that the clergy -might tax themselves in support of his warlike policy, and in aid of his -ambitious dreams. Wolsey, we may be sure, would be there to watch -anxiously the concessions of his 'dismes,' as Bishop Fitzjames would be -there also, to await the measures to be taken for the 'extirpation of -heresy.' - -It was before an assembly composed of such bishops and churchmen as these, -that Colet rose to deliver the following address:-- - - [Sidenote: Colet's sermon.] - - [Sidenote: Need of reformation in the church.] - - 'You are come together to-day, fathers and right wise men, to hold a - council. In which what ye will do, and what matters ye will handle, I - do not yet know; but I wish that, at length, mindful of your name and - profession, ye would consider of the reformation of ecclesiastical - affairs: for never was it more necessary, and never did the state of - the Church more need your endeavours. For the Church--the spouse of - Christ--which He wished to be without spot or wrinkle, is become foul - and deformed. As saith Esaias, "The faithful city is become a harlot;" - and as Jeremias speaks, "She hath committed fornication with many - lovers," whereby she hath conceived many seeds of iniquity, and daily - bringeth forth the foulest offspring. Wherefore I have come here - to-day, fathers, to admonish you with all your minds to deliberate, in - this your Council, concerning the reformation of the Church. - - [Sidenote: Colet's modesty.] - - 'But, in sooth, I came not of my own will and pleasure, for I was - conscious of my unworthiness, and I saw too how hard it would be to - satisfy the most critical judgment of such great men. I judged it - would be altogether unworthy, unfit, and almost arrogant in me, a - servant, to admonish you, my masters!--in me, a son, to teach you, my - fathers! It would have come better from some one of the fathers,--that - is, from one of you prelates, who might have done it with weightier - authority and greater wisdom. But I could not but obey the command of - the most reverend Father and Lord Archbishop, the President of this - Council, who imposed this duty, a truly heavy one, upon me; for we - read that it was said by Samuel the prophet, "Obedience is better than - sacrifice." Wherefore, fathers and most worthy sirs, I pray and - beseech you this day that you will bear with my weakness by your - forbearance and patience; next, in the beginning, help me with your - pious prayers. And, before all things, let us pour out our prayers to - God the Father Almighty; and first, let us pray for his Holiness the - Pope, for all spiritual pastors, with all Christian people; next, let - us pray for our most reverend Father the Lord Archbishop, President of - this Council, and all the lords bishops, the whole clergy, and the - whole people of England; let us pray, lastly, for this assembly and - convocation, praying God that He may inspire your minds so - unanimously to conclude upon what is for the good and benefit of the - Church, that when this Council is concluded we may not seem to have - been called together in vain and without cause. Let us all say "the - _Pater noster_, &c."' - -The Paternoster concluded, Colet proceeded:-- - - [Sidenote: Text from Rom. xii.] - - 'As I am about to exhort you, reverend fathers, to endeavour to reform - the condition of the Church; because nothing has so disfigured the - face of the Church as the secular and worldly way of living on the - part of the clergy, I know not how I can commence my discourse more - fitly than with the Apostle Paul, in whose cathedral ye are now - assembled: (Romans xii. 2)--"Be ye not conformed to this world, but be - ye reformed in the newness of your minds, that ye may prove what is - the good, and well-pleasing, and perfect will of God." This the - Apostle wrote to all Christian men, but emphatically to priests and - bishops: for priests and bishops are the lights of the world, as the - Saviour said to them, "Ye are the light of the world;" and again He - said, "If the light that is in you be darkness, how great will be that - darkness!" That is, if priests and bishops, the very lights, run in - the dark way of the world, how dark must the lay-people be! Wherefore, - emphatically to priests and bishops did St. Paul say, "Be ye not - conformed to this world, but be ye reformed in the newness of your - minds." - - 'By these words the Apostle points out two things:--First, he - prohibits our being _conformed_ to the world and becoming _carnal_; - and then he commands that we be _reformed_ in the Spirit of God, in - order that we may be _spiritual_. I therefore, following this order, - shall speak first of _Conformation_, and after that of _Reformation_. - - [Sidenote: Of 'conformation.'] - - '"Be not," he says, "conformed to this world." By the _world_ the - Apostle means the worldly way and manner of living, which consists - chiefly in these four evils--viz. in _devilish pride_, in _carnal - concupiscence_, in _worldly covetousness_, and in _worldly - occupations_. These things are in the world, as St. John testifies in - his canonical epistle; for he says, "All things that are in the world - are either the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eye, or the pride - of life." These things in like manner exist and reign in the Church, - and amongst ecclesiastical persons, so that we seem able truly to say, - "All things that are in the _Church_ are either the lust of the flesh, - the lust of the eye, or the pride of life!" - - [Sidenote: Pride of life.] - - 'In the _first_ place, to speak of _pride of life_--what eagerness and - hunger after honour and dignity are found in these days amongst - ecclesiastical persons! What a breathless race from benefice to - benefice, from a less to a greater one, from a lower to a higher! Who - is there who does not see this? Who that sees it does not grieve over - it? Moreover, those who hold these dignities, most of them carry - themselves with such lofty mien and high looks, that their place does - not seem to be in the humble priesthood of Christ, but in proud - worldly dominion!--not acknowledging or perceiving what the master of - humility, Christ, said to his disciples whom he called to the - priesthood. "The princes of the nations" (said He) "have lordship over - them, and those who are amongst the great have power. But it shall - not be so with you: but he who is great among you, let him be your - minister; he who is chief, let him be the servant of all. For the Son - of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." By which - words the Saviour plainly teaches, that magistracy in the Church is - nothing else than humble service. - - [Sidenote: Lust of the flesh.] - - 'As to the second worldly evil, which is the _lust of the flesh_--has - not this vice, I ask, inundated the Church as with the flood of its - lust, so that nothing is more carefully sought after, in these most - troublous times, by the most part of priests, than that which - ministers to sensual pleasure? They give themselves up to feasting and - banqueting; spend themselves in vain babbling, take part in sports and - plays, devote themselves to hunting and hawking; are drowned in the - delights of this world; patronise those who cater for their pleasure. - It was against this kind of people that Jude the Apostle exclaimed: - "Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran - greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the - gainsaying of Core. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when - they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear; clouds they are - without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, - without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of - the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is - reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." - - [Sidenote: Covetousness.] - - '_Covetousness_ also, which is the _third_ worldly evil, which the - Apostle John calls _the lust of the eye_, and Paul _idolatry_--this - most horrible plague--has so taken possession of the hearts of nearly - all priests, and has so darkened the eyes of their minds, that - now-a-days we are blind to everything, but that alone which seems to - be able to bring us gain. For in these days, what else do we seek for - in the Church than rich benefices and promotions? In these same - promotions, what else do we count upon but their fruits and revenues? - We rush after them with such eagerness, that we care not how many and - what duties, or how great benefices we take, if only they have great - revenues. - - 'O Covetousness! Paul rightly called thee "the root of all evil!" For - from _thee_ comes all this piling-up of benefices one on the top of - the other; from _thee_ come the great pensions, assigned out of many - benefices resigned; from _thee_ quarrels about tithes, about - offerings, about mortuaries, about dilapidations, about ecclesiastical - right and title, for which we fight as though for our very lives! O - Covetousness! from _thee_ come burdensome visitations of bishops; from - _thee_ corruptions of Law Courts, and those daily fresh inventions by - which the poor people are harassed; from _thee_ the sauciness and - insolence of officials! O Covetousness! mother of all iniquity! from - _thee_ comes that eager desire on the part of ordinaries to enlarge - their jurisdiction; from _thee_ their foolish and mad contention to - get hold of the probate of wills; from _thee_ undue sequestrations of - fruits; from _thee_ that superstitious observance of all those laws - which are lucrative, and disregard and neglect of those which point at - the correction of morals! Why should I mention the rest?--To sum up - all in one word: every corruption, all the ruin of the Church, all the - scandals of the world, come from the covetousness of priests, - according to the saying of Paul, which I repeat again, and beat into - your ears, "Covetousness is the root of all evil!" - - [Sidenote: Worldly occupation.] - - [Sidenote: Apostolic priests.] - - [Sidenote: Modern priests.] - - 'The _fourth_ worldly evil which mars and spots the face of the Church - is the incessant _worldly occupation_ in which many priests and - bishops in these days entangle themselves--servants of men rather than - of God, soldiers of this world rather than of Christ. For the Apostle - Paul writes to Timothy, "No man that warreth for God entangleth - himself in the affairs of this life." But priests are "soldiers of - God." Their warfare truly is not carnal, but spiritual: for our - warfare is to pray, to read, and to meditate upon the Scriptures; to - minister the word of God, to administer the sacraments of salvation, - to make sacrifice for the people, and to offer masses for their souls. - For we are mediators between men and God, as Paul testifies, writing - to the Hebrews: "Every priest" (he says) "taken from amongst men is - ordained for men in things pertaining to God, to offer gifts and - sacrifices for sins." Wherefore the Apostles, the first priests and - bishops, so shrank from every taint of worldly things that they did - not even wish to minister to the necessities of the poor, although - this was a great work of piety: for they said, "It is not right that - we should leave the word of God and serve tables; we will give - ourselves continually to prayer, and the ministry of the word of God." - And Paul exclaims to the Corinthians, "If you have any secular - matters, make those of you judges who are of least estimation in the - Church." Indeed from this worldliness, and because the clergy and - priests, neglecting spiritual things, involve themselves in earthly - occupation, many evils follow. First, the priestly dignity is - dishonoured, which is greater than either royal or imperial dignity, - for it is equal to that of angels. And the splendour of this high - dignity is obscured by darkness when priests, whose conversation ought - to be in heaven, are occupied with the things of earth. Secondly, the - dignity of priests is despised when there is no difference between - such priests and laymen; but (according to Hosea the prophet) "as the - people are, so are the priests." Thirdly, the beautiful order of the - hierarchy in the Church is confused when the magnates of the Church - are busied in vile and earthly things, and in their stead vile and - abject persons meddle with high and spiritual things. Fourthly, the - laity themselves are scandalised and driven to ruin, when those whose - duty it is to draw men _from_ this world, teach men to love this world - by their own devotion to worldly things, and by their love of this - world are [themselves] carried down headlong into hell. Besides, when - priests themselves are thus entangled, it must end in _hypocrisy_; - for, mixed up and confused with the laity, they lead, under a priestly - exterior, the mere life of a layman. Also their spiritual weakness and - servile fear, when enervated by the waters of this world, makes them - dare neither to do nor say anything but what they know will be - grateful and pleasing to their princes. Lastly, such is their - ignorance and blindness, when blinded by the darkness of this world, - that they can discern nothing but earthly things. Wherefore not - without cause our Saviour Christ admonished the prelates of his - Church, "Take heed lest your hearts be burdened by surfeiting or - banqueting, and the cares of this world." "By the cares (He says) of - this world!" The hearts of priests weighed down by riches cannot lift - themselves on high, nor raise themselves to heavenly things. - - [Sidenote: Invasion of heretics.] - - 'Many other evils there be, which are the result of the worldliness of - priests, which it would take long to mention; but I have done. These - are those four evils, O fathers! O priests! by which, as I have said, - we are conformed to this world, by which the face of the Church is - marred, by which her influence is destroyed, plainly, far more than it - was marred and destroyed, either at the beginning by the persecution - of tyrants, or after that by the invasion of heresies which followed. - For by the persecution of tyrants the persecuted Church was made - stronger and more glorious; by the invasion of heretics, the Church - being shaken, was made wiser and more skilled in Holy Scriptures. But - after the introduction of this most sinful worldliness, when - worldliness had crept in amongst the clergy, the root of all spiritual - life--charity itself--was extinguished. And without this the Church - can neither be wise nor strong in God. - - [Sidenote: Wicked life of priests the worst kind of heresy.] - - 'In these times also we experience much opposition from the laity, but - they are not so opposed to us as we are to ourselves. Nor does _their_ - opposition do us so much hurt as the opposition of our own wicked - lives, which are opposed to God and to Christ; for He said, "He that - is not with me is against me." We are troubled in these days also by - heretics--men mad with strange folly;--but this heresy of theirs is - not so pestilential and pernicious to us and the people as the vicious - and depraved lives of the clergy, which, if we may believe St. - Bernard, is a species of heresy, and the greatest and most pernicious - of all; for that holy father, preaching in a certain convocation to - the priests of his time, in his sermon spake in these words:--"There - are many who are catholic in their speaking and preaching who are very - heretics in their actions, for what heretics do by their false - doctrines these men do by their evil examples--they seduce the people - and lead them into error of life--and they are by so much worse than - heretics as actions are stronger than words." These things said - Bernard, that holy father of so great and ardent spirit, against the - faction of wicked priests of his time; by which words he plainly shows - that there be two kinds of heretical pravity--one of perverse - doctrine, the other of perverse living--of which the latter is the - greater and more pernicious; and this reigns in the Church, to the - miserable destruction of the Church, her priests living after a - worldly and not after a priestly fashion. Wherefore do you fathers, - you priests, and all of you of the clergy, awake at length, and rise - up from this your sleep in this forgetful world: and being awake, at - length listen to Paul calling unto you, "Be ye not conformed to this - world." - - 'This concerning the _first_ part. - - * * * * * - - [Sidenote: Reformation.] - - 'Now let us come to the _second_--concerning _Reformation_. - - '"But be ye reformed in the newness of your minds." What Paul commands - us secondly is, that we should "be _re_formed into a new mind;" that - we should savour the things which are of God; that we should be - reformed to those things which are contrary to what I have been - speaking of--_i.e._ to humility, sobriety, charity, spiritual - occupations; just as Paul wrote to Titus, "Denying ungodliness and - worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this - present world." - - [Sidenote: Must begin with the bishops.] - - 'But this reformation and restoration in ecclesiastical affairs must - needs begin with _you_, our fathers, and then afterwards descend upon - us your priests and the whole clergy. For you are our chiefs--you are - our examples of life. To you we look as waymarks for our direction. In - you and in your lives we desire to read, as in living books, how we - ourselves should live. Wherefore, if you wish to see our motes, first - take the beams out of your own eyes; for it is an old proverb, - "Physician heal thyself." Do you, spiritual doctors, first assay that - medicine for the purgation of morals, and then you may offer it to us - to taste of it also. - - [Sidenote: Existing laws must be enforced.] - - 'The way, moreover, by which the Church is to be reformed and restored - to a better condition is not to enact any new laws (for there are laws - enough and to spare). As Solomon says, "There is no new thing under - the sun." The diseases which are now in the Church were the same in - former ages, and there is no evil for which the holy fathers did not - provide excellent remedies; there are no crimes in prohibition of - which there are not laws in the body of the Canon Law. The need, - therefore, is not for the enactment of new laws and constitutions, but - for the observance of those already enacted. Wherefore, in this your - congregation, let the existing laws be produced and recited which - prohibit what is evil, and which enjoin what is right. - - [Sidenote: Wicked and unlearned men admitted to holy orders.] - - 'First, let those laws be recited which admonish you, fathers, not to - lay your hands on any, nor to admit them to holy orders, rashly. For - here is the source from whence other evils flow, because if the - entrance to Holy Orders be thrown open, all who offer themselves are - forthwith admitted without hindrance. Hence proceed and emanate those - hosts of both unlearned and wicked priests which are in the Church. - For it is not, in my judgment, enough that a priest can construe a - collect, propound a proposition, or reply to a sophism; but much more - needful are a good and pure and holy life, approved morals, moderate - knowledge of the Scriptures, some knowledge of the Sacraments, above - all fear of God and love of heavenly life. - - 'Let the laws be recited which direct that ecclesiastical benefices - should be conferred on the worthy, and promotions in the Church made - with just regard to merit; not by carnal affection, nor the - acceptation of persons, whereby it comes to pass in these days, that - boys instead of old men, fools instead of wise men, wicked instead of - good men, reign and rule! - - [Sidenote: Simony.] - - 'Let the laws be recited against the guilt of simony; which plague, - which contagion, which dire pestilence, now creeps like a cancer - through the minds of priests, so that most are not ashamed in these - days to get for themselves great dignities by petitions and suits at - court, rewards and promises. - - [Sidenote: Residence of curates.] - - 'Let the laws be recited which command the personal residence of - curates at their churches: for many evils spring from the custom, in - these days, of performing all clerical duties by help of vicars and - substitutes; men too without judgment, unfit, and often wicked, who - will seek nothing from the people but sordid gain--whence spring - scandals, heresies, and bad Christianity amongst the people. - - [Sidenote: Worldly living of priests and monks.] - - 'Let the laws be rehearsed, and the holy rules handed down from our - ancestors concerning the life and character of the clergy, which - prohibit any churchman from being a merchant, usurer, or hunter, or - common player, or from bearing arms--the laws which prohibit the - clergy from frequenting taverns, from having unlawful intercourse with - women--the laws which command sobriety and modesty in vestment, and - temperance in dress. - - 'Let also the laws be recited concerning monks and religious men, - which command that, leaving the broad way of the world, they enter the - narrow way which leads to life; which command them not to meddle in - business, whether secular or ecclesiastical; which command that they - should not engage in suits in civil courts for earthly things. For in - the Council of _Chalcedon_ it was decreed that monks should give - themselves up entirely to prayer and fasting, the chastisement of - their flesh, and observance of their monastic rule. - - [Sidenote: Worldly bishops.] - - 'Above all, let those laws be recited which concern and pertain to - _you_, reverend fathers and lords bishops--laws concerning your just - and canonical election, in the chapters of your churches, with the - invocation of the Holy Spirit: for because this is not done in these - days, and prelates are often chosen more by the favour of men than the - grace of God, so, in consequence, we sometimes certainly have bishops - too little spiritual--men more worldly than heavenly, wiser in the - spirit of this world than in the spirit of Christ! - - 'Let the laws be rehearsed concerning the residence of bishops in - their dioceses, which command that they watch over the salvation of - souls, that they disseminate the word of God, that they personally - appear in their churches at least on great festivals, that they - sacrifice for their people, that they hear the causes of the poor, - that they sustain the fatherless, and widows, that they exercise - themselves always in works of piety. - - 'Let the laws be rehearsed concerning the due distribution of the - patrimony of Christ--laws which command that the goods of the Church - be spent not in sumptuous buildings, not in magnificence and pomp, not - in feasts and banquets, not in luxury and lust, not in enriching - kinsfolk nor in keeping hounds, but in things useful and needful to - the Church. For when he was asked by Augustine, the English bishop, in - what way English bishops and prelates should dispose of those goods - which were the offerings of the faithful, Pope Gregory replied (and - his reply is placed in the _Decretals_, ch. xii. q. 2), that the goods - of bishops should be divided into four parts, of which one part should - go to the bishop and his family, another to his clergy, a third for - repairing buildings, a fourth to the poor. - - [Sidenote: Reform of Ecclesiastical Courts.] - - 'Let the laws be recited, and let them be recited again and again, - which abolish the scandals and vices of courts, which take away those - daily newly-invented arts for getting money, which were designed to - extirpate and eradicate that horrible covetousness which is the root - and cause of all evils, which is the fountain of all iniquity. - - [Sidenote: Councils should be held oftener.] - - 'Lastly, let those laws and constitutions be renewed concerning the - holding of Councils, which command that Provincial Councils should be - held more frequently for the reformation of the Church. For nothing - ever happens more detrimental to the Church of Christ than the - omission of Councils, both general and provincial. - - 'Having rehearsed these laws and others, like them, which pertain to - this matter, and have for their object the correction of morals, it - remains that with all authority and power their _execution_ should be - commanded, so that having a law we should at length live according to - it. - - [Sidenote: The bishops must first be reformed, then the clergy,] - - 'In which matter, with all due reverence, I appeal most strongly to - _you_, fathers! For this execution of laws and observance of - constitutions ought to begin with _you_, so that by your living - example you may teach us priests to imitate you. Else it will surely - be said of you, "They lay heavy burdens on other men's shoulders, but - they themselves will not move them even with one of their fingers." - But you, if you keep the laws, and first reform your own lives to the - law and rules of the Canons, will thereby provide us with a light, in - which we shall see what we ought to do--the light, _i.e._ of your good - example. And we, seeing our fathers keep the laws, will gladly follow - in the footsteps of our fathers. - - [Sidenote: then the lay part of the Church.] - - 'The clerical and priestly part of the church being thus reformed, we - can then with better grace proceed to the reformation of the lay part, - which indeed it will be very easy to do, if we ourselves have been - reformed first. For the body follows the soul, and as are the rulers - in a State such will the people be. Wherefore, if priests themselves, - the rulers of souls, were good, the people in their turn would become - good also; for our own goodness would teach others how they may be - good more clearly than all other kinds of teaching and preaching. Our - goodness would urge them on in the right way far more efficaciously - than all your suspensions and excommunications. Wherefore, if you wish - the lay-people to live according to your will and pleasure, you must - first live according to the will of God, and thus (believe me) you - will easily attain what you wish in them. - - 'You want obedience from them. And it is right; for in the Epistle to - the Hebrews are these words of Paul to the laity: "Be obedient" (he - says) "to your rulers, and be subject to them." But if you desire this - obedience, first give reason and cause of obedience on your part, as - the same Paul teaches in the following text--"Watch as those that give - an account of their souls," and then they will obey you. - - 'You desire to be honoured by the people. It is right; for Paul writes - to Timotheus, "Priests who rule well are worthy of double honour, - chiefly those who labour in word and doctrine." Therefore, desiring - honour, first rule well, and labour in word and doctrine, and then the - people will hold you in all honour. - - 'You desire to reap their carnal things, and to collect tithes and - offerings without any reluctance on their part. It is right; for Paul, - writing to the Romans, says: "They are your debtors, and ought to - minister to you in carnal things." But if you wish to reap their - carnal things, you must first sow your spiritual things, and then ye - shall reap abundantly of their carnal things. For that man is hard and - unjust who desires "to reap where he has not sown, and to gather where - he has not scattered." - - 'You desire ecclesiastical liberty, and not to be drawn before civil - courts. And this too is right; for in the Psalms it is said, "Touch - not mine anointed." But if ye desire this liberty, loose yourselves - first from worldly bondage, and from the cringing service of men, and - claim for yourselves that true liberty of Christ, that spiritual - liberty through grace from sin, and serve God and reign in Him, and - then (believe me) the people will not touch the anointed of the Lord - their God! - - 'You desire security, quiet, and peace. And this is fitting. But, - desiring peace, return to the God of love and peace; return to Christ, - in whom is the true peace of the Spirit which passeth all - understanding; return to the true priestly life. And lastly, as Paul - commands, "Be ye reformed in the newness of your minds, that ye may - know those things which are of God; and the peace of God shall be with - you!" - - * * * * * - - [Sidenote: Conclusion.] - - 'These, reverend fathers and most distinguished men, are the things - that I thought should be spoken concerning the reformation of the - clergy. I trust that, in your clemency, you will take them in good - part. If, by chance, I should seem to have gone too far in this - sermon--if I have said anything with too much warmth--forgive it me, - and pardon a man speaking out of zeal, a man sorrowing for the ruin of - the Church; and, passing by any foolishness of mine, consider the - thing itself. Consider the miserable state and condition of the - Church, and bend your whole minds to its reformation. Suffer not, - fathers, suffer not this so illustrious an assembly to break up - without result. Suffer not this your congregation to slip by for - nothing. Ye have indeed often been assembled. But (if by your leave I - may speak the truth) I see not what fruit has as yet resulted, - especially to the Church, from assemblies of this kind! Go now, in the - Spirit whom you have invoked, that ye may be able, with his - assistance, to devise, to ordain, and to decree those things which may - be useful to the Church, and redound to your praise and the honour of - God: to whom be all honour and glory, for ever and ever, Amen!' - -Comparing this noble sermon with the passages quoted in an earlier chapter -from Colet's lectures at Oxford and his Abstracts of the Dionysian -writings, it must be admitted that what, fourteen years before, he had -uttered as it were in secret, he had now, as occasion required, proclaimed -upon the housetops. What effect it had upon the assembled clergy no record -remains to tell. - -[Sidenote: Wolsey obtains four dismes.] - -The object which Wolsey had in view in the convocation was, it may be -presumed, attained to his satisfaction. The clergy granted the King 'four -dismes,' to be paid in yearly instalments.[407] And this was the full -amount of taxation usually demanded by English sovereigns from the clergy -in time of war, except in cases of extreme urgency.[408] - -Whether Bishop Fitzjames succeeded equally well in securing the inhuman -object which was nearest to his heart, is not equally clear. - -[Sidenote: Discussion on the burning of heretics.] - -But one authentic picture of a scene which there can be little doubt -occurred in _this_ Convocation has been preserved, to give a passing -glimpse into the nature of the discussion which followed upon the subject -of the 'extirpation of heresy.' In the course of the debate, the advocates -of increased severity against poor Lollards were asked, it seems, to point -out, if they could, a single passage in the Canonical Scriptures which -commands the capital punishment of heretics. Whereupon an old divine[409] -rose from his seat, and with some severity and temper quoted the command -of St. Paul to Titus: 'A man that is an heretic, after the first and -second admonition, reject.' The old man quoted the words as they stand in -the Vulgate version: 'Haereticum hominem post unam et alteram correptionem -_devita_!'--'_De-vita!_' he repeated with emphasis; and again, louder -still, he thundered 'DE-VITA!' till everyone wondered what had happened to -the man. At length he proceeded to explain that the meaning of the Latin -verb 'devitare' being 'de vita tollere' (!), the passage in question was -clearly a direct command to punish heretics by death![410] - -A smile passed round among those members of Convocation who were learned -enough to detect the gross ignorance of the old divine; but to the rest -his logic appeared perfectly conclusive, and he was allowed to proceed -triumphantly to support his position by quoting, again from the Vulgate, -the text translated in the English version, 'Suffer not a witch to live.' -For the word 'witch' the Vulgate version has 'maleficus.' A heretic, he -declared, was clearly 'maleficus,' and therefore ought not to be suffered -to live. By which conclusive logic the learned members of the Convocation -of 1512 were, it is said, for the most part completely carried away.[411] - -This story, resting wholly or in part upon Colet's own relation to -Erasmus, is the only glimpse which can be gathered of the proceedings of -this Convocation 'for the extirpation of heresy.' - - -II. COLET IS CHARGED WITH HERESY (1512). - -[Sidenote: Colet's sermon printed.] - -Before the spring of 1512 was passed, Colet's Sermon to Convocation was -printed and distributed in Latin, and probably in English[412] also; and -as there was an immediate lull in the storm of persecution, he may -possibly have come off rather as victor than as vanquished, in spite of -the seeming triumph of the persecuting party in Convocation. - -The bold position he had taken had rallied round him not a few -honest-hearted men, and had made him, perhaps unconsciously on his part, -the man to whom earnest truth-seekers looked up as to a leader, and upon -whom the blind leaders of the blindly orthodox party vented all their -jealousy and hatred. - -[Sidenote: Completion of Colet's school.] - -[Sidenote: Jealousy against Colet's school.] - -He was henceforth a marked man. That school of his in St. Paul's -Churchyard, to the erection of which he had devoted his fortune, which he -had the previous autumn made his will to endow, had now risen into a -conspicuous building, and the motives of the Dean in building it were of -course everywhere canvassed. The school was now fairly at work. Lilly, the -godson of Grocyn, the late Professor of Greek at Oxford, was already -appointed headmaster; and as he was known to have himself travelled in -Greece to perfect his classical knowledge, it could no longer be doubted -by any that here, under the shadow of the great cathedral, was to be -taught to the boys that 'heretical Greek' which was regarded with so much -suspicion. Here was, in fact, a school of the 'new learning,' sowing in -the minds of English youth the seeds of that free thought and heresy -which Colet had so long been teaching to the people from his pulpit at St. -Paul's. More had already facetiously told Colet that he could not wonder -if his school should raise a storm of malice; for people cannot help -seeing that, as in the Trojan horse were concealed armed Greeks for the -destruction of barbarian Troy, so from this school would come forth those -who would expose and upset their ignorance.[413] - -No wonder, indeed, if the wrath of Bishop Fitzjames should be kindled -against Colet; no wonder if, having failed in his attempt effectually to -stir up the spirit of persecution in the recent Convocation, he should now -vent his spleen upon the newly-founded school. - -But how fully, amid all, Colet preserved his temper and persevered in his -work, may be gathered from the following letter to Erasmus, who, in -intervals of leisure from graver labours, was devoting his literary -talents to the service of Colet's school, and whose little book, 'De Copia -Verborum,' was part of it already in the printer's hands:-- - - _Colet to Erasmus._[414] - - 'Indeed, dearest Erasmus, since you left London I have heard nothing - of you.... - - 'I have been spending a few days in the country with my mother, - consoling her in her grief on the death of my servant, who died at - her house, whom she loved as a son, and for whose death she wept as - though he had been more than a son. The night on which I returned to - town I received your letter. - - [Sidenote: A bishop blasphemes Colet's school.] - - 'Now listen to a joke! A certain bishop, who is held, too, to be one - of the wiser ones, has been blaspheming our school before a large - concourse of people, declaring that I have erected what is a useless - thing, yea a bad thing--yea more (to give his own words), a temple of - idolatry. Which, indeed, I fancy he called it, because the poets are - to be taught there! At this, Erasmus, I am not angry, but laugh - heartily.... - - 'I send you a little book containing the sermon' [to the - Convocation?]. 'The printers said they had sent some to Cambridge. - - 'Farewell! Do not forget the verses for our boys, which I want you to - finish with all good nature and courtesy. Take care to let us have the - second part of your "Copia."' - -[Sidenote: 'De Copia,' preface of Erasmus.] - -The second part of the 'Copia' was accordingly completed, and the whole -sent to the press in May, with a prefatory letter to Colet,[415] in which -Erasmus paid a loving tribute to his friend's character and work. He dwelt -upon Colet's noble self-sacrificing devotion to the good of others, and -the judgment he had shown in singling out two main objects at which to -labour, as the most powerful means of furthering the great cause so dear -to his heart. - -[Sidenote: Colet's preaching.] - -To implant Christ in the hearts of the common people, by constant -preaching, year after year, from his pulpit at St. Paul's--this, wrote -Erasmus, had been Colet's first great work; and surely it had borne much -fruit! - -[Sidenote: Colet's school.] - -To found a school, wherein the sons of the people should drink in Christ -along with a sound education--that thereby, as it were in the cradle of -coming generations, the foundation might be laid of the future welfare of -his country--this had been the second great work to which Colet had -devoted time, talents, and a princely fortune. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus in praise of Colet's work.] - -'What is this, I ask, but to act as a father to all your children and -fellow-citizens? You rob yourself to make them rich; you strip yourself to -clothe them. You wear yourself out with toil, that they may be quickened -into life in Christ. In a word, you spend yourself away that you may gain -them for Christ! - -'He must be envious, indeed, who does not back with all his might the man -who engages in a work like this. He must be wicked, indeed, who can -gainsay or interrupt him. That man is an enemy to England who does not -care to give a helping hand where he can.' - -Which words in praise of Colet's self-sacrificing work were not merely -uttered within hearing of those who might hang upon the lips of the aged -Fitzjames or the bishop who had 'blasphemed' the school; they passed, with -edition after edition of the 'Copia' of Erasmus, into the hands of every -scholar in Europe, until they were known and read of all men![416] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Colet charged with heresy by his bishop.] - -But Bishop Fitzjames, whose unabating zeal against heretics had become -the ruling passion of his old age, no longer able to control his hatred of -the Dean, associated with himself two other bishops of like opinion and -spirit in the ignoble work of making trouble for Colet. They resorted to -their usual weapon--_persecution_. They exhibited to the Archbishop of -Canterbury articles against Colet extracted from his sermons. Their first -charge was that he had preached that images ought not to be worshipped. -The second charge was that he had denied that Christ, when He commanded -Peter the third time to 'feed his lambs,' made any allusion to the -application of episcopal revenues in hospitality or anything else, seeing -that Peter was a poor man, and had no episcopal revenues at all. The third -charge was, that in speaking once from his pulpit of those who were -accustomed to _read_ their sermons, he meant to give a side-hit at the -Bishop of London, who, on account of his old age, was in the habit of -reading his sermons.[417] - -But the Archbishop, thoroughly appreciating as he did the high qualities -of the Dean, became his protector and advocate, instead of his judge. -Colet himself, says Erasmus, did not deign to make any reply to these -foolish charges, and others 'more foolish still.'[418] And the Archbishop, -therefore, without hearing any reply, indignantly rejected them. - -[Sidenote: Proceedings quashed by Warham.] - -What the charges '_more foolish still_' may have been Erasmus does not -record. But Tyndale mentions, as a well known fact, that 'the Bishop of -London would have made Dean Colet of Paules a heretic for _translating the -Paternoster in English_, had not the [Arch]bishop of Canterbury helped -the Dean.'[419] Colet's English translation or paraphrase of the -Paternoster still remains to show that he was open to the charge.[420] But -for once, at least, the persecutor was robbed of his prey! - - * * * * * - -For a while, indeed, Colet's voice had been silenced; but now Erasmus was -able to congratulate his friend on his return to his post of duty at St. -Paul's. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus to Colet.] - -'I was delighted to hear from you' [he wrote from Cambridge], 'and have to -congratulate you that you have returned to your most sacred and useful -work of preaching. I fancy even this little interruption will be overruled -for good, for your people will listen to your voice all the more eagerly -for having been deprived of it for a while. May Jesus, _Optimus Maximus_, -keep you in safety!'[421] - - -III. MORE IN TROUBLE AGAIN (1512). - -In closing this chapter, it may perhaps be remarked that little has been -heard of More during these the first years of his return to public life. - -[Sidenote: More engrossed in business.] - -[Sidenote: More writes his history of Richard III.] - -The fact is, that he had been too busy to write many letters even to -Erasmus. He had been rapidly drawn into the vortex of public business. His -judicial office of undersheriff of London had required his close attention -every Thursday. His private practice at the bar had also in the meantime -rapidly increased, and drawn largely on his time. When Erasmus wrote to -know what he was doing, and why he did not write, the answer was that More -was constantly closeted with the Lord Chancellor, engaged in 'grave -business,'[422] and would write if he could. What leisure he could snatch -from these public duties he would seem to have been devoting to his -'History of Richard III.'[423] the materials for which he probably -obtained through his former connection with Cardinal Morton. - -[Sidenote: Death of his wife.] - -And were we to lift the veil from his domestic life, we should find the -dark shadow of sorrow cast upon his bright home in Bucklersbury. But a few -short months ago, such was the air of happiness about that household, that -Ammonius, writing as he often did to Erasmus, to tell him all the news, -whilst betraying, by the endearing epithets he used, his fascination for -the loveliness of More's own gentle nature, had spoken also of his 'most -good-natured wife,' and of the 'children and whole family' as 'charmingly -well.'[424] - -[Sidenote: His four children.] - -Now four motherless children nestle round their widowed father's -knee.[425] Margaret, the eldest daughter--the child of six years -old--henceforth it will be _her_ lot to fill her lost mother's place in -her father's heart, and to be a mother to the little ones. And she too is -not unknown to fame. It was she - - ... 'who clasped in her last trance - Her murdered father's head.'... - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - - -I. COLET PREACHES AGAINST THE CONTINENTAL WARS--THE FIRST CAMPAIGN -(1512-13). - -If Colet returned to his pulpit after a narrow escape of being burned for -heresy, it was to continue to do his duty, and not to preach in future -only such sermons as might escape the censure of his bishop. His honesty -and boldness were soon again put to the test. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Continental wars.] - -It was in the summer of 1512 that Henry VIII. for the first time mingled -the blood of English soldiers in those Continental wars which now for some -years became the absorbing object of attention. - -European rulers had not yet accepted the modern notion of territorial -sovereignty. Instead of looking upon themselves as the rulers of nations, -living within the settled boundaries of their respective countries, they -still thirsted for war and conquest, and dreamed of universal dominion. To -how great an extent this was so, a glance at the ambitious schemes of the -chief rulers of Europe at this period will show. - -How Pope Julius II. was striving to add temporal to spiritual sovereignty, -and desired to be the 'lord and master of the game of the world,' has been -already noticed in mentioning how it called forth the satire of Erasmus, -in his 'Praise of Folly.' This warlike Pope was still fighting in his old -age. Side by side with Pope Julius was Caesar Maximilian, Archduke of -Austria, King of the Romans, Emperor of Germany, &c.--fit representative -of the ambitious House of Hapsburg! Not contented with all these titles -and dominions, Maximilian was intriguing to secure by marriages the -restoration of Hungary and Bohemia, and the annexation of the Netherlands, -Franche-Comte, and Artois, as well as of Castile and Arragon, to the -titles and possessions of his royal house. And what he could not secure by -marriages he was trying to secure by arms. Had his success equalled his -lust of dominion, east and west would have been united in the one 'Holy -Empire' of which he dreamed, independent even of Papal interference, and -hereditary for ever in the House of Hapsburg. Then there was Louis XII., -the 'Most Christian' King of France, laying claim to a great part of -Italy, pushing his influence and power so far as to strike terror into the -minds of other princes; assuming to himself the rank of the first prince -in Christendom; his chief minister aspiring to succeed Julius II. in the -Papal chair; his son Francis ready to become a candidate for the Empire on -the death of Maximilian. And, lastly, there was Henry VIII. of England, -eager to win his spurs, and to achieve military renown at the first -opportunity; reviving old obsolete claims on the crown of France; ready to -offer himself as a candidate for the Empire when it became vacant, and to -plot to secure the election of Wolsey to the Papal chair! Throw all these -rival claims and objects of ambition into a wild medley, consider to what -plots and counterplots, leagues and breaches of them, all this vast -entanglement of interests and ambitions must give rise, and some faint -idea may be gained of the state of European politics. - -[Sidenote: First English expedition.] - -Already in December 1511, a Holy Alliance had been formed between Pope -Julius, Maximilian, Ferdinand, and Henry VIII., to arrest the conquests -and humble the ambition of Louis XII. How the clergy had been induced to -tax themselves in support of this holy enterprise has already been seen. -Parliament also had granted a subsidy of two fifteenths and tenths, and -had made some needful provision for the approaching war. Everything was -ready, and in the summer of 1512 the first English expedition sailed. - -[Sidenote: Its complete failure.] - -Ferdinand persuaded Henry VIII. to aid him in attacking Guienne, and, all -unused to the stratagems of war, he fell into the snare. While his -father-in-law was playing his selfish game, and reducing the kingdom of -Navarre, Henry's fleet and soldiers were left to play their part alone. -The whole expedition, owing to delays and gross mismanagement, wofully -miscarried. There were symptoms of mutiny and desertion; and at length the -English army returned home utterly demoralised, and in the teeth of their -commands. The English flag was disgraced in the eyes of Europe. French -wits wrote biting satires 'De Anglorum e Galliis Fuga,'[426] and in bitter -disappointment Henry VIII., to avoid further disgrace, was obliged to hush -up the affair, allowing the disbanded soldiers to return to their homes -without further inquiry.[427] It was in vain that More replied to the -French wits with epigram for epigram, correcting their exaggerated satire, -and turning the tables upon their own nation.[428] He laid the foundation -of a controversy by which he was annoyed in after-years,[429] and did -little at the time to remove the general feeling of national disgrace -which resulted from this first trial of Henry VIII. at the game of war. - -[Sidenote: Colet preaches against the war.] - -Meanwhile Colet, ever prone to speak out plainly what he thought, had -publicly from his pulpit expressed his strong condemnation of the war. And -the old Bishop of London, ever lying in wait, like the persecuting -Pharisees of old, to find an occasion of evil against him, eagerly made -use of this pretext to renew the attempt to get him into trouble. He had -failed to bring down upon the Dean the terrors of ecclesiastical -authority, but it would answer his purpose as well if he could provoke -against him royal displeasure. He therefore informed the King, now eagerly -bent upon his Continental wars, that Colet had condemned them; that he had -publicly preached, in a sermon, that an unjust peace was 'to be preferred -before the justest war.' While the Bishop was thus whispering evil against -him in the royal ear, others of his party were zealously preaching up the -war, and launching out invectives against Colet and '_the poets_,' as they -designated those who were suspected of preferring classical Latin and -Greek to the '_blotterature_,' as Colet called it, of the monks. By these -means they appear to have hoped to bring Colet into disgrace, and -themselves into favour, with the King. - -But it would seem that they watched and waited in vain for any visible -sign of success. The King appeared strangely indifferent alike to the -treasonable preaching of the Dean and to their own effervescent loyalty. - -[Sidenote: The King supports Colet against his enemies.] - -Unknown to them, the King sent for Colet, and privately encouraged him to -go on boldly reforming by his teaching the corrupt morals of the age, and -by no means to hide his light in times so dark. He knew full well, he -said, what these bishops were plotting against him, and also what good -service he had done to the British nation both by example and teaching. -And he ended by saying, that he would put such a check upon the attempts -of these men, as would make it clear to others that if any one chose to -meddle with Colet it would not be with impunity! - -Upon this Colet thanked the King for his kind intentions, but, as to what -he proposed further, beseeched him to forbear. 'He had no wish,' he said, -'that any one should be the worse on his account; he had rather resign his -preferment than it should come to that.'[430] - - -II. COLET'S SERMON TO HENRY VIII. (1513). - -[Sidenote: Preparations for another campaign.] - -The spring of 1513 was spent by Henry VIII. in energetic preparations for -another campaign, in which he hoped to retrieve the lost credit of his -arms. The young King, in spite of his regard for better counsellors, was -intent upon warlike achievements. His first failure had made him the more -eager to rush into the combat again. Wolsey, the only man amongst the war -party whose energy and tact were equal to the emergency, found in this -turn of affairs the stepping-stone to his own ambitious fortune. The -preparations for the next campaign were entrusted to his hands. - -Rumours were heard that the French would be likely to invade England if -Henry VIII. long delayed his invasion of France. To meet this contingency, -the sheriffs of Somerset and Dorset had been already ordered to issue -proclamations, that every man between sixty and sixteen should be ready in -arms[431] to defend his country. Ever and anon came tidings that the -French navy was moving restlessly about on the opposite shore,[432] in -readiness for some unknown enterprise. Diplomatists were meanwhile weaving -their wily webs of diplomacy, deceiving and being deceived. Even between -the parties to the League there were constant breaches of confidence and -double-dealing. The entangled meshes of international policy were thrown -into still greater confusion, in February, by the death of Julius II., the -head of the Holy Alliance. The new Pope might be a Frenchman, instead of -the leader of the league against France, for anything men knew. The moment -was auspicious for the attempt to bring about a peace. But Henry VIII. was -bent upon war. He urged on the equipment of the fleet, and was impatient -of delay. On March 17 he conferred upon Sir Edward Howard the -high-sounding title of 'Admiral of England, Wales, Ireland, Normandy, -Gascony, and Aquitaine.'[433] On Saturday, the 21st, he went down to -Plymouth to inspect the fleet in person, and left orders to the Admiral to -put to sea. He had set his heart upon his fleet, and in parting from -Howard commanded him to send him word 'how every ship did sail.'[434] -With his royal head thus full of his ships and sailors, and eagerly -waiting for tidings of the result of their first trial-trip in the -Channel, Henry VIII. entered upon the solemnities of Holy Passion Week. - -[Sidenote: Good Friday.] - -On Good Friday, the 27th, the King attended Divine service in the Chapel -Royal. Dean Colet was the preacher for the day. It must have been -especially difficult and even painful for Colet, after the kindness shown -to him so recently by the King, again to express in the royal presence his -strong condemnation of the warlike policy upon which Henry VIII. had -entered in the previous year, and in the pursuit of which he was now so -eagerly preparing for a second campaign. The King too, coming directly -from his fleet full of expectation, was not likely to be in a mood to be -thwarted by a preacher. But Colet was firm in his purpose, and as, when -called to preach before Convocation, he had chosen his text expressly for -the bishops, so now in the royal presence he preached his sermon to the -King. - -[Sidenote: Colet's sermon to Henry VIII.] - -'He preached wonderfully' (says Erasmus) 'on the _victory of Christ_, -exhorting all Christians to fight and conquer under the banner of their -King. He showed that when wicked men, out of hatred and ambition, fought -with and destroyed one another, they fought under the banner, not of -Christ, but of the devil. He showed, further, how hard a thing it is to -die a Christian death [on the field of battle]; how few undertake a war -except from hatred or ambition; how hardly possible it is for those who -really have that brotherly love without which "no one can see the Lord" -to thrust their sword into their brother's blood; and he urged, in -conclusion, that instead of imitating the example of Caesars and -Alexanders, the Christian ought rather to follow the example of Christ his -Prince.'[435] - -[Sidenote: Renewed attempts to get Colet into trouble.] - -[Sidenote: The King again supports Colet.] - -So earnestly had Colet preached, and with such telling and pointed -allusion to the events of the day, that the King was not a little afraid -that the sermon might damp the zeal of his newly enlisted soldiers. -Thereupon, like birds of evil omen, the enemies of Colet hovered round him -as though he were an owl, hoping that at length the royal anger might be -stirred against him. The King sent for Colet. He came at the royal -command. He dined at the Franciscan monastery adjoining the Palace at -Greenwich. When the King knew he was there, he went out into the monastery -garden to meet him, dismissing all his attendants. And when the two were -quite alone, he bade Colet to cover his head and be at ease with him. 'I -did not call you here, Dean,' he said to him, 'to interrupt your holy -labours, for of these I altogether approve, but to unburden my conscience -of some scruples, that by your advice I may be able more fully to do my -duty.' They talked together nearly an hour and a half; Colet's enemies, -meanwhile, impatiently waiting in the court, scarcely able to contain -their fury, chuckling over the jeopardy in which they thought Colet at -last stood with the King. As it was, the King approved and agreed with -Colet in everything he said. But he was glad to find that Colet had not -intended to declare absolutely that there could be no just war, no doubt -persuading himself that his own was one of the very few just ones. The -conversation ended in his expressing a wish that Colet would some time or -other explain himself more clearly, lest the raw soldiers should go away -with a mistaken notion, and think that he had really said that _no_ war is -lawful to Christians.[436] 'And thus' (continues Erasmus) 'Colet, by his -singular discretion and moderation, not only satisfied the mind of the -King, but even rose in his favour.' When he returned to the palace at -parting, the King graciously drank to his health, embracing him most -warmly, and, promising all the favours which it was in the power of a most -loving prince to grant, dismissed him. Colet was no sooner gone than the -courtiers flocked again round the King, to know the result of his -conference in the convent garden. Whereupon the King replied, in the -hearing of all: 'Let every one have his own doctor, and let every one -favour his own; this man is the doctor for me.' Upon this the hungry -wolves departed without their bone, and thereafter no one ever dared to -meddle with Colet. This is Erasmus's version[437] of an incident which, -especially when placed in its proper historical setting, may be looked -upon as a jewel in the crown both of the young King and of his upright -subject. It has been reported that Colet complied with the King's wish, -and preached another sermon in favour of the war against France, of the -necessity and justice of which, as strictly _defensive_, the King had -convinced him. But with reference to this second sermon, if ever it was -preached, Erasmus is silent.[438] - - -III. THE SECOND CAMPAIGN OF HENRY VIII. (1513). - -While the King was trying to pacify his conscience, and allay the scruples -raised in his mind by Colet's preaching, his ambassador (West) was -listening to a Good Friday sermon at the Chapel Royal of Scotland, and -using the occasion to urge upon the Queen to use her influence with the -Scotch king in favour of peace with England. There were rumours that the -Scotch king was playing into the hands of the King of France--that he was -going to send a 'great ship' to aid him in his wars. A legacy happened to -be due from England to the Queen of Scotland, and West was instructed to -threaten to withhold payment unless James would promise to keep the peace -with England. James gave shuffling and unsatisfactory replies. There were -troubles ahead in that quarter![439] - -[Sidenote: Leo X. in favour of peace.] - -The news sent by West from Scotland must have raised some forebodings in -Henry's mind. The chance of finding one enemy behind him, if he attempted -to invade France, in itself was not encouraging. As to any scruples raised -by Colet's preaching, his head was probably far too full of the -approaching campaign, and his heart too earnestly set upon the success of -his fleet, to admit of his impartially considering the right and the wrong -of the war in which he was already involved, or the evils it would bring -upon his country. Meanwhile, probably only a few days after Colet's -sermon was preached, the anxiously expected news reached England of the -election to the Papal chair of Cardinal de' Medici, an acquaintance of -Erasmus, and the fellow-student of his friend Linacre, under the title of -Leo X. The letter which conveyed the news to Henry VIII. spoke of the -'gentleness, innocence, and virtue' of the new Pope, and his anxiety for a -'_universal peace_.' He had declared that he would abide by the League, -but the writer expressed his opinion that 'he would not be fond of war -like Julius--that he would favour literature and the arts, and employ -himself in building [St. Peter's], but not enter upon any war except from -compulsion, unless it might be against the infidels.'[440] - -[Sidenote: Henry VIII. will not listen to it.] - -Henry--just then receiving reports from his fleet, dating to April 5,[441] -full of eager expectation and confidence on the part of the Admiral, 'that -an engagement with the French might be looked for in five or six days, and -that by the aid of God and of St. George they hoped to have a fair day -with them'--was not at all in a humour to hear of a general peace. So on -April 12, all good advice of Colet's forgotten, he wrote to his minister -at Rome,[442] instructing him to express his joy that Leo X. had adhered -to the Holy League, and to state that he (Henry) could not think of -entertaining any propositions for peace, considering the magnitude and -vast expense of his preparations, at all events without the consent of all -parties. A fleet of 12,000 soldiers, the minister was to say, was already -at sea, and Henry was preparing to invade France himself with 40,000 -more, and powerful artillery. It would be most expedient to cripple the -power of the King of France _now_, and prevent his ambition for the -future.[443] - -This letter was written on April 12. On the 17th Sir Arthur Plantagenet -came with letters from the fleet, under leave of absence. He could ill be -spared, wrote the Admiral; but his ship had struck upon a rock, and in -great peril he had made a vow that, if it pleased God to deliver him, he -would not eat flesh or fish till he had made a pilgrimage to the shrine of -Our Lady of Walsingham;[444] and accordingly thither he was bound. - -[Sidenote: Admiral Howard lost.] - -This was only the beginning of troubles. On April 25, Admiral Howard, with -a personal bravery and daring which immortalised his name, boarded the -ship of the French admiral with sixteen companions, but, in the struggle -which ensued, was thrust overboard with 'morris pykes' and lost. The -English fleet, disheartened by the loss of its brave admiral, returned to -Plymouth without proper orders, and without having inflicted any -considerable blow upon the French fleet.[445] - -The King, just then preparing to cross over to Calais with his main army, -to invade France in person, hastily appointed Thomas Lord Howard admiral -in the place of his brother; and in letters to the captains, gave vent to -his royal displeasure at their return to Plymouth without his -orders--letters which disheartened still more an army which the new -Admiral found 'very badly ordered, more than half on land, and a great -number stolen away.'[446] - -[Sidenote: Henry VIII. invades France in person.] - -But still Henry was determined to press on with his enterprise. He wrote -to his ambassadors to urge the King of Spain at once to invade Guienne or -Gascony, as the English navy, though amounting to 10,000 men, was not -sufficient to meet the combined forces of the enemy without Ferdinand's -aid. Yet for all this, they were to say, 'he would not forbear the -invasion of France.'[447] He was not even deterred by receipt of -intelligence, before he set sail, that his treacherous father-in-law had -already forsaken him, and made a year's truce with France.[448] On June 30 -the watchers on the walls of Calais beheld the King, with 'such a fleet as -Neptune never saw before,' approaching amid 'great firing of guns from the -ships and towers,' to commence in good earnest his invasion of France. - -Little as did the 'Oxford Reformers' sympathise with the war, they were no -indifferent spectators. Even Erasmus for the time could not but share the -feelings of an Englishman, though he had many friends in France, and hated -the war. From the list of the ships of the navy, in the handwriting of -Wolsey, it appears that one or more of them had been christened -'_Erasmus_.'[449] Some of his intimate friends followed the army in the -King's retinue. Ammonius, the King's Latin secretary, was one of them; and -Erasmus was kept informed by his letters of what was going on, and amused -by his quaint sketches of camp-life.[450] He was even ready himself with -an epigram upon the flight of the French after the Battle (or rather the -no-battle) of Spurs. He could not resist the temptation to turn the tables -upon the French poets, who had indulged their vein of satire at the -expense of the English during the last year's campaign, and had thereby so -nettled the spirit of More and his friends. To the '_De Anglorum e Galliis -fuga_' of the French poet, Erasmus was now ready with a still more biting -satire, '_In fugam Gallorum insequentibus Anglis_.'[451] More also wrote -an epigram, in which he contrasted the bloody resistance of the Nervii to -Caesar with the feeble opposition offered by their modern French successors -to Henry VIII.[452] - -[Sidenote: Success of the campaign.] - -It would be out of place here to follow the details of the campaign. -Suffice it to say that, like the first game of a child, it was carelessly -and blunderingly played,--not, however, without buoyant spirit, and that -air of exaggerated grandeur which betokens the inexperienced hand. The -towns of Terouenne and Tournay were indeed taken, and that without much -bloodshed; but they were taken under the selfish advice of Maximilian, who -throughout never lost sight of his own interest, and was pleased enough to -use the lavish purse and the ardent ambition of his young ally to his own -advantage. The power of France was not crippled by the taking of these -unimportant towns. The whole enterprise was confined within the narrow -limits of so remote a corner of France that her soil could hardly be -regarded as really invaded. So small a portion of the French army was -engaged in opposing it, that it was scarcely a war with Louis XII. Henry -VIII. himself spent more time in tournaments and brilliant pageants than -in actual fighting. He was emphatically playing at the game of war. - -[Sidenote: Scotch invasion of England.] - -[Sidenote: Battle of Flodden.] - -But while Henry was thus engaged in France, King James of Scotland, in -spite of treaties and promises, treacherously took opportunity to cross -the borders, and recklessly to invade England with a large but ill-trained -army. Queen Katherine, whom Henry had appointed Regent during his absence, -sharing his love of chivalrous enterprise, zealously mustered what forces -were left in England; and thus it came about, that just as Henry was -entering Tournay, the news arrived of the Battle of Flodden. From 500 to -1,000 English and about 10,000 Scotch, it was reported, lay dead upon that -bloody field. The King of Scots fell near his banner, and at his side -Scotch bishops, lords, and noblemen, amongst whom was the friend and pupil -of Erasmus--the young Archbishop of St. Andrew's. Queen Katherine wrote, -with a thankful heart, to her royal husband, giving an account of the -great victory, and informing him that she was about to go on pilgrimage to -Our Lady of Walsingham, in performance of past promises, and to pray for -his return. - -Before the end of October the King, finding nothing better to do, amid -great show of triumph returned to England. Thus ended this second -campaign, with just sufficient success to induce the King and Wolsey to -prepare for a third.[453] - - -IV. ERASMUS VISITS THE SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM (1513). - -While Sir Arthur Plantagenet and Queen Katherine were going on pilgrimage -to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, to give thanks, the one for the -defeat of the Scots, and the other for deliverance from shipwreck, Erasmus -took it into his head to go on pilgrimage also. He had told his friend -Ammonius, in May, that he meant to visit the far-famed shrine to pray for -the success of the Holy League, and to hang up a _Greek Ode_ as a votive -offering.[454] He appears to have made the pilgrimage from Cambridge in -the autumn of 1513, accompanied by his young friend Robert Aldridge,[455] -afterwards Bishop of Carlisle. It was probably this visit which Erasmus so -graphically described many years afterwards in his Colloquy of the -'_Religious Pilgrimage_.' - -[Sidenote: Erasmus visits the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.] - -The College of Canons, under their Sub-prior, maintained chiefly by the -offerings left by pilgrims upon the Virgin's altar; the Priory Church, a -relic of which still stands to attest its architectural beauty; the small -unfinished chapel of the Virgin herself, the sea-winds whistling through -its unglazed windows; the inner windowless wooden chapel, with its two -doors for pilgrims' ingress and egress; the Virgin's shrine, rich in -jewels, gold and silver ornaments, lit up by burning tapers; the dim -religious light and scented air; the Canon at the altar, with jealous eye -watching each pilgrim and his gift, and keeping guard against sacrilegious -theft; the little wicket in the gateway through the outer wall, so small -that a man must stoop low to pass through it, and yet through which, by -the Virgin's aid, an armed knight on horseback once escaped from his -pursuer; the plate of copper, on which the knight's figure was engraved in -ancient costume with a beard like a goat, and his clothes fitting close to -his body, with scarcely so much as a wrinkle in them; the little chapel -towards the east, containing the middle joint of St. Peter's finger, so -large, the pilgrims thought, that Peter must needs have been a very lusty -man; the house hard by, which it was said was ages ago brought suddenly, -one winter time, when all things were covered with snow, from a place a -great way off (though to the eyes of Erasmus its thatch, timber, walls, -and everything about it, seemed of modern date); the concreted milk of the -Holy Virgin, which looked like beaten chalk tempered with the white of an -egg; the bold request of Erasmus, to be informed what evidence there was -of its really being the milk of the Virgin; the contracted brows of the -verger, as he referred them to the 'authentic record' of its pedigree, -hung up high against the wall,--all this is described with so much of the -graphic detail of an eyewitness, that one feels, in reading the -'Colloquy,' that it must record the writer's vivid recollections of his -own experience. - -[Sidenote: The Greek Ode of Erasmus.] - -The concluding incident of the 'Colloquy,' whether referring to a future -visit, or only an imaginary one, evidently alludes to the Greek Ode -mentioned in the letter to Ammonius. It tells how that, before they left -the place, the Sub-prior, with some hesitation, modestly ventured to ask -whether his present visitor was the same man who, about two years before, -had hung up a votive tablet inscribed in _Hebrew_ letters: for Erasmus -remarks, they call everything Hebrew which they cannot understand. The -Sub-prior is then made to relate what great pains had been taken to read -the Greek verses; what wiping of glasses; how one wise man thought they -were written in Arabic letters, and another in altogether fictitious ones; -how at length one had been able to make out the title, which was Latin -written in Roman capitals--the verses themselves being in Greek, and -written in Greek capitals. In reward for the explanation and translation -of the Ode, the 'Colloquy' goes on to relate that the Sub-prior pulled out -of his bag, and presented to his visitors a piece of wood cut from a beam -on which the Virgin mother had been seen to rest. - -Whether this concluding incident related in the 'Colloquy' was a real -occurrence or not, it, at all events, confirms the testimony of the -'Colloquy' itself to the fact that Erasmus made this pilgrimage in a -satirical and unbelieving mood, and that his votive ode was rather a joke -played upon the ignorant canons, than any proof that he himself was a -worshipper of the Virgin, or a believer in the efficacy of pilgrimages to -her shrine. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - - -I. ERASMUS LEAVES CAMBRIDGE, AND MEDITATES LEAVING ENGLAND (1513-14). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus at Cambridge.] - -[Sidenote: His real work.] - -[Sidenote: The New Testament and St. Jerome.] - -During the autumn of 1513 Erasmus made up his mind to leave Cambridge. He -had come to England on the accession of Henry VIII. with full purpose to -make it his permanent home.[456] That his friends would try to bring this -about had been his last entreaty on leaving England for his visit to -Italy. They had done their best for him. They had found all who cared for -the advance of learning anxious to secure the residence of so great a -scholar in their own country. The promises were indeed vague, but there -were plenty of them, and altogether the chances of a fair maintenance for -Erasmus had appeared to be good. He had settled at Cambridge intending to -earn his living by teaching Greek to the students; expecting, from them -and from the University, fees and a stipend sufficient to enable him to -pay his way. But the drudgery of teaching Greek was by no means the work -upon which Erasmus had set his heart. It was rather, like St. Paul's -tent-making, the price he had to pay for that leisure which he was bent -upon devoting to his real work. This work was his fellow-work with Colet. -Apart from the aid he was able to give to his friend, by taking up the -cudgels for him at the University, and finding him teachers and -schoolbooks for his school--for all this was done by-the-bye--he was -labouring to make his own proper contribution towards the object to which -both were devoting their all. He was labouring hard to produce an edition -of the New Testament in the original Greek, with a new and free -translation of his own, and simultaneously with this a corrected edition -of the works of St. Jerome--the latter in itself an undertaking of -enormous labour. - -In letters written from Cambridge during the years 1511-1513, we catch -stray glimpses of the progress of these great works. He writes to Colet, -in August 1511, that 'he is about attacking St. Paul,'[457] and in July -1512, that he has finished collating the New Testament, and is attacking -St. Jerome.[458] - -To Ammonius, in the camp, during the French campaign of 1513, he writes -that he is working with almost superhuman zeal at the correction of the -text of St. Jerome; and shortly after the close of the campaign against -France, he tells his friend that 'he himself has been waging no less -fierce a warfare with the blunders of Jerome.'[459] And now, with his -editions of the New Testament and Jerome nearly ready for the press, why -should he waste any further time at Cambridge? He had complained from the -first that he could get nothing out of the students.[460] All these years -he had been, in spite of all his efforts, and notwithstanding an annual -stipend secured upon a living in Kent, through the kindness of Warham, to -a great extent dependent on his friends, obliged most unwillingly to beg, -till he had become thoroughly ashamed of begging.[461] And now this autumn -of 1513 had brought matters to a crisis. At Michaelmas the University had -agreed to pay him thirty nobles,[462] and, on September 1, they had begged -the assistance of Lord Mountjoy in the payment of this 'enormous stipend' -for their Greek professor, adding, by way of pressing the urgency of their -claim, that they must otherwise soon lose him.[463] - -On November 28, Erasmus wrote to Ammonius that he had for some months -lived like a cockle shut up in his shell, humming over his books. -Cambridge, he said, was deserted because of the plague; and even when all -the men were there, there was no large company. The expense was -intolerable, the profits not a brass farthing. The last five months had, -he said, cost him sixty nobles, but he had never received more than one -from his audience. He was going to throw out his sheet-anchor this winter. -If successful he would make his nest, if not he would flit.[464] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus leaves Cambridge.] - -The result was that in the winter of 1513-14 Erasmus finally left -Cambridge. The disbanding of disaffected and demoralised soldiers had so -increased the number of robbers on the public roads,[465] that travelling -in the winter months was considered dangerous; but Erasmus was anxious to -proceed with the publication of his two great works. He was in London by -February, 1514. - -He found Parliament sitting, and the war party having all their own way. -He found the compliant Commons supporting by lavish grants of subsidies -Henry VIII.'s ambition 'to recover the realm of France, his very true -patrimony and inheritance, and to reduce the same to his obedience,'[466] -and carried away by the fulsome speeches of courtiers who drew a -triumphant contrast between the setting fortunes and growing infirmities -of the French king and the prospects of Henry, who, 'like the rising sun, -was growing brighter and stronger every day.'[467] While tax-collectors -were pressing for the arrears of half a dozen previous subsidies, and -Parliament was granting new ones, the liberality of English patrons was -likely to decline. Their heads were too full of the war, and their purses -too empty, to admit of their caring much at the moment about Erasmus and -his literary projects. - -[Sidenote: Invited to the court of Prince Charles.] - -No wonder, therefore, that when his friends at the Court of the -Netherlands urged his acceptance of an honorary place in the Privy Council -of Prince Charles, which would not interfere with his literary labours, -together with a pension which would furnish him with the means to carry -them on--no wonder that under these circumstances Erasmus accepted the -invitation and concluded to leave England. - -In reply to the Abbot of St. Bertin, he wrote an elegant letter,[468] -gracefully acknowledging his great kindness in wishing to restore him to -his fatherland. Not that he disliked England, or was wanting in patrons -there. The Archbishop of Canterbury, if he had been a brother or a father, -could not have been kinder to him, and by his gift he still held the -pension out of the living in Kent. But the war had suddenly diverted the -genius of England from its ordinary channels. The price of everything was -becoming dearer and dearer. The liberality of patrons was becoming less -and less. How could they do other than give sparingly with so many -war-taxes to pay? He then proceeded:-- - -[Sidenote: Letter to the Abbot of St. Bertin.] - -'Oh that God would deign to still the tempest of war! What madness is it! -The wars of Christian princes begin for the most part either out of -ambition or hatred or lust, or like diseases of the mind. Consider also by -whom they are carried on: by homicides, by outcasts, by gamblers, by -ravishers, by the most sordid mercenary troops, who care more for a little -pay than for their lives. These offscourings of mankind are to be received -into your territory and your cities that you may carry on war. Think, too, -of the crimes which are committed under pretext of war, for amid the din -of arms good laws are silent; what rapine, what sacrilege, what other -crimes of which decency forbids the mention! The demoralisation which it -causes will linger in your country for years after the war is over.... - -'It is much more glorious to found cities than to destroy them. In our -times it is the _people_ who build and improve cities, while the madness -of princes destroys them. But, you may say, princes must vindicate their -rights. Without speaking rashly of the deeds of princes, one thing is -clear, that there are some princes at least who first do what they like, -and then try to find some pretext for their deeds. And in this hurlyburly -of human affairs, in the confusion of so many leagues and treaties, who -cannot make out a title to what he wants? Meanwhile these wars are not -waged for the good of the _people_, but to settle the question, who shall -call himself their prince. - -'We ought to remember that _men_, and especially Christian men, are -_free_-men. And if for a long time they have flourished under a prince, -and now acknowledge him, what need is there that the world should be -turned upside down to make a change? If even among the heathen, -long-continued consent [of the people] makes a _prince_, much more should -it be so among Christians, with whom royalty is an _administration_, not a -_dominion_.[469]...' - -He concluded by urging the abbot to call to mind all that Christ and his -apostles said about peace, and the tolerance of evil. If he did so, surely -he would bring all his influence to bear upon Prince Charles and the -Emperor in favour of a 'Christian peace among Christian princes.'[470] - -In writing to the Prince de Vere on the same subject Erasmus had expressed -his grief that their common country had become mixed up with the wars, and -his wish that he could safely put in writing what he thought upon the -subject.[471] Whether safely or not, he had certainly now dared to speak -his mind pretty fully in the letter to the Abbot of St. Bertin. - - -II. ERASMUS AND THE PAPAL AMBASSADOR (1514). - -Erasmus had other opportunities of speaking out his mind about the war. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus dines with Ammonius and the Papal Ambassador in -disguise.] - -There was a rumour afloat that a Papal ambassador had arrived in -England--a Cardinal in disguise. It happened that Erasmus was invited to -dine with his friend Ammonius. He went as a man goes to the house of an -intimate friend, without ceremony, and expecting to dine with him alone. -He found, however, another guest at his friend's table--a man in a long -robe, his hair bound up in a net, and with a single servant attending him. -Erasmus, after saluting his friend, eyed the stranger with some curiosity. -Struck by the military sternness of the man's look, he asked of Ammonius -in Greek, 'Who is he?' He replied, also in Greek, 'A great merchant.' 'I -thought so,' said Erasmus; and caring to take no further notice of him, -they sat down to table, the stranger taking precedence. Erasmus chatted -with Ammonius as though they had been alone, and, amongst other things, -happened to ask him whether the rumour was true that an ambassador had -come from Leo X. to negotiate a peace between England and France. 'The -Pope,' he continued, 'did not take me into his councils; but if he had I -should not have advised him to propose a peace.' 'Why?' asked Ammonius. -'Because it would not be wise to talk about peace,' replied Erasmus. -'Why?' 'Because a peace cannot be negotiated all at once; and in the -meantime, while the monarchs are treating about the conditions, the -soldiers, at the very thought of peace, will be incited to far worse -projects than in war itself; whereas by a _truce_ the hands of the -soldiery maybe tied at once. I should propose a truce of three years, in -order that the terms might be arranged of a _really permanent treaty of -peace_.' Ammonius assented, and said that he thought this was what the -ambassador was trying to do. 'Is he a Cardinal?' asked Erasmus. 'What made -you think he was?' said the other. 'The Italians say so.' 'And how do they -know?' asked Ammonias, again fencing with Erasmus's question. 'Is it true -that he is a Cardinal?' repeated Erasmus by-and-bye, as though he meant to -have a straightforward answer. 'His spirit is the spirit of a Cardinal,' -evasively replied Ammonius, brought to bay by the direct question. 'It is -something,' observed Erasmus, smiling, 'to have a Cardinal's spirit!' - -The stranger all this time had remained silent, drinking in this -conversation between the two friends. - -At last he made an observation or two in Italian, mixing in a Latin word -now and then, as an intelligent merchant might be expected to do. Seeing -that Erasmus took no notice of what he said, he turned round, and in Latin -observed, 'I wonder you should care to live in this barbarous nation, -unless you choose rather to be all _alone_ here than _first_ at Rome.' - -Erasmus astonished and somewhat nettled to hear a merchant talk in this -way, with disdainful dryness replied that he was living in a country in -which there was a very great number of men distinguished for their -learning. He had rather hold the last place among these than be nowhere at -Rome. - -Ammonius, seeing the awkward turn that things were taking, and that -Erasmus in his present humour might probably, as he sometimes did, speak -his mind rather more plainly than might be desirable, interposed, and, to -prevent further perplexity, suggested that they should adjourn to the -garden.[472] - -Erasmus found out afterwards that the merchant stranger with whom he had -had this singular brush was the Pope's ambassador himself--_Cardinal -Canossa_! - - -III. PARTING INTERCOURSE BETWEEN ERASMUS AND COLET (1514). - -Meanwhile, in spite of Papal Nuncios, the preparations for the continuance -of the war proceeded as before. There were no signs of peace. The King had -had a dangerous illness, but had risen from his couch 'fierce as ever -against France.'[473] - -With heavy hearts Colet and Erasmus held on their way. The war lay like a -dark cloud on their horizon. It was throwing back their work. How it had -changed the plans of Erasmus has been shown. It had also made Colet's -position one of greater difficulty. It is true that hitherto royal favour -had protected him from the hatred of his persecutors, but the Bishop of -London and his party were more exasperated against him than ever, and who -could tell how soon the King's fickle humour might change? His love of -war was growing wilder and wilder. He was becoming intoxicated by it. And -who could tell what the young King might do if his passions ever should -rise into mastery over better feelings? Even the King's present favour, -though it had preserved Colet as yet unharmed in person, did not prevent -his being cramped and hindered in his work. Whatever he might do was sure -to be misconstrued, and to become the subject of the 'idle talk of the -malevolent.'[474] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Colet troubled by family disputes.] - -It would seem also that other clouds than that of the war cast their -shadow at this time over Colet's life. By the erection and foundation of -his school, he had reduced his income almost more than he could well -afford,[475] and accustomed, as he was, to abundant means, it was natural -that he should be harassed and annoyed by anything likely still further to -narrow his resources. He seems to have been troubled with vexed questions -of property and family dispute--most irksome of all others to a man who -was giving life and wealth away in a great work. - -Erasmus, six months previously, in July 1513, had written to Colet thus:-- - -[Sidenote: Erasmus advises Colet to give in.] - -'The end of your letter grieved me, for you write that you are more -harassed than usual by the troubles of business. I desire indeed for you -to be removed as far as possible from worldly business; not because I am -afraid lest this world, entangled though it be, should get hold of you and -claim you for its own, but because I had rather such genius, such -eloquence, such learning should be devoted wholly to Christ. What if you -should be unable to extricate yourself from it! Take care lest little by -little you become more and more deeply immersed in it. Perhaps it might be -better to _give in_, rather than to purchase victory at so great a cost. -For peace of mind is worth a great deal. And these things are the thorns -which accompany riches. In the meantime, oppose a good honest conscience -to the idle talk of the malevolent. Wrap yourself up in Christ and in him -alone, and this entangled world will disturb you less. But why should I, -like the sow, preach to Minerva; or, like the sick man, prescribe for the -doctor? Farewell, my best beloved teacher!'--_From Cambridge, July 11 -[1513]._[476] - -Six months had passed since Erasmus had thus advised his friend to _give -in_ rather than to conquer at the cost of his peace of mind, but Colet had -not yet succeeded in getting rid of his perplexities. It would almost seem -that the same old quarrel was still lingering on unhealed; for there was -now a dispute between Colet and an aged uncle of his, and the bone of -contention was a large amount of property.[477] - -[Sidenote: Colet does give in at last.] - -One day Colet took Erasmus with him by boat to dine with Archbishop Warham -at Lambeth Palace. As they rowed up the Thames, Colet sat pensively -reading in his book. At dinner, being set opposite his uncle at table, -Erasmus noticed that he was ill at ease, caring neither to talk nor to -eat. And the uncle would doubtless have remained as silent as the nephew, -had not the Archbishop drawn out the garrulousness of his old age by -cheerful conversation. After dinner the three were closeted together. -Erasmus knew not what all this meant. But, as they were rowing back to -town in the boat, Colet said, 'Erasmus, you're a happy man, and have done -me a great service;' and then he went on to tell his friend how angry he -had been with his uncle, and how he had even thought of going to law with -him, but in this state of mind, having taken a copy of the 'Enchiridion' -with him, he had read the 'rule' there given 'against anger and revenge,' -and it had done him so much good that he had held his tongue at dinner, -and with the Archbishop's kind assistance after dinner, made up matters -with his uncle.[478] - - * * * * * - -Apart from these cares and troubles, Colet's heart was naturally saddened -with the thought of so soon parting with his dearest friend, and, as he -now could feel, his ablest fellow-worker. The two were often together. -Colet sometimes would send for Erasmus to be his companion when he dined -out, or when he had to make a journey.[479] At these times Erasmus -testifies that no one could be more cheerful than Colet was. It was his -habit always to take a book with him. His conversation often turned upon -religious subjects; and though in public he was prudently reserved and -cautious in what he said, at these times to his bosom friend he most -freely spoke out his real sentiments. - -[Sidenote: Pilgrimage to Canterbury.] - -On one occasion Colet and Erasmus paid a visit together to the shrine of -St. Thomas-a-Becket. Going on pilgrimage was now the fashionable thing. -How admirals and soldiers who had narrowly escaped in the war went to the -shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham to fulfil the vows they had made whilst -their lives were in peril; how even Queen Katherine had been to invoke the -Virgin's aid upon her husband's French campaign, and to return thanks for -the victory over the Scots, has already been seen. It has also been -mentioned that Erasmus had paid a visit to Walsingham from Cambridge in a -satirical and sceptical mood, and had returned convinced of the absurdity -of the whole thing, doubting the genuineness of the relics, and ridiculing -the credulity of pilgrims. It seems that before leaving England he had a -desire to pay a similar visit to the rival shrine of St. Thomas-a-Becket. - -The same 'Colloquy' in which Erasmus describes his visit to Walsingham -enables us to picture the two friends on this occasion threading the -narrow rustic lanes of Kent on horseback, making the best of their way to -Canterbury.[480] - -[Sidenote: The shrine of St. Thomas-a-Becket.] - -As they approach the city the outline of the cathedral church rises -imposingly above all surrounding objects. Its two towers seem to stand, as -it were, bidding welcome to approaching pilgrims. The sound of its bells -rolls through the country far and wide in melodious peals. At length they -reach the city, and, armed with a letter of introduction from Archbishop -Warham, enter the spacious nave of the cathedral. This is open to the -public, and beyond its own vastness and solemn grandeur, presents little -of mark, save that they notice the gospel of Nicodemus among other books -affixed to the columns, and here and there sepulchral monuments of the -nameless dead. A vaulted passage under the steps ascending to the iron -grating of the choir, brings them into the north side of the church. Here -they are shown a plain ancient wooden altar of the Virgin, whereupon is -exhibited the point of the dagger with which St. Thomas's brain was -pierced at the time of his murder, and whose sacred rust pilgrims are -expected most devoutly to kiss. In the vault below they are next shown the -martyr's skull, covered with silver, save that the place where the dagger -pierced it is left bare for inspection: also the hair shirt and girdle -with which the saint was wont to mortify his flesh. Thence they are taken -into the choir to behold its treasures--bones without end; skulls, -jaw-bones, teeth, hands, fingers, arms--to all which the pilgrim's kiss is -duly expected. - -[Sidenote: Colet's disgust at the relics of St. Thomas-a-Becket.] - -But Colet having had about enough of this, begins to show evident tokens -of dislike to kiss any more. Whereupon the verger piously shuts up the -rest of his treasures from the gaze of the careless and profane. The high -altar and its load of costly ornaments next claim attention; after which -they pass into the vestry, where is preserved the staff of St. Thomas, -surrounded by a wonderful display of silk vestments and golden -candlesticks. Thence they are conducted up a flight of steps into a chapel -behind the high altar, and shown the face of the saint set in gold and -jewels. Here, again, Colet breaks in upon the dumb show with awkward -bluntness. He asks the guide whether St. Thomas-a-Becket when he lived was -not very kind to the poor? The verger assents. 'Nor can he have changed -his mind on this point, I should think,' continues Colet, 'unless it be -for the better?' The verger nods a sign of approbation. Whereupon Colet -submits the query whether the saint, having been so liberal to the poor -when a poor man himself, would not now rather permit them to help -themselves to some of his vast riches, in relief of their many -necessities, than let them so often be tempted into sin by their need? And -the guide still listening in silence, Colet in his earnest way proceeds -boldly to assert his own firm conviction that this most holy man would be -even delighted that, now that he is dead, these riches of his should go to -lighten the poor man's load of poverty, rather than be hoarded up here. -At which sacrilegious remark of Colet's the verger, contracting his brow -and pouting his lips, looks upon his visitors with a wondering stare out -of his gorgon eyes, and doubtless would have made short work with them -were it not that they have come with letters of introduction from the -archbishop. Erasmus throws in a few pacifying words and pieces of coin, -and the two friends pass on to inspect, under the escort now of the prior -himself, the rest of the riches and relics of the place. All again -proceeds smoothly till a chest is opened containing the rags on which the -saint, when in the flesh, was accustomed to wipe his nose and the sweat -from his brow. The prior, knowing the position and dignity of Colet, and -wishing to do him becoming honour, graciously offers him as a present of -untold value one of these rags! Colet, breaking through all rules of -politeness, takes up the rag between the tips of his fingers with a -somewhat fastidious air and a disdainful chuckle, and then lays it down -again in evident disgust. The prior, not choosing to take notice of -Colet's profanity, abruptly shuts up the chest and politely invites them -to partake of some refreshment. After which the two friends again mount -their horses, and make the best of their way back to London. - -Their way lies through a narrow lane, worn deep by traffic and weather, -and with a high bank on either side. Colet rides to the left of the road. -Presently an old mendicant monk comes out of a house[481] on Colet's side -of the way, and proceeds to sprinkle him with holy water. Though not in -the best of tempers, Colet submits to this annoyance without quite losing -it. But when the old mendicant next presents to him the upper leather of -an old shoe for his kiss, Colet abruptly demands what he wants with him. -The old man replies that the relic is a piece of St. Thomas's shoe! This -is more than Colet knows how to put up with. 'What!' he says passionately, -turning to Erasmus, 'do these fools want us to kiss the shoes of every -good man? They pick out the filthiest things they can find, and ask us to -kiss them.' Erasmus, to counteract the effect of such a remark upon the -mind of the astonished mendicant, gives him a trifle, and the pilgrims -pass on their journey, discussing the difficult question how abuses such -as they have witnessed this day are to be remedied. Colet cannot restrain -his indignant feeling, but Erasmus urges that a rough or sudden remedy -might be worse than the disease. These superstitions must, he thinks, be -tolerated until an opportunity arises of correcting them without creating -disorder. - -There can be little doubt that the graphic picture of which the above is -only a rapid sketch was drawn from actual recollections, and described the -real feelings of Erasmus and his bolder friend. - -Little did the two friends dream, as they rode back to town debating these -questions, how soon they would find a final solution. Men's faith was then -so strong and implicit in 'Our Lady of Walsingham' that kings and queens -were making pilgrimage to her shrine, and the common people, as they gazed -at night upon the 'milky way,' believed that it was the starry pathway -marked out by heaven to direct pilgrims to the place where the milk of the -Holy Virgin was preserved, and called it the '_Walsingham way_.' Little -did they dream that in another five and twenty years the canons would be -convicted of forging relics and feigning miracles, and the far-famed image -of the Virgin dragged to Chelsea by royal order to be there publicly -burned. Then pilgrims were flocking to Canterbury in crowds to adore the -relics and to admire the riches of St. Thomas's shrine. Little did they -dream that in five and twenty years St. Thomas's bones would share the -fiery fate of the image of the Virgin, and the gold and jewellery of St. -Thomas's shrine be carried off in chests upon the shoulders of eight stout -men, and cast without remorse into the royal exchequer![482] - - - - -CHAPTER X. - - -I. ERASMUS GOES TO BASLE TO PRINT HIS NEW TESTAMENT (1514). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus crosses the Channel.] - -It was on a July morning in the year 1514 that Erasmus again crossed the -Channel. The wind was fair, the sea calm, the sky bright and sunny; but -during the easy passage Erasmus had a heavy heart. He had once more left -his English friends behind him, bent upon a solitary pilgrimage to Basle, -in order that his edition of the letters of St. Jerome and his Greek New -Testament might be printed at the press of Froben the printer. But, always -unlucky on leaving British shores, he missed his baggage from the boat -when, after the bustle of embarkation, he looked to see that all was -right. To have lost his manuscripts--his Jerome, his New Testament, the -labours of so many years--to be on his way to Basle without the books for -the printing of which he was taking the long journey--this was enough to -weigh down his heart with a grief which he might well compare to that of a -parent who has lost his children. It turned out, after all, to be a trick -of the knavish sailors, who threw the traveller's luggage into another -boat in order to extort a few coins for its recovery. Erasmus, in the end, -got his luggage back again; but he might well say that, though the -passage was a good one, it was an anxious one to him.[483] - -[Sidenote: Letter from Servatius.] - -On his arrival at the castle of _Hammes_, near Calais, where he had agreed -to spend a few days with his old pupil and friend Lord Mountjoy, he found -waiting for him a letter from Servatius, prior of the monastery of Stein, -in Holland--_the_ monastery into which he had been ensnared when a youth -against his judgment by treachery and foul play. - -It was a letter doubtless written with kindly feeling, for the prior had -once been his companion; but still he evidently took it as a letter from -the prior of the convent from which he was a kind of runaway, not only -inviting, but in measure _claiming_ him back again, reproachfully -reminding him of his vows, censuring his wandering life, his throwing off -the habit of his order, and ending with a bribe--the offer of a post of -great advantage if he would return. - -Erasmus return! No, truly; that he would not! But the very naming of it -brought back to mind not only the wrongs he had suffered in his youth; the -cruelty and baseness of his guardians; his miserable experience of -monastic life; how hardly he had escaped out of it; his trials during a -chequered wandering life since; but also his entry upon fellow-work with -Colet; the noble-hearted friends with whom he had been privileged to come -in contact; the noble work in which they were now engaged together. What! -give up these to put his neck again under a yoke which had so galled him -in dark times gone by! And for what? To become perchance the -father-confessor of a nunnery! It was as though Pharaoh had sent an -embassy to Moses offering to make him a taskmaster if he would but return -into Egypt. - -No wonder that Erasmus, finding this letter from Servatius waiting for him -on his arrival at the castle of his friend, took up his pen to reply -somewhat warmly before proceeding on his journey. His letter lies as a -kind of waymark by the roadside of his wandering life, and with some -abridgment and omissions may be thus translated:-- - - _Erasmus to Servatius._ - - '... Being on a journey, I must reply in but few words, and confine - myself to matters of the most importance. - - [Sidenote: Erasmus alludes to his youth.] - - [Sidenote: Erasmus hates the monastic life.] - - 'Men hold opinions so diverse that it is impossible to please - everybody. That _my_ desire is in very deed to follow that which is - really the best, God is my witness! It was never my intention to - change my mode of life or my habit; not because I approved of either, - but lest I should give rise to scandal. _You_ know well that it was by - the pertinacity of my guardians and the persuasion of wicked men that - I was forced rather than induced to enter the monastic life. - Afterwards, when I found out how entirely unsuited it was for me, I - was restrained by the taunts of Cornelius Wertem and the bashfulness - of youth.... But it may be objected that I had a year of what is - called "probation," and was of mature age. Ridiculous! As though - anyone could require that a boy of seventeen, brought up in literary - studies, should have attained to a self-knowledge rare even in an old - man--should be able to learn in one year what many men grow grey - without learning! Be this as it may, I never liked the monastic life; - and I liked it less than ever after I had tried it; but I was ensnared - in the way I have mentioned. For all this, I am free to confess that a - man who is really a good man may live well in any kind of life. - - [Sidenote: His ill health.] - - [Sidenote: His works.] - - 'I have in the meantime tried to find that mode of living in which I - should be least prone to evil. And I think assuredly that I have found - it; I have lived with sober men, I have lived a life of literary - study, and these have drawn me away from many vices. It has been my - lot to live on terms of intimacy with men of true Christian wisdom, - and I have been bettered by their conversation.... Whenever the - thought has occurred to me of returning into your fraternity it has - always called back to my remembrance the jealousy of many, the - contempt of all; converse how cold, how trifling! how lacking in - Christian wisdom! feastings more fit for the laity! the mode of life, - as a whole, one which, if you subtract its ceremonies from it, has - nothing left that seems to me worth having. Lastly, I have called to - mind my bodily infirmities, now increased upon me by age and toil, by - reason of which I should have both failed in coming up to your mark - and also sacrificed my own life. For some years now I have been - afflicted with the stone, and its frequent recurrence obliges me to - observe great regularity in my habits. I have had some experience both - of the climate of Holland and of your particular diet and habits, and - I feel sure that, had I returned, nothing else could have come of it - but trouble to you and death to me. - - 'But it may be that you deem it a blessed thing to die at a good age - in the midst of your brotherhood. This is a notion which deceives and - deludes not you alone, but almost everybody. We think that Christ and - religion consist in certain places, and garments and modes of life, - and ceremonial observances. It is all up, we think, with a man who - changes his white habit for a black one, who substitutes a hat for a - hood, and who frequently changes his residence. I will be bold to say - that, on the other hand, great injury has arisen to Christian piety - from what we call the "religious orders," although it may be that they - were introduced with a pious motive.... Pick out the most lauded and - laudable of all of them, and you may look in vain, so far as I can - see, for any likeness to Christ, unless it be in cold and Judaical - ceremonies. It is on account of these that they think so much of - themselves; it is on account of these that they judge and condemn - others. How much more accordant to the teaching of Christ would it be - to look upon all Christendom as one home; as it were, one monastery; - to regard all men as canons and brothers; to count the sacrament of - baptism the chief religious vow; not to care where you live, if only - you live well!... And now to say a word about my works. The - "Enchiridion" I fancy you have read.... The book of "Adagia," printed - by Aldus, I don't know whether you have seen.... I have also written a - book, "De Rerum et Verborum Copia," which I inscribed to my friend - Colet.... For these two years past, amongst other things, I have been - correcting the text of the "Letters of Jerome."... By the collation of - Greek and ancient codices, I have also corrected the text of the - whole New Testament, and made annotations not without theological - value on more than one thousand places. I have commenced Commentaries - on St. Paul's Epistles, which I shall finish when the others are - published; for I have made up my mind to work at sacred literature to - the day of my death. Great men say that in these things I am - successful where others are not. In your mode of life I should - entirely fail. Although I have had intercourse with so many men of - learning, both here and in Italy and in France, I have never yet found - one who advised me to betake myself back again to you.... I beg that - you will not forget to commend me in your prayers to the keeping of - Christ. If ever I should come really to know that it would be doing my - duty to _Him_ to return to your brotherhood, on that very day I will - start on the journey. Farewell, my once pleasant companion, but now - reverend father. - - 'From Hammes Castle, near Calais, 9th July, 1514.'[484] - -[Sidenote: Visits the Abbot of St. Bertin.] - -[Sidenote: On his way to Basle.] - -This bold letter written, Erasmus took leave of his host, and hastened to -repay by a short embrace the kindness of another friend, the Abbot of St. -Bertin.[485] After a two days' halt to accomplish this object, he again -mounted his horse, and, followed by his servant and baggage, set his face -resolutely towards Basle: cheered in spirit by the marks of friendship -received during the past few days, and anxious to reach his journey's end -that he might set about his work. - -[Sidenote: Accident near Ghent.] - -But all haste is not good speed. As he approached the city of Ghent, while -he chanced to be turning _one_ way to speak to his servant, his horse took -fright at something lying on the road, and turned round the _other_ way, -severely straining thereby Erasmus's back. - -It was with the greatest difficulty and torture that he reached Ghent. -There he lay for some days motionless on his back at the inn, unable to -stand upright, and fearing the worst. By degrees, however, he again became -able to move, and to write an amusing account of his adventure to Lord -Mountjoy;[486] telling him that he had vowed to St. Paul that, if restored -to health, he would complete the Commentaries he was writing on the -Epistle to the Romans; and adding that he was already so much better that -he hoped ere long to proceed another stage to Antwerp. Antwerp was -accordingly reached in due course, and from thence he was able to pursue -his journey. - -At Louvain he prepared for publication a collection of stray pieces, -including amongst them the '_Institutes of a Christian Man_,' written by -Colet for his school in English prose, and turned into Latin verse by -Erasmus. In the letter prefixed to the collection[487] he spoke of Colet -as a man '_than whom, in my opinion, the kingdom of England has not -another more pious, or who more truly knows Christ_.'[488] Two editions of -this volume were published at Cologne in the course of a few months by -different typographers.[489] - -[Sidenote: At Maintz.] - -[Sidenote: Reuchlin and his friends.] - -At Maintz he appears to have halted a while, and he afterwards informed -Colet[490] that 'much was made of him there.' That it was so may be -readily conjectured, for it was at Maintz that the Court of Inquisition -had sat in the autumn of the previous year, which, had it not been for the -timely interference of the Archbishop of Maintz, would have condemned the -aged Reuchlin as a heretic. In this city Erasmus would probably fall in -with many of Reuchlin's friends, and as the matter was now pending the -decision of the authorities at Rome, they may well have tried to secure -his influence with the Pope, to whom he was personally known. Be this as -it may, from the date of his visit to Maintz, Erasmus seems not only never -to have lost an opportunity of supporting the cause of Reuchlin at Rome or -elsewhere, but also to have himself secured the friendship and regard of -Reuchlin's protector, the archbishop.[491] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus at Strasburg.] - -Leaving Maintz, he proceeded to Strasburg, where he was surrounded and -entertained by a galaxy of learned men. Another stage brought him to -Schelestadt.[492] The chief men of this ancient town, having heard of his -approach, sent him a present of wines, requested his company to dinner on -the following day, and offered him the escort of one of their number for -the remainder of his journey. Erasmus declined to be further detained, but -gladly accepted the escort of _John Sapidus_. - -After having been thus lionised at each stage of the journey, and to -prevent a similar annoyance, on his arrival at Basle, Erasmus requested -his new companion to conceal his name, and if possible to introduce him to -a few choice friends before his arrival was known. Sapidus complied with -this request. He had no difficulty in making his choice. - -[Sidenote: Arrives at Basle incognito.] - -[Sidenote: Circle of learned men at Basle.] - -[Sidenote: Amerbach.] - -[Sidenote: His three sons.] - -[Sidenote: Froben.] - -[Sidenote: Beatus Rhenanus.] - -[Sidenote: Lystrius.] - -Round the printing establishment of Froben, the printer had gathered a -little group of learned and devoted men, whose names had made Basle famous -as one of the centres of reviving learning. There was a university at -Basle, but it was not this which had attracted the little knot of students -to the city. The patriarch of the group was _Johann Amerbach_. He was now -an old man. More than thirty years had passed since he had first set up -his printing-press at Basle, and during these years he had devoted his -ample wealth and active intellect to the reproduction in type of the works -of the early Church Fathers. The works of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine -had already issued from his press at vast cost of labour, time, and -wealth. To publish St. Jerome's works before he died, or at least to see -the work in hand, was now the aged patriarch's ambition. Many years ago he -had imported Froben, that he might secure an able successor in the -printing department. His own three sons, also, he had educated in Latin, -Greek, and Hebrew, so as to qualify them thoroughly for the work he -wished them to continue after he was gone. And the three brothers Amerbach -did not belie their father's hopes. They had inherited a double portion of -his spirit.[493] Froben, too, had caught the old printer's mantle, and -worked like him, for love, and not for gain.[494] Others had gathered -round so bright a nucleus. There was Beatus Rhenanus, a young scholar of -great ability and wealth, whose gentle loving nature endeared him to his -intimate companions. He, too, had caught the spirit of reviving learning, -and thought it not beneath his dignity to undertake the duties of -corrector of the press in Froben's printing-office.[495] Gerard Lystrius, -a youth brought up to the medical profession, with no mean knowledge both -of Greek and Hebrew, had also thrown in his lot with them.[496] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus introduced incognito to Froben and his friends.] - -Such was the little circle of choice friends into which Sapidus, without -betraying who he was, introduced the stranger who had just arrived in -Basle, who, addressing himself at once to Froben, presented letters from -Erasmus, with whom he said that he was most closely intimate, and from -whom he had the fullest commission to treat with reference to the printing -of his works, so that Froben might regard whatever arrangement he might -make with him as though it had been made with Erasmus himself. Finding -still that he was undiscovered, and wishing to slide easily from under his -_incognito_, he soon added drily that Erasmus and he were 'so alike that -to see one was to have seen the other!' Froben then, to his great -amusement, discovered who the stranger was. He was received with open -arms. His bills at the inn were forthwith paid, and himself, servant, -horses, and baggage transferred to the home of Froben's father-in-law, -there to enjoy the luxuries of private hospitality. - -When it was known in the city that Erasmus had arrived he was besieged by -doctors and deans, rectors of the University, poets-laureate, invitations -to dine, and every kind of attention which the men of Basle could give to -so illustrious a stranger. - -But Erasmus had come back to Basle not to be lionised, but to push on with -his work. He was gratified; and, indeed, he told his friends, almost put -to the blush by the honours with which he had been received; but, finding -their constant attentions to interfere greatly with his daily labours at -Froben's office, he was obliged to request that he might be left to -himself.[497] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus at work in Froben's printing office.] - -At Froben's office he found everything prepared to his hand. The train was -already laid for the publication of St. Jerome. Beatus Rhenanus and the -three brothers Amerbach were ready to throw themselves heart and soul into -the work. The latter undertook to share the labour of collating and -transcribing portions which Erasmus had not yet completed, and so the -ponderous craft got fairly under way. By the end of August, he was -thoroughly immersed in types and proof-sheets, and, to use his own -expression, no less busy in superintending his little enterprise than the -Emperor in his war with Venice.[498] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Writes to his English friends.] - -Thus he could report well of his journey and his present home to his -English friends. He felt that he had done right in coming to Basle, but, -none the less on that account, that his true home was in the hearts of -these same English friends. In his letters to them he expressed his -longing to return.[499] His late ill-fortune in England he had always set -down to the war, which had turned the thoughts of the nation and the -liberality of patrons into other channels, and he hoped that now, perhaps, -the war being over, a better state of things might reign in England, and -better fortunes be in store for the poor scholar. - -What Colet thought of this and things in general, how clouds and storms -seemed gathering round him, may be learned from his reply to his friend's -letter, brief as was his wont, but touchingly graphic in its little -details about himself and his own life during these passing months. He was -already preparing to resign his preferments, and building a house within -the secluded precincts of the Charterhouse at Sheene near Richmond, -wherein, with a few bosom friends, he hoped to spend the rest of his days -in peace, unmolested by his evil genius, the Bishop of London. - - _Colet to Erasmus._[500] - - [Sidenote: Colet still harassed by Bishop Fitzjames.] - - 'Dearest Erasmus--I have received your letter written from Basle, 3 - Cal. Sept. I am glad to know where you are, and in what clime you are - living. I am glad, too, that you are well. See that you perform the - vow which you say you made to St. Paul. That so much was made of you - at Maintz, as you tell me, I can easily believe. I am glad you intend - to return to us some day. But I am not very hopeful about it. As to - any better fortune for you, I don't know what to say. I don't know, - because those who have the means have not the will, and those who have - the will have not the means. All your friends here are well. The - Archbishop of Canterbury keeps as kindly disposed as ever. The Bishop - of Lincoln [Wolsey] now reigns "Archbishop of York!" The Bishop of - London never ceases to harass me. Every day I look forward to my - retirement and retreat with the Carthusians. My nest is nearly - finished. When you come back to us, so far as I can conjecture, you - will find me there, "_mortuus mundo_." Take care of your health, and - let me know where you go to. Farewell.--_From London, Oct. 20 - (1514)._' - - -II. ERASMUS RETURNS TO ENGLAND--HIS SATIRE UPON KINGS (1515). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus arrives in England.] - -Erasmus had at first intended to remain at Basle till the Ides of March -(1515), and then, in compliance with the invitation of his Italian -friends, to spend a few weeks in Italy.[501] But after working six or -eight months at Froben's office, he was no longer inclined to carry out -the project; and so, a new edition of the 'Adagia' being wellnigh -completed, and the ponderous folios of Jerome proceeding to satisfaction, -under the good auspices of the brothers Amerbach, when spring came round -Erasmus took sudden flight from Basle, and turned up, not in Italy, but in -England. Safely arrived in London, he was obliged to do his best, by the -discreet use of his pen, to excuse to his friends at Rome this slight upon -their favours. - -[Sidenote: Supports the cause of Reuchlin.] - -He wrote, therefore, elegant and flattering letters to the Cardinal -Grimanus, the Cardinal St. George, and Pope Leo,[502] describing the -labours in which he was engaged, the noble assistance which the little -fraternity at Basle were giving, and which could not have been got in -Italy nor anywhere else; alluding in flattering terms to the advantages -offered at Rome, and the kindness he had there received on his former -visit; but describing in still more glowing terms the love and generosity -of his friends in England, and declaring 'with that frankness which it -becomes a German to use,' that 'England was his adopted country, and the -chosen home of his old age.'[503] He also took the opportunity of strongly -urging the two cardinals to use their utmost influence in aid of the cause -of Reuchlin. He told them how grieved he was, in common with all the -learned men of Germany, that these frivolous and vexatious proceedings -should have been taken against a man venerable both on account of age and -service, who ought now in his declining years to be peacefully wearing his -well-earned laurels. And lastly, in his letter to the Pope, Erasmus took -occasion to express his hatred of the wars in which Europe had been -recently involved, and his thankfulness that the efforts of his Holiness -to bring about a peace had at last been crowned with success. - -[Sidenote: Peace between England and France.] - -[Sidenote: Death of Louis XII. and accession of Francis I.] - -Peace had indeed been proclaimed between France and England, while Erasmus -had been working at Basle, but under circumstances not likely to _lessen_ -those feelings of indignation with which the three friends regarded the -selfish and reckless policy of European rulers. For peace had been made -with France merely to shuffle the cards. Henry's sister, the Princess Mary -(whose marriage with Henry's ally, Prince Charles, ought long ago to have -been solemnised according to contract), had been married to their common -enemy, Louis XII. of France, with whom they had just been together at war. -In November, Henry and his late enemy, Louis, were plotting to combine -against Henry's late ally, King Ferdinand; and England's blood and -treasure, after having been wasted in helping to wrest Navarre from France -for Ferdinand, were now to be wasted anew to recover the same province -back to France from Ferdinand.[504] On the first of January this unholy -alliance of the two courts was severed by the death of Louis XII. The -Princess Mary was a widow. The young and ambitious Francis I. succeeded to -the French throne, and he, anxious like Henry VIII. to achieve military -glory, declared his intention, on succeeding to the crown, that 'the -monarchy of Christendom should rest under the banner of France as it was -wont to do.'[505] Before the end of July he had already started on that -Italian campaign in which he was soon to defeat the Swiss in the great -battle of Marignano--a battle at the news of which Ferdinand and Henry -were once more to be made secret friends by their common hatred of so -dangerous a rival![506] - -These international scandals, for such they must be called, wrung from -Erasmus other and far more bitter censure than that contained in his -letter to the Pope. He was laboriously occupied with great works passing -through the printing-press at Basle, but still he stole the time to give -public vent to his pent-up feelings. It little mattered that the actors of -these scandals were patrons of his own--kings and ministers on whose aid -he was to some extent dependent, even for the means wherewith to print his -Greek New Testament. His indignation burst forth in pamphlets printed in -large type, and bearing his name, or was thrust into the new edition of -the 'Adagia,' or bound up with other new editions which happened now to be -passing through Froben's press.[507] And be it remembered that these works -and pamphlets found their way as well into royal courts as into the -studies of the learned. - -[Sidenote: Satire upon Kings.] - -What could exceed the sternness and bitterness of the reproof contained in -the following passages?-- - -'Aristotle was wont to distinguish between a _king_ and a _tyrant_ by the -most obvious marks: the tyrant regarding only his own interest; the king -the interests of his people. But the title of "king," which the first and -greatest Roman rulers thought to be immodest and impolitic, as likely to -stir up jealousy, is not enough for some, unless it be gilded with the -most splendid lies. Kings who are scarcely men are called "divine;" they -are "invincible," though they never have left a battlefield without being -conquered; "serene," though they have turned the world upside down in a -tumult of war; "illustrious," though they grovel in profoundest ignorance -of everything noble; "Catholic," though they follow anything rather than -Christ. - -'And these divine, illustrious, triumphant kings ... have no other desire -than that laws, edicts, wars, peaces, leagues, councils, judgments, sacred -or profane, should bring the wealth of others into their exchequer--_i.e._ -they gather everything into their leaking reservoir, and, like the eagles, -fatten their eaglets on the flesh of innocent birds. - -'Let any physiognomist worth anything at all consider the look and the -features of an eagle--those rapacious and wicked eyes, that threatening -curve of the beak, those cruel jaws, that stern front ... will he not -recognise at once the image of a king?--a magnificent and majestic king? -Add to this a dark ill-omened colour, an unpleasing, dreadful, appalling -voice, and that threatening scream at which every kind of animal trembles. -Every one will acknowledge this type who has learned how terrible are the -threats of princes, even uttered in jest.... At this scream of the eagle -the people tremble, the senate yields, the nobility cringes, the judges -concur, the divines are dumb, the lawyers assent, the laws and -constitutions give way, neither right nor religion, neither justice nor -humanity, avail. And thus while there are so many birds of sweet and -melodious song, the unpleasant and unmusical scream of the eagle alone has -more power than all the rest.... Of all birds the eagle alone has seemed -to wise men the type of royalty--not beautiful, not musical, not fit for -food; but carnivorous, greedy, hateful to all, the curse of all, and, with -its great powers of doing harm, surpassing them in its desire of doing -it.'[508] - -Again:-- - -'The office of a prince is called a "dominion," when in truth a prince has -nothing else to do but to administer the affairs of the commonwealth. - -'The intermarriages between royal families, and the new leagues arising -from them, are called "the bonds of Christian peace," though almost all -wars and all tumults of human affairs seem to rise out of them. When -princes conspire together to oppress and exhaust a commonwealth, they call -it a "just war." When they themselves _unite_ in this object, they call it -"_peace_." - -'They call it the extension of the empire when this or that little town is -added to the titles of the prince at the cost of the plunder, the blood, -the widowhood, the bereavement of so many citizens.'[509] - -[Sidenote: Rapid sale of the 'Praise of Folly.'] - -These passages may serve to indicate what feelings were stirred up in the -heart of Erasmus by the condition of international affairs, and in what -temper he returned to England. The works in which they appeared he had -left under the charge of Beatus Rhenanus, to be printed at Basle in his -absence. And some notion of the extent to which whatever proceeded from -the pen of Erasmus was now devoured by the public, may be gained from the -fact that Rhenanus, in April of this very year, wrote to Erasmus, to tell -him that out of an edition of 1,800 of the 'Praise of Folly' just printed -by Froben, with notes by Lystrius, only sixty remained in hand.[510] - - -III. RETURNS TO BASLE TO FINISH HIS WORKS.--FEARS OF THE ORTHODOX PARTY -(1515). - -It will be necessary to recur to the position of international affairs ere -long; meanwhile, the quotations we have given will be enough to show that, -buried as Erasmus was in literary labour, he was alive also to what was -passing around him--no mere bookworm, to whom his books and his learning -were the sole end of life. As we proceed to examine more closely the -object and spirit of the works in which he was now engaged, it will become -more and more evident that their interest to him was of quite another kind -to that of the mere bookworm. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus returns to Basle.] - -Before the summer of 1515 was over he was again on his way to Basle, where -his editions of Jerome and of the New Testament were now really -approaching completion. Their appearance was anxiously expected by learned -men all over Europe. The bold intention of Erasmus to publish the Greek -text of the New Testament with a new Latin translation of his own, a -rival of the sacred Vulgate, had got wind. Divines of the traditional -school had already taken alarm. It was whispered about amongst them that -something ought to be done. The new edition of the 'Praise of Folly,' with -notes by Lystrius, had been bought and read with avidity. Men now shook -their heads, who had smiled at its first appearance. They discovered -heresies in it unnoticed before. Besides, the name of Erasmus was now -known all over Europe. It mattered little what he wrote a few years ago, -when he was little known; but it mattered much what he might write now -that he was a man of mark. - -[Sidenote: Rumours of opposition.] - -While Erasmus was passing through Belgium on his way to Basle, these -whispered signs of discontent found public utterance in a letter from -Martin Dorpius,[511] of the Louvain University, addressed to Erasmus, but -printed, and, it would seem, in the hands of the public, before it was -forwarded to him. He met with it by accident at Antwerp.[512] It was -written at the instigation of others. Men who had not the wit to make a -public protest of this nature for themselves, had urged Martin Dorpius to -employ his talents in their cause, and to become their mouthpiece.[513] - -Thus this letter from Dorpius was of far more importance than would at -first sight appear. It had a representative importance which it did not -possess in itself. It was the public protest of a large and powerful -party. As such it required more than a mere private reply from Erasmus, -and deserves more than a passing mention here, for it affords an insight -into the plan and defences of a theological citadel, against which its -defenders considered that Erasmus was meditating a bold attack. - -[Sidenote: Letter from Dorpius.] - -'I hear' (wrote Dorpius, after criticising severely the 'Praise of -Folly')--'I hear that you have been expurgating the epistles of Saint -Jerome from the errors with which they abound ... and this is a work in -all respects worthy of your labour, and by which you will confer a great -benefit on divines.... But I hear, also, that you have been correcting the -text of the New Testament, and that "you have made annotations not without -theological value on more than one thousand places."' - -Here Dorpius evidently quotes the words of the letter of Erasmus to -_Servatius_, so that _he_ too is silently behind the scenes, handing -Erasmus's letter about amongst his theological friends, perhaps himself -inciting Dorpius to write as he does. - -[Sidenote: Dorpius asserts that there are no errors in the Vulgate.] - -'... If I can show you that the Latin translation has in it no errors or -mistakes' (continued Dorpius), 'then you must confess that the labour of -those who try to correct it is altogether null and void.... I am arguing -now with respect to the truthfulness and integrity of the translation, and -I assert this of our Vulgate version. For it cannot be that the unanimous -universal Church now for so many centuries has been mistaken, which always -has used, and still both sanctions and uses, this version. Nor in the same -way is it possible that so many holy fathers, so many men of most -consummate authority, could be mistaken, who, relying on the same -version, have defined the most difficult points even in _General -Councils_; have defended and elucidated the faith, and enacted canons to -which even kings have bowed their sceptres. That councils rightly convened -never can err in matters of faith is generally admitted by both divines -and lawyers.... What matters it whether you believe or not that the Greek -books are more accurate than the Latin ones; whether or not _greater_ care -was taken to preserve the sacred books in all their integrity by the -Greeks than by the Latins;--by the Greeks, forsooth, amongst whom the -Christian religion was very often almost overthrown, and who affirmed that -none of the gospels were free from errors, excepting the one gospel of -John. What matters all this when, to say nothing of anything else, amongst -the Latins the Church has continued throughout the inviolate spouse of -Christ?... What if it be contended that the sense, as rendered by the -Latin version, differs in truth from the Greek text? Then, indeed, adieu -to the Greek. I adhere to the Latin because I cannot bring my mind to -believe that the Greek are more correct than the Latin codices. - -'But it may be said, Augustine ordered the Latin rivulets to be supplied -from the Greek fountain-head. He did so; and wisely in his age, in which -neither had any one Latin version been received by the Church as now, nor -had the Greek fountain-head become so corrupt as it now seems to be. - -[Sidenote: A single error would destroy the authority of the Bible.] - -'You may say in reply, "I do not want you to change anything in your -codices, nor that you should believe that the Latin version is a false -one. I only point out what discrepancies I discover between the Greek and -Latin copies, and what harm is there in that?" In very deed, my dear -Erasmus, there is great harm in it. Because, about this matter of the -integrity of the Holy Scriptures many will dispute, many will doubt, if -they learn that even one jot or tittle in them is false, ... and then will -come to pass what Augustine described to Jerome: "If any error should be -admitted to have crept into the Holy Scriptures, what authority would be -left to them?" All these considerations, my dear Erasmus, have induced me -to pray and beseech you, by our mutual friendship, by your wonted courtesy -and candour, either to limit your corrections to those passages only of -the New Testament in which you are able, without altering the sense, to -substitute more expressive words; or if you should point out that the -sense requires any alteration at all, that you will reply to the foregoing -arguments in your preface.' - -[Sidenote: Erasmus replies to Dorpius.] - -Erasmus replied to this letter of Dorpius with singular tact, and -reprinted the letter itself with his reply. - -He acknowledged the friendship of Dorpius, and the kind and friendly tone -of his letter. He received, he said, many flattering letters, but he had -rather receive such a letter as this, of honest advice and criticism, by -far. He was knocked up by sea-sickness, wearied by long travel on -horseback, busy unpacking his luggage; but still he thought it was better, -he said, to send some reply, rather than allow his friend to remain under -such erroneous impressions, whether the result of his own consideration, -or instilled into him by others, who had over-persuaded him into writing -this letter, and thus made a cat's-paw of him, in order to light their -battles without exposure of their own persons. - -He told him freely how and when the 'Praise of Folly' was written, and -what were his reasons for writing it, frankly and courteously replying to -his criticisms. - -He described the labour and difficulty of the correction of the text of -St. Jerome--a work of which Dorpius had expressed his approval. But he -said, with reference to what Dorpius had written upon the New Testament, -he could not help wondering what had happened to him--what could have -thrown all this dust into his eyes! - -[Sidenote: There _are_ errors in the Vulgate.] - -'You are unwilling that I should alter anything, except when the Greek -text expresses the sense of the Vulgate more clearly, and you deny that in -the Vulgate edition there are any mistakes. And you think it wrong that -what has been approved by the sanction of so many ages and so many synods -should be unsettled by any means. I beseech you to consider, most learned -Dorpius, whether what you have written be _true_! How is it that Jerome, -Augustine, and Ambrose all cite a text which differs from the Vulgate? How -is it that Jerome finds fault with and corrects many readings which we -find in the Vulgate? What can you make of all this concurrent -evidence--when the Greek versions differ from the Vulgate, when Jerome -cites the text according to the Greek version, when the oldest Latin -versions do the same, when this reading suits the sense much better than -that of the Vulgate,--will you, treating all this with contempt, follow a -version perhaps corrupted by some copyist?... In doing so you follow in -the steps of those vulgar divines who are accustomed to attribute -ecclesiastical authority to whatever in any way creeps into general -use.... I had rather be a common mechanic than the best of their number.' - -With regard to some other points, it was, he said, more prudent to be -silent; but he told Dorpius that he had submitted the rough draft of his -Annotations to divines and bishops of the greatest integrity and learning, -and these had confessed that they threw much light on Scripture study. He -concluded with the expression of a hope that even Dorpius himself, -although now protesting against the attempt, would welcome the publication -of the book when it came into his hands. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus at Basle.] - -This letter[514] written and despatched to the printer, Erasmus proceeded -with his journey. The Rhine, swollen by the rains and the rapid melting of -Alpine snows, had overflowed its banks; so that the journey, always -disagreeable and fatiguing, was this time more than usually so. It was -more like swimming, Erasmus said, than riding. But by the end of -August[515] he was again hard at work in Froben's printing-office putting -the finishing strokes to his two great works.[516] By the 7th of March, -1516, he was able to announce that the New Testament was out of the -printer's hands, and the final colophon put to St. Jerome.[517] - -It is time therefore that we should attempt to realise what these two -great works were, and what the peculiar significance of their concurrent -publication. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - - -THE 'NOVUM INSTRUMENTUM' COMPLETED.--WHAT IT REALLY WAS (1516). - -[Sidenote: Main object of the 'Novum Instrumentum.'] - -[Sidenote: Not the Greek text.] - -The New Testament of Erasmus ought not to be regarded by any means as a -mere reproduction of the Greek text, or criticised even _chiefly_ as such. -The labour which falls to the lot of a pioneer in such a work, the -multiplied chances of error in the collation by a single hand, and that of -a novice in the art of deciphering difficult manuscripts, the want of -experience on the part of the printers in the use of Greek type, the -inadequate pecuniary means at the disposal of Erasmus, and the haste with -which it was prepared, considering the nature of the work,--all tended to -make his version of the Greek text exceedingly imperfect, viewed in the -light of modern criticism. He may even have been careless, and here and -there uncandid and capricious in his choice of readings,--all this, of -which I am incapable of forming a conclusive judgment, I am willing to -grant by-the-bye. The merit of the New Testament of Erasmus does not -mainly rest upon the accuracy of his Greek text,[518] although this had -cost him a great deal of labour, and was a necessary part of his plan. - -I suppose the object of an author may be most fairly gathered from his own -express declarations, and that the prefaces of Erasmus to his first -edition--the 'Novum Instrumentum,' as he called it--are the best evidence -that can possibly be quoted of the purpose of Erasmus in its publication. -To these, therefore, I must beg the reader's attention. - -[Sidenote: Main object to be learned from its prefaces.] - -Now a careful examination of these prefaces cannot fail to establish the -identity of the purpose of Erasmus in publishing the 'Novum Instrumentum' -with that which had induced Colet, nearly twenty years before, to commence -his lectures at Oxford. - -During those twenty years the divergence between the two great rival -schools of thought had become wider and wider. - -[Sidenote: The Italian school.] - -The intellectual tendencies of the philosophic school in Italy had become -more and more decidedly sceptical. The meteor lights of Savonarola, Pico, -and Ficino had blazed across the sky and vanished. The star of semi-pagan -philosophy was in the ascendant, and shed its cold light upon the -intellect of Italy. - -Leo X. was indeed a great improvement upon Alexander VI. and Julius -II.--of this there could be no doubt. Instead of the gross sensuality of -the former and the warlike passions of the latter, what Ranke has well -designated '_a sort of intellectual sensualism_,' now reigned in the Papal -court. Erasmus had indeed entertained bright hopes of Leo X. He had -declared himself in favour of a peaceful policy; he was, too, an enemy to -the blind bigotry of the Schoolmen. Nor does he seem to have been openly -irreligious. His choice of Sadolet as one of his secretaries was not like -the act of a man who himself would scoff at the Christian faith; though, -on the other hand, this enlightened Christian was unequally yoked in the -office with the philosophical and worldly Bembo. Under former Popes the -fear of Erasmus had been '_lest Rome should degenerate into Babylon_.' He -hoped now that, under Leo X., 'the tempest of war being hushed, both -letters and religion might be seen flourishing at Rome.'[519] - -[Sidenote: Its sceptical tendencies.] - -At the same time he was not blind to the sceptical tendencies of the -Italian schools. Thus whilst in a letter written not long after this -period, expressing his faith in the 'revival of letters,' and his belief -that the 'authority of the Scriptures will not in the long run be lessened -by their being read and understood correctly instead of -incorrectly'--whilst thus, in fact, taking a hopeful view of the -future--we yet find him confessing to a fear, 'lest, under the pretext of -the revival of ancient literature, Paganism should again endeavour to rear -its head.'[520] The atmosphere of the Papal Court was indeed far more -semi-pagan than Christian. With the revival of classical literature it was -natural that there should be a revival of classical taste. And just as the -mediaeval church of St. Peter was demolished to make room for a classical -temple, so it was the fashion in high society at Rome to profess belief in -the philosophy of Pliny and Aristotle and to scoff at the Christian -faith.[521] - -The extent to which anti-Christian and sceptical tendencies were carried -in the direction of speculative philosophy was shown by the publication in -this very year, 1516, by _Pomponatius_, whom Ranke speaks of as 'the most -distinguished philosopher of the day,'[522] of a work in which he denied -the immortality of the soul.[523] This philosopher was, in the words of -Hallam, 'the most renowned professor of the school of Padua, which for -more than a century was the focus of atheism in Italy.'[524] - -[Sidenote: The Italian school Machiavellian in its politics.] - -That the same anti-Christian and sceptical tendencies were equally -prevalent in the sphere of practical morality and politics as in that of -speculative philosophy, was also painfully obvious. That popes themselves -had discarded Christianity as the standard of their own morality both in -social and political action, had for generations been trumpeted forth to -the world by their own sensual lives, and their faithless and immoral -political conduct. When in the 'Praise of Folly' Erasmus had satirised the -policy of popes, he had put a sting to his description of their -unchristian conduct by adding that they acted '_as though Christ were -dead_.'[525] The greatest political philosopher of the age had already -written his great work '_The Prince_,' in which he had _codified_, so to -speak, the maxims of the dominant anti-Christian school of politics, and -framed a system of political philosophy based upon keen and godless -self-interest, and defying, if not in terms denying, both the obligation -and policy of the golden rule--a system which may be best described, in a -word, by reference to the name of its author, as _Machiavellian_.[526] - -[Sidenote: The dogmatic school, equally anti-Christian in its practice,] - -On the other hand, opposed to the new 'learning,' and its anti-Christian -tendencies, was the dogmatic system of the Schoolmen, defended with blind -bigotry by monks and divines of the old school. These had done nothing -during the past twenty years to reconcile their system with the -intellectual tendencies of their age. They were still straining every -nerve to keep Christianity and reviving science hopelessly apart. Their -own rigidly defined scholastic creed, with all its unverified hypotheses, -rested as securely as ever, in their view, on the absolute inspiration of -the Vulgate version of the Bible: witness the letter of Dorpius. No new -light had disturbed the entire satisfaction with which they regarded their -system, or the assurance with which they denounced Greek and Hebrew as -'heretical tongues,' derided all attempts at free inquiry, and scornfully -pointed to the sceptical tendencies of the Italian school as the result to -which the 'new learning' must inevitably lead. - -[Sidenote: and in its politics.] - -And yet the practical results of this proudly orthodox philosophy were as -notoriously anti-Christian, both as regards social and political morality, -as was the Machiavellian philosophy, at which these professed Christians -pointed with the finger of scorn. Again and again had Erasmus occasion -bitterly to satirise the gross sensuality in which as a class they -grovelled. Again and again had he to condemn their _political_ influence, -and the part they played in prompting the warlike and treacherous policy -of princes whose courts they infested.[527] - -And passages have already been quoted from the 'Praise of Folly' in which -Erasmus pointed out how completely they had lost sight of the one rule of -Christian morals--the golden rule of Christ--how they had substituted a -new notion of virtue for the Christian one, and how the very meaning of -the word '_sin_' had undergone a corresponding change in their theological -vocabulary. - -[Sidenote: Neither party had practical faith in Christianity.] - -Such were the two opposing parties, which, in this age of intellectual -re-awakening and progress, were struggling in hopeless antagonism; both of -them for the sake of ecclesiastical emoluments still professing allegiance -to the Church, and keeping as firm a foothold as possible within her pale, -but both of them practically betraying at the same time their real want of -faith in Christianity by tacitly setting it aside as a thing which would -not work as the rule of social and political life. - -Erasmus, in writing the preface to his 'Novum Instrumentum,' had his eye -on both these dominant parties. He, like Colet, believed both of them to -be leading men astray. He believed, with Colet, that there _was_ a -Christianity which rested on facts and not upon speculation, and which -therefore had nothing to do with the dogmatic theology of the Schoolmen on -the one hand, and nothing to fear from free inquiry on the other. To -'call men as with the sound of a trumpet' to this, was the object of the -earnest 'Paraclesis' which he prefixed to his Testament. - -He first appealed to the free-thinking philosophic school:-- - - * * * * * - - [Sidenote: The 'Paraclesis.'] - - [Sidenote: All men should read the Gospels, &c., in their vulgar - tongue.] - - 'In times like these, when men are pursuing with such zest all - branches of knowledge, how is it that the philosophy of Christ should - alone be derided by some, neglected by many, treated by the few who do - devote themselves to it with coldness, not to say insincerity? Whilst - in all other branches of learning the human mind is straining its - genius to master all subtleties, and toiling to overcome all - difficulties, why is it that this one philosophy alone is not pursued - with equal earnestness, at least by those who profess to be - Christians? Platonists, Pythagoreans, and the disciples of all other - philosophers, are well instructed and ready to fight for their sect. - Why do not Christians with yet more abundant zeal espouse the cause of - _their_ Master and Prince? Shall Christ be put in comparison with Zeno - and Aristotle--his doctrines with their insignificant precepts? - Whatever other philosophers may have been, he alone is a teacher from - heaven; he alone was able to teach certain and eternal wisdom; he - alone taught things pertaining to our salvation, because he alone is - its author; he alone absolutely practised what he preached, and is - able to make good what he promised.... The philosophy of Christ, - moreover, is to be learned from its few books with far less labour - than the Aristotelian philosophy is to be extracted from its multitude - of ponderous and conflicting commentaries. Nor is anxious preparatory - learning needful to the Christian. Its viaticum is simple, and at hand - to all. Only bring a pious and open heart, imbued above all things - with a pure and simple faith. Only be teachable, and you have already - made much way in this philosophy. It supplies a spirit for a teacher, - imparted to none more readily than to the simple-minded. Other - philosophies, by the very difficulty of their precepts, are removed - out of the range of most minds. No age, no sex, no condition of life - is excluded from this. The sun itself is not more common and open to - all than the teaching of Christ. For I utterly dissent from those who - are unwilling that the sacred Scriptures should be read by the - unlearned translated into their vulgar tongue, as though Christ had - taught such subtleties that they can scarcely be understood even by a - few theologians, or as though the strength of the Christian religion - consisted in men's ignorance of it. The mysteries of kings it may be - safer to conceal, but Christ wished his mysteries to be published as - openly as possible. I wish that even the weakest woman should read the - Gospel--should read the epistles of Paul. And I wish these were - translated into all languages, so that they might be read and - understood, not only by Scots and Irishmen, but also by Turks and - Saracens. To make them understood is surely the first step. It may be - that they might be ridiculed by many, but some would take them to - heart. I long that the husbandman should sing portions of them to - himself as he follows the plough, that the weaver should hum them to - the tune of his shuttle, that the traveller should beguile with their - stories the tedium of his journey.' - -Then turning more directly to the Schoolmen, Erasmus continued:-- - -[Sidenote: The Gospels give a living image of the mind of Christ.] - - Why is a greater portion of our lives given to the study of the - Schoolmen than of the Gospels? The rules of St. Francis and St. - Benedict may be considered sacred by their respective followers; but - just as St. Paul wrote that the law of Moses was not glorious in - comparison with the glory of the Gospel, so Erasmus said he wished - that these might not be considered as sacred in comparison with the - Gospels and letters of the Apostles. What are Albertus, Alexander, - Thomas, AEgidius, Ricardus, Occam, in comparison with Christ, of whom - it was said by the Father in heaven, 'This is my beloved Son'? (Oh, - how sure and, as they say, 'irrefragable' his authority!) What, in - comparison with Peter, who received the command to feed the sheep; or - Paul, in whom, as a chosen vessel, Christ seemed to be reborn; or - John, who wrote in his epistles what he learned as he leaned on his - bosom? 'If the footprints of Christ be anywhere shown to us, we kneel - down and adore. Why do we not rather venerate the living and breathing - picture of Him in these books? If the vesture of Christ be exhibited, - where will we not go to kiss it? Yet were his whole wardrobe exhibited - nothing could represent Christ more vividly and truly than these - evangelical writings. Statues of wood and stone we decorate with gold - and gems for the love of Christ. They only profess to give us the form - of his body; these books present us with a living image of his most - holy mind.[528] Were we to have seen Him with our own eyes, we should - not have had so intimate a knowledge as they give of Christ, speaking, - healing, dying, rising again, as it were, in our own actual presence.' - -Such was the earnest 'Paraclesis'[529] with which Erasmus introduced his -Greek and Latin version of the books of the New Testament. - -[Sidenote: Method of study.] - -To this he added a few pages to explain what he considered the right -'method' to be adopted by the Scripture student.[530] - -First, as to the spirit in which he should work:-- - -'Let him approach the New Testament, not with an unholy curiosity, but -with _reverence_; bearing in mind that his first and only aim and object -should be that he may catch and be changed into the spirit of what he -there learns. It is the food of the soul; and to be of use, must not rest -only in the memory or lodge in the stomach, but must permeate the very -depths of the heart and mind.' - -Then, as to what special acquirements are most useful in the prosecution -of these studies:-- - -'A fair knowledge of the three languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, of -course, are the first things. Nor let the student turn away in despair at -the difficulty of this. If you have a teacher and the will to learn, these -three languages can be learned almost with less labour than every day is -spent over the miserable babble of one mongrel language under ignorant -teachers. It would be well, too, were the student tolerably versed in -other branches of learning--dialectics, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, -astrology, and especially in knowledge of the natural objects--animals, -trees, precious stones--of the countries mentioned in the Scriptures; for -if we are familiar with the country, we can in thought follow the history -and picture it to our minds, so that we seem not only to read it, but to -see it; and if we do this, we shall not easily forget it. Besides, if we -know from study of history not only the position of those nations to whom -these things happened, or to whom the Apostles wrote, but also their -origin, manners, institutions, religion, and character, it is wonderful -how much light and, if I may so speak, _life_ is thrown into the reading -of what before seemed dry and lifeless. Other branches of -learning--classical, rhetorical, or philosophical--may all be turned to -account; and especially should the student learn to quote Scripture, not -second-hand, but from the fountain-head, and take care not to distort its -meaning as some do, interpreting the "Church" as the clergy, the laity as -the "world," and the like. To get at the real meaning, it is not enough to -take four or five isolated words; you must look where they came from, what -was said, by whom it was said, to whom it was said, at what time, on what -occasion, in what words, what preceded, what followed. And if you refer to -commentaries, choose out the best, such as Origen (who is far above all -others), Basil, &c., Jerome, Ambrose, &c.; and even these read with -discrimination and judgment, for they were men ignorant of some things, -and mistaken in others. - -'As to the Schoolmen, I had rather be a pious divine with Jerome than -invincible with Scotus. Was ever a heretic converted by their subtleties? -Let those who like follow the disputations of the schools; but let him who -desires to be instructed rather in piety than in the art of disputation, -first and above all apply himself to the fountain-head--to those writings -which flowed immediately from the fountain-head. The divine is -"invincible" enough who never yields to vice or gives way to evil -passions, even though he may be beaten in argument. That doctor is -abundantly "great" who purely preaches Christ.' - -[Sidenote: The 'Annotations.'] - -[Sidenote: Theory of verbal inspiration rejected.] - -I have quoted these passages very much at length, that there may be no -doubt whatever how fully Erasmus had in these prefaces adopted and made -himself the spokesman of Colet's views. An examination of the 'Novum -Instrumentum' itself, and of the 'Annotations' which formed the second -part of the volume, reveals an equally close resemblance between the -_critical method of exposition_ used by Colet and that here adopted by -Erasmus. There was the same rejection of the theory of verbal inspiration -which was noticed in Colet as the result of an honest attempt to look at -the facts of the case exactly as they were, instead of attempting to -explain them away by reference to preconceived theories. - -Thus the discrepancy between St. Stephen's speech and the narrative in -Genesis, with regard to a portion of the history of the Patriarch Abraham, -was freely pointed out, without any attempt at reconcilement.[531] St. -Jerome's suggestion was quoted, that Mark, in the second chapter of his -Gospel, had, by a lapse of memory, written 'Abiathar' in mistake for -'Ahimelech,'[532] and that Matthew, in the twenty-seventh chapter, instead -of quoting from Jeremiah, as stated in the text, was really quoting from -the Prophet Zachariah.[533] - -The fact that in a great number of cases the quotations from the Old -Testament are by no means exact, either as compared with the Hebrew or -Septuagint text, was freely alluded to, and the suggestion as freely -thrown out that the Apostles habitually quoted from memory, without giving -the exact words of the original.[534] - -All these were little indications that Erasmus had closely followed in the -steps of Colet in rejecting the theory of the verbal inspiration of the -Scriptures; and they bear abundant evidence to prove that he did so, as -Colet had done, not because he wished to undermine men's reverence for the -Bible, but that they might learn to love and to value its pages infinitely -more than they had done before--not because he wished to explain away its -facts, but that men might discover how truly real and actual and -heart-stirring were its histories--not to undermine the authority of its -moral teaching, but to add just so much to it as the authority of the -Apostle who had written, or of the Saviour who had spoken, its Divine -truths, exceeds the authority of the Fathers who had established the -canon, or of the Schoolmen who had buried the Bible altogether under the -rubbish of the thousand and one propositions which they professed to have -extracted from it. - -Let it never be forgotten that the Church party which had staked their -faith upon the plenary inspiration of the Bible was the Church party who -had succeeded in putting it into the background. They were the party whom -Tyndale accused of 'knowing no more Scripture than they found in their -Duns.' They were the party who throughout the sixteenth century resisted -every attempt to give the Bible to the people and to make it the people's -book. And they were perfectly logical in doing so. Their whole system was -based upon the absolute inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and even to a -great extent of the Vulgate version. If the Vulgate version was not -verbally inspired, it was impossible to apply to it the theory of -'manifold senses.' And if a text could not be interpreted according to -that theory, if it could not properly be strained into meanings which it -was never intended by the writer to convey, the scholastic theology became -a castle of cards. Its defenders adopted, and in perfect good faith -applied to the Vulgate, the words quoted from Augustine: 'If any error -should be admitted to have crept into the Holy Scriptures, what authority -would be left to them?' If Colet and Erasmus should undermine men's faith -in the absolute inspiration of the Scriptures, it would result, in their -view, as a logical necessity, in the destruction of the Christian -religion. For the Christian religion, in their view, consisted in blind -devotion to the Church, and in gulping whole the dogmatic creed which had -been settled by her 'invincible' and 'irrefragable' doctors. - -[Sidenote: The Christian religion loyalty to Christ.] - -But this was not the faith of Colet and Erasmus. With them the Christian -religion consisted not in gulping a creed upon any authority whatever, but -in loving and loyal devotion to the _person_ of Christ. They sought in the -books which they found bound up into a Bible not so much an infallible -standard of doctrinal truth as an authentic record of _his_ life and -teaching. Where should they go for a knowledge of Christ, if not to the -writings of those who were nearest in their relations to Him? They valued -these writings because they sought and found in them a 'living and -breathing picture of Him;' because 'nothing could represent Christ more -vividly and truly' than they did; because 'they present a living image of -his most holy mind,' so that 'even had we seen Him with our own eyes we -should not have had so intimate a knowledge as they give of Christ -speaking, healing, dying, rising again as it were in our own actual -presence.' It was because these books brought them, as it were, so close -to Christ and the facts of his actual life, that they wished to get as -close to _them_ as they could do. They would not be content with knowing -something of them secondhand from the best Church authorities. The best of -the Fathers were 'men ignorant of some things, and mistaken in others.' -They would go to the books themselves, and read them in their original -languages, and, if possible, in the earliest copies, so that no mistakes -of copyists or blunders of translators might blind their eyes to the facts -as they were. They would study the geography and the natural history of -Palestine that they might the more correctly and vividly realise in their -mind's eye the events as they happened. And they would do all this, not -that they might make themselves 'irrefragable' doctors--rivals of Scotus -and Aquinas--but that they might catch the Spirit of Him whom they were -striving to know for themselves, and that they might place the same -knowledge within reach of all--Turks and Saracens, learned and unlearned, -rich and poor--by the translation of these books into the vulgar tongue of -each. - -The 'Novum Instrumentum' of Erasmus was at once the result and the -embodiment of these views. - -[Sidenote: Works of St. Jerome.] - -Hence it is easy to see the significance of the concurrent publication of -the works of St. Jerome. St. Jerome belonged to that school of theology -and criticism which now, after the lapse of a thousand years, Colet and -Erasmus were reviving in Western Europe. St. Jerome was the father who in -his day strove to give to the people the Bible in their vulgar tongue. St. -Jerome was the father against whom St. Augustine so earnestly strove to -vindicate the verbal inspiration of the Bible. It was the words of St. -Augustine used against St. Jerome that, now after the lapse of ten -centuries, Martin Dorpius had quoted against Erasmus. We have seen in an -earlier chapter how Colet clung to St. Jerome's opinion, against that of -nearly all other authorities, in the discussion which led to his first -avowal to Erasmus of his views on the inspiration of the Scriptures. -Finally, the Annotations to the 'Novum Instrumentum' teem with citations -from St. Jerome. - -The concurrent publication of the works of this father was therefore a -practical vindication of the 'Novum Instrumentum' from the charge of -presumption and novelty. It proved that Colet and Erasmus were teaching no -new doctrines--that their work was correctly defined by Colet himself to -be 'to restore that old and true theology which had been so long obscured -by the subtleties of the Schoolmen.' - -Under this patristic shield, dedicated by permission to Pope Leo, and its -copyright secured for four years by the decree of the Emperor Maximilian, -the 'Novum Instrumentum' went forth into the world. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - - -I. MORE IMMERSED IN PUBLIC BUSINESS (1515). - -[Sidenote: More's practice at the Bar.] - -[Sidenote: His second marriage.] - -While the work of Erasmus had for some years past lain chiefly in the -direction of laborious literary study, it had been far otherwise with -More. His lines had fallen among the busy scenes and cares of practical -life. His capacity for public business, and the diligence and impartiality -with which he had now for some years discharged his judicial duties as -under-sheriff, had given him a position of great popularity and influence -in the city. He had been appointed by the Parliament of 1515 a -Commissioner of Sewers--a recognition at least of his practical ability. -In his private practice at the Bar he had risen to such eminence, that -Roper tells us 'there was at that time in none of the prince's courts of -the laws of this realm any matter of importance in controversy wherein he -was not with the one party of counsel.'[535] Roper further reports that -'by his office and his learning (as I have heard him say) he gained -without grief not so little as 400_l._ by the year' (equal to 4,000_l._ a -year in present money). He had in the meantime married a second wife, -Alice Middleton, and taken her daughter also into his household; and thus -tried, for the sake of his little orphans, to roll away the cloud of -domestic sorrow from his home. - -Becoming himself more and more of a public man, he had anxiously watched -the course of political events. - -[Sidenote: Social results of the wars.] - -[Sidenote: Complaint in Parliament.] - -The long continuance of war is almost sure to bring up to the surface -social evils which in happier times smoulder on unobserved. It was -especially so with these wars of Henry VIII. Each successive Parliament, -called for the purpose of supplying the King with the necessary ways and -means, found itself obliged reluctantly to deal with domestic questions of -increasing difficulty. In previous years it had been easy for the -flattering courtiers of a popular king, by talking of victories, to charm -the ear of the Commons so wisely, that subsidies and poll-taxes had been -voted without much, if any, opposition. But the Parliament which had met -in February 1515, had no victories to talk about. Whether right or wrong -in regarding 'the realm of France his very true patrimony and -inheritance,' Henry VIII. had not yet been able 'to reduce the same to his -obedience.' Meanwhile the long continuance of war expenditure had drained -the national exchequer. It is perfectly true that under Wolsey's able -management the expenditure had already been cut down to an enormous -extent, but during the three years of active warfare--1512, 1513, and -1514--the revenues of more than twelve ordinary years[536] had been spent, -the immense hoards of wealth inherited by the young king from Henry VII. -had been squandered away, and even the genius of Wolsey was unable to -devise means to collect the taxes which former Parliaments had already -voted. The temper of the Commons was in the meantime beginning to change. -They now, in 1515, for the first time entered their complaint upon the -rolls of Parliament, that whereas the King's noble progenitors had -maintained their estate and the defences of the realm out of the ordinary -revenues of the kingdom, he now, by reason of the improvident grants made -by him since he came to the throne, had not sufficient revenues left to -meet his increasing expenses. The result was that all unusual grants of -annuities, &c., were declared to be void.[537] The Commons then proceeded -to deal with the large deficiency which previous subsidies had done little -to remove. Of the 160,000_l._ granted by the previous Parliament only -50,000_l._ had been gathered, and all they now attempted to achieve was -the collection, under new arrangements, of the remaining 110,000_l._[538] - -[Sidenote: Taxes on labourers' wages.] - -It was evident that the temper of the people would not bear further trial; -and no wonder, for the tax which in the previous year had raised a total -of 50,000_l._ was practically an income-tax of sixpence in the pound, -_descending even to the wages of the farm-labourer_. In the coming year -this income-tax of sixpence was to be _twice_ repeated simply to recover -arrears of taxation. What should we think of a government which should -propose to exact from the day-labourer, by direct taxation, a tax equal to -between two and three weeks' wages! - -The selfishness of Tudor legislation--or, perhaps it might be more just -to say of _Wolsey's_ legislation, for he was the presiding spirit of this -Parliament--was shown no less clearly in its manner of dealing with the -social evils which came under its notice. - -Thus the Act of Apparel, with its pains and penalties, was obviously more -likely to give a handle to unscrupulous ministers to be used for purposes -of revenue, than to curb those tastes for grandeur in attire which nothing -was so likely to foster as the example of Wolsey himself.[539] - -[Sidenote: Legal interference with wages.] - -Thus, too, not content with carrying their income-tax down to the earnings -of the peasant, this and the previous Parliament attempted to interfere -with the wages of the labouring classes solely for the benefit of -employers of labour. The simple fact was that the drain upon the labour -market to keep the army supplied with soldiers, had caused a temporary -scarcity of labour, and a natural rise in wages. Complaints were made, -according to the chronicles, that 'labourers would in nowise work by the -day, but all by task, and in great,' and that therefore, 'especially in -harvest time, the husbandmen [i.e. the farmers and landowners] could -scarce get workmen to help in their harvest.'[540] The agricultural -interest was strongly represented in the House of Commons--the labourers -not at all. So, human nature being the same then as now, the last -Parliament had attempted virtually to re-enact the old statutes of -labourers, as against the labourers, whilst repealing all the clauses -which might possibly prove inconvenient to employers. This Parliament of -1515 completed the work; re-enacted a rigid scale of wages, and imposed -pains and penalties upon 'artificers who should leave their work except -for the King's service.'[541] Here again was oppression of the poor to -spare the pockets of the rich. - -[Sidenote: Increase of pasture farming.] - -Again, the scarcity of labour made itself felt in the increased propensity -of landowners to throw arable land into pasture, involving the sudden and -cruel ejection of thousands of the peasantry, and the enactment of -statutory provisions[542] to check this tendency was not to be wondered -at; but the rumour that many by compounding secretly with the Cardinal -were able to exempt themselves[543] from the penalties of inconvenient -statutes, leads one to suspect that Wolsey thought more of the wants of -the exchequer than of the hardship and misery of ejected peasants. - -[Sidenote: Increase of crime and of executions.] - -It was natural that the result of wholesale ejections, and the return of -deserting or disbanded soldiers (often utterly demoralised),[544] should -still show itself in the appalling increase of crime. Perhaps it was -equally natural that legislators who held the comforts and lives of the -labouring poor so cheap, should think that they had provided at once a -proper and efficient remedy, when by abolishing benefit of clergy in the -case of felons and murderers, and by abridging the privilege of sanctuary, -they had multiplied to a terrible extent the number of executions.[545] - -If the labouring classes were thus harshly dealt with, so also the -mercantile classes did not find their interests very carefully guarded. - -[Sidenote: Trade with the Netherlands interrupted.] - -The breach of faith with Prince Charles in the matter of the marriage of -the Princess Mary had caused a quarrel between England and the -Netherlands, and this Parliament of 1515 had followed it up by prohibiting -the exportation of Norfolk wool to Holland and Zealand,[546] thus -virtually interrupting commercial intercourse with the Hanse Towns of -Belgium at a time when Bruges was the great mart of the world. - -It was not long before the London merchants expressed a very natural -anxiety that the commercial intercourse between two countries so essential -to each other should be speedily resumed. They saw clearly that whatever -military advantage might be gained by the attempt to injure the subjects -of Prince Charles by creating a wool-famine in the Netherlands, would be -purchased at their expense. It was a game that two could play at, and it -was not long before retaliative measures were resorted to on the other -side, very injurious to English interests. - -[Sidenote: More sent on an embassy.] - -When therefore it was rumoured that Henry VIII. was about to send an -embassy to Flanders, to settle international disputes between the two -countries, it was not surprising that London merchants should complain to -the King of their own special grievances, and pray that their interests -might not be neglected. It seems that they pressed upon the King to attach -'Young More,' as he was still called, to the embassy, specially to -represent themselves. So, according to Roper, it was at the suit and -instance of the English merchants, 'and with the King's consent,' that in -May, 1515, More was sent out on an embassy with Bishop Tunstal, Sampson, -and others, into Flanders. - -The ambassadors were appointed generally to obtain a renewal and -continuance of the old treaties of intercourse between the two countries, -but More, aided by a John Clifford, 'governor of the English merchants,' -was specially charged with the _commercial_ matters in dispute: Wolsey -informing Sampson of this, and Sampson replying that he 'is pleased with -the honour of being named in the King's commission with Tunstal and "Young -More."'[547] - -The party were detained in the city of Bruges about four months.[548] They -found it by no means easy to allay the bitter feelings which had been -created by the prohibition of the export of wool, and other alleged -injuries.[549] In September they moved on to Brussels,[550] and in October -to Antwerp,[551] and it was not till towards the end of the year that -More, having at last successfully terminated his part in the negotiations, -was able to return home. - - -II. COLET'S SERMON ON THE INSTALLATION OF CARDINAL WOLSEY (1515). - -During the absence of More, on his embassy to Flanders, Wolsey, quit of a -Parliament which, however selfish and careless of the true interests of -the Commonweal, and especially of the poorer classes, had shown some -symptoms of grumbling at Royal demands, had pushed on more rapidly than -ever his schemes of personal ambition. - -His first step had been to procure from the Pope, through the good offices -of Henry VIII., a cardinal's hat. It might possibly be the first step even -to the papal chair; at least it would secure to him a position within the -realm second only to the throne. It chafed him that so unmanageable a man -as Warham should take precedence of himself. - -Let us try to realise the magnificent spectacle of the installation of the -great Cardinal, for the sake of the part _Colet_ took in it. - -[Sidenote: Installation of Cardinal Wolsey.] - -It was on Sunday, November 18, 1515, that the ceremony was performed in -Westminster Abbey. Mass was sung by Archbishop Warham (with whom Wolsey -had already quarrelled), Bishop Fisher acting as crosier-bearer. The -Bishop of Lincoln read the Gospel, and the Bishop of Exeter the Epistle. -The Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, the Bishops of Winchester, Durham, -Norwich, Ely, and Llandaff, the Abbots of Westminster, St. Alban's, Bury, -Glastonbury, Reading, Gloucester, Winchcombe, and Tewkesbury, and the -Prior of Coventry, were all in attendance 'in pontificalibus.' All the -magnates of the realm were collected to swell the pomp of the ceremony. -Before this august assemblage and crowds of spectators Dean Colet had to -deliver an address to Wolsey. - -[Sidenote: Colet preaches the sermon.] - -As was usual with him, he preached a sermon suited to the occasion, more -so perhaps than Wolsey intended. First speaking to the people, he -explained the meaning of the title of 'Cardinal,' the high honour and -dignity of the office, the reasons why it was conferred on Wolsey, -alluding, first, to his merits, naming some of his particular virtues and -services; secondly, to the desire of the Pope to show, by conferring this -dignity on one of the subjects of Henry VIII., his zeal and favour to his -grace. He dwelt upon the great power and dignity of the rank of cardinal, -how it corresponded to the order of 'Seraphim' in the celestial hierarchy, -'which continually burneth in the love of the glorious Trinity.'[552] And -having thus magnified the office of cardinal in the eyes of the people, he -turned to Wolsey--so proud, ambitious, and fond of magnificence--and -addressed to him these few faithful words: - -[Sidenote: Colet's address to Wolsey.] - -'Let not one in so proud a position, made most illustrious by the dignity -of such an honour, be puffed up by its greatness. But remember that our -Saviour, in his own person, said to his disciples, "I came not to be -ministered unto, but to minister," and "He who is least among you shall be -greatest in the kingdom of heaven;" and again, "He who exalts himself -shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted."' And then, -with reference to his secular duties, and having perhaps in mind the -rumours of Wolsey's partiality and the unfairness of recent legislation to -the poorer classes, he added--'My Lord Cardinal, be glad, and enforce -yourself always to do and execute righteousness to rich and _poor_, with -mercy and truth.' - -Then, addressing himself once more to the people, he desired them to pray -for the Cardinal, that 'he might observe these things, and in -accomplishing the same receive his reward in the kingdom of heaven.' - -This sermon ended, Wolsey, kneeling at the altar, had the formal service -read over him by Warham, and the cardinal's hat placed upon his head. The -'Te Deum' was then sung, and, surrounded by dukes and earls, Wolsey left -the Abbey and passed in gorgeous procession to his own decorated halls, -there to entertain the King and Queen, in all pomp and splendour, bent -upon pursuing his projects of self-exaltation, regardless of Colet's -honest words so faithfully spoken, and little dreaming that they would -ever find fulfilment in his own fall.[553] - -[Sidenote: Wolsey made Lord Chancellor.] - -Five weeks only after this event, on December 22, Warham resigned the -great seal into the King's hands, and the Cardinal Archbishop of York -assumed the additional title of Lord Chancellor of England.[554] On the -same day, Parliament, which had met again on November 12 to grant a -further subsidy, was dissolved, and Wolsey commenced to rule the kingdom, -according to his own will and pleasure, for eight years, without a -Parliament, and with but little regard to the opinions of other members of -the King's council. - - -III. MORE'S 'UTOPIA' (1515). - -It was whilst More's keen eye was anxiously watching the clouds gathering -upon the political horizon, and during the leisure snatched from the -business of his embassy, that he conceived the idea of embodying his -notions on social and political questions in a description of the -imaginary commonwealth of the Island of 'Utopia'--'Nusquama'--or -'Nowhere.'[555] - -It does not often happen that two friends, engaged in fellow-work, publish -in the same year two books, both of which take an independent and a -permanent place in the literature of Europe. But this may be said of the -'Novum Instrumentum' of Erasmus and the 'Utopia' of More. - -Still more remarkable is it that two such works, written by two such men, -should, in measure, be traceable to the influence and express the views of -a more obscure but greater man than they. Yet, in truth, much of the merit -of both these works belongs indirectly to Colet. - -As the 'Novum Instrumentum,' upon careful examination, proves to be the -expression, on the part of Erasmus, not merely of his own isolated views, -but of the views held in common by the little band of Oxford Reformers, on -the great subject of which it treats; so the 'Utopia' will be found to be -in great measure the expression, on More's part, of the views of the same -little band of friends on social and political questions. On most of these -questions Erasmus and More, in the main, thought alike: and they owed much -of their common convictions indirectly to the influence of Colet. - -The first book of the 'Utopia' was written after the second, under -circumstances and for reasons which will in due course be mentioned. - -[Sidenote: Second book of the 'Utopia' written first.] - -The second book was complete in itself, and contained the description, by -Raphael, the supposed traveller, of the Utopian commonwealth. Erasmus -informs us that More's intention in writing it was to point out where and -from what causes European commonwealths were at fault, and he adds that it -was written with special reference to _English_ politics, with which More -was most familiar.[556] - -Whilst, however, we trace its close connection with the political events -passing at the time in England, it must not be supposed that More was so -gifted with prescience that he knew what course matters would take. He -could not know, for instance, that Wolsey was about to take the reins of -government so completely into his own hands, as to dispense with a -Parliament for so many years to come. As yet, More and his friends, in -spite of Wolsey's ostentation and vanity, which they freely ridiculed, had -a high opinion of his character and powers. It was not unnatural that, -knowing that Wolsey was a friend to education, and, to some extent at -least, inclined to patronise the projects of Erasmus, they should hope for -the best. Hence the satire contained in 'Utopia' was not likely to be -directed personally against Wolsey, however much his policy might come in -for its share of criticisms along with the rest. - -The point of the 'Utopia' consisted in the contrast presented by its ideal -commonwealth to the condition and habits of the European commonwealths of -the period. This contrast is most often left to be drawn by the reader -from his own knowledge of contemporary politics, and hence the peculiar -advantage of the choice by More of such a vehicle for the bold satire it -contained. Upon any other hypothesis than that the evils against which its -satire was directed were admitted to be _real_, the romance of 'Utopia' -must also be admitted to be harmless. To pronounce it to be dangerous was -to admit its truth. - -[Sidenote: International policy of the Utopians.] - -Take, _e.g._, the following passage relating to the international policy -of the Utopians:-- - -'While other nations are always entering into leagues, and breaking and -renewing them, the Utopians never enter into a league with any nation. For -what is the use of a league? they say. As though there were no natural tie -between man and man! and as though any one who despised this natural tie -would, forsooth, regard mere words! They hold this opinion all the more -strongly, because in that quarter of the world the leagues and treaties of -princes are not observed as faithfully as they should be. For in _Europe_, -and especially in those parts of it where the Christian faith and religion -are professed, the sanctity of leagues is held sacred and inviolate; -partly owing to the justice and goodness of princes, and partly from their -fear and reverence of the authority of the Popes, who, as they themselves -never enter into obligations which they do not most religiously -perform[!], command other princes under all circumstances to abide by -_their_ promises, and punish delinquents by pastoral censure and -discipline. For indeed, with good reason, it would be thought a most -scandalous thing for those whose peculiar designation is "the faithful," -to be wanting in the faithful observance of treaties. But in those distant -regions ... no faith is to be placed in leagues, even though confirmed by -the most solemn ceremonies. Some flaw is easily found in their wording -which is intentionally made ambiguous so as to leave a loophole through -which the parties may break both their league and their faith. Which -craft--yes, _fraud_ and _deceit_--if it were perpetrated with respect to a -contract between private parties, they would indignantly denounce as -sacrilege and deserving the gallows, whilst those who suggest these very -things to princes, glory in being the authors of them. Whence it comes to -pass that justice seems altogether a plebeian and vulgar virtue, quite -below the dignity of royalty; or at least there must be two kinds of it, -the one for common people and the poor, very narrow and contracted, the -other, the virtue of princes, much more dignified and free, so that _that_ -only is unlawful to _them_ which they don't _like_. The morals of princes -being such in that region, it is not, I think, without reason that the -Utopians enter into no leagues at all. Perhaps they would alter their -opinion if they lived amongst us.'[557] - -[Sidenote: Its bitter satire on the policy of princes.] - -Read without reference to the international history of the period, these -passages appear perfectly harmless. But read in the light of that -political history which, during the past few years, had become so mixed up -with the personal history of the Oxford Reformers, recollecting '_how_ -religiously' treaties had been made and broken by almost every sovereign -in Europe--Henry VIII. and the Pope included--the words in which the -justice and goodness of European princes is so mildly and modestly -extolled, become almost as bitter in their tone as the cutting censure of -Erasmus in the 'Praise of Folly,' or his more recent and open satire upon -kings. - -[Sidenote: And on the warlike policy of Henry VIII.] - -Again, bearing in mind the wars of Henry VIII., and how evidently the love -of military glory was the motive which induced him to engage in them, the -following passage contains almost as direct and pointed a censure of the -King's passion for war as the sermon preached by Colet in his presence:-- - -'The Utopians hate war as plainly brutal, although practised more eagerly -by man than by any other animal. And contrary to the sentiment of nearly -every other nation, they regard nothing more inglorious than glory derived -from war.'[558] - -Turning from international politics to questions of internal policy, and -bearing in mind the hint of Erasmus, that More had in view chiefly the -politics of his own country, it is impossible not to recognise in the -'Utopia' the expression, again and again, of the _sense of wrong_ stirred -up in More's heart, as he had witnessed how every interest of the -commonwealth had been sacrificed to Henry VIII.'s passion for war; and -how, in sharing the burdens it entailed, and dealing with the social evils -it brought to the surface, the interests of the poor had been sacrificed -to spare the pockets of the rich; how, whilst the very wages of the -labourer had been taxed to support the long-continued war expenditure, a -selfish Parliament, under colour of the old 'statutes of labourers,' had -attempted to cut down the amount of his wages, and to rob him of that fair -rise in the price of his labour which the drain upon the labour market had -produced. - -[Sidenote: Satire on recent legislation and the statutes of labourers.] - -It is impossible not to recognise that the recent statutes of labourers -was the target against which More's satire was specially directed, in the -following paragraph:-- - -[Sidenote: Injustice to the labouring classes.] - -'Let any one dare to compare with the even justice which rules in Utopia, -the justice of other nations; amongst whom, let me die, if I find any -trace at all of equity and justice. For where is the justice, that -noblemen, goldsmiths, and usurers, and those classes who either do nothing -at all, or, in what they do, are of no great service to the commonwealth, -should live a genteel and splendid life in idleness or unproductive -labour; whilst in the meantime the servant, the waggoner, the mechanic, -and the peasant, toiling almost longer and harder than the horse, in -labour so necessary that no commonwealth could endure a year without it, -lead a life so wretched that the condition of the horse seems more to be -envied; his labour being less constant, his food more delicious to his -palate, and his mind disturbed by no fears for the future?... - -'Is not that republic unjust and ungrateful which confers such benefits -upon the gentry (as they are called) and goldsmiths and others of that -class, whilst it cares to do nothing at all for the benefit of peasants, -colliers, servants, waggoners, and mechanics, without which no republic -could exist? Is not that republic unjust which, after these men have spent -the springtime of their lives in labour, have become burdened with age and -disease, and are in want of every comfort, unmindful of all their toil, -and forgetful of all their services, rewards them only by a miserable -death? - -[Sidenote: Modern governments a conspiracy of the rich against the poor.] - -'Worse than all, the rich constantly endeavour to pare away something -further from the daily wages of the poor, by private fraud, _and even by -public laws_, so that the already existing injustice (that those from whom -the republic derives the most benefit should receive the least reward), is -made still more unjust _through the enactments of public law_! Thus, after -careful reflection, it seems to me, as I hope for mercy, that our modern -republics are nothing but a conspiracy of the rich, pursuing their own -selfish interests under the name of a republic. They devise and invent all -ways and means whereby they may, in the first place, secure to themselves -the possession of what they have amassed by evil means; and, in the second -place, secure to their own use and profit the work and labour of the poor -at the lowest possible price. And so soon as the rich, in the name of the -public (_i.e._ even in the name of the poor), choose to decide that these -schemes shall be adopted, then they become _law_!'[559] - -[Sidenote: The Utopian Commonwealth a true _community_.] - -The whole framework of the Utopian commonwealth bears witness to More's -conviction, that what should be aimed at in his own country and elsewhere, -was a true _community_--not a rich and educated aristocracy on the one -hand, existing side by side with a poor and ignorant peasantry on the -other--but _one people, well-to-do and educated throughout_. - -[Sidenote: Every child educated.] - -Thus, More's opinion was, that in England in his time, 'far more than four -parts of the whole [people], divided into ten, could never read -English,'[560] and probably the education of the other six-tenths was -anything but satisfactory. He shared Colet's faith in education, and -represented that in Utopia _every child was properly educated_.[561] - -[Sidenote: Reduction of the hours of labour.] - -Again the great object of the social economy of Utopia was not to increase -the abundance of luxuries, or to amass a vast accumulation in few hands, -or even in national or royal hands, but to _lessen the hours of labour to -the working man_. By spreading the burden of labour more evenly over the -whole community--by taking care that there shall be no idle classes, be -they beggars or begging friars--More expressed the opinion that the hours -of labour to the working man might probably be reduced to _six_.[562] - -[Sidenote: General sanitary arrangements.] - -Again: living himself in Bucklersbury, in the midst of all the dirt and -filth of London's narrow streets; surrounded by the unclean, -ill-ventilated houses of the poor, whose floors of clay and rushes, never -cleansed, were pointed out by Erasmus as breeding pestilence, and inviting -the ravages of the sweating sickness; himself a commissioner of sewers, -and having thus some practical knowledge of London's sanitary -arrangements; More described the towns of Utopia as well and regularly -built, with wide streets, waterworks, hospitals, and numerous common -halls; all the houses well protected from the weather, as nearly as might -be fireproof, three stories high, with plenty of windows, and doors both -back and front, the back door always opening into a well-kept garden.[563] -All this was Utopian doubtless, and the result in Utopia of the still more -Utopian abolition of private property; but the gist and point of it -consisted in the contrast it presented with what he saw around him in -Europe, and especially in England, and men could hardly fail to draw the -lesson he intended to teach. - -It will not be necessary here to dwell further upon the details of the -social arrangements of More's ideal commonwealth,[564] or to enter at -length upon the philosophical opinions of the Utopians; but a word or two -will be needful to point out the connection of the latter with the views -of that little band of friends whose joint history I am here trying to -trace. - -[Sidenote: Faith in both science and religion.] - -One of the points most important and characteristic is the _fearless faith -in the laws of nature combined with a profound faith in religion_, which -runs through the whole work, and which may, I think, be traced also in -every chapter of the history of the Oxford Reformers. Their scientific -knowledge was imperfect, as it needs must have been, before the days of -Copernicus and Newton; but they had their eyes fearlessly open in every -direction, with no foolish misgivings lest science and Christianity might -be found to clash. They remembered (what is not always remembered in this -nineteenth century), that if there be any truth in Christianity, Nature -and her laws on the one hand and Christianity and her laws on the other, -being framed and fixed by the same Founder, must be in harmony, and that -therefore for Christians to act contrary to the laws of Nature, or to shut -their eyes to facts, on the ground that they are opposed to Christianity, -is--to speak plainly--to fight against one portion of the Almighty's laws -under the supposed sanction of another; to fight, therefore, without the -least chance of success, and with every prospect of doing harm instead of -good. - -[Sidenote: Theory of morals both Utilitarian and Christian.] - -Hence the moral philosophy of the Utopians was both Utilitarian and -Christian. Its distinctive features, according to More, were--1st, that -they placed _pleasure_ (in the sense of 'utility') as the chief object of -life; and 2ndly, that they drew their arguments in support of this as well -from the principles of religion as from natural reason.[565] - -They defined 'pleasure' as 'every emotion or state of body or mind in -which nature leads us to take delight.' And from reason they deduced, as -modern utilitarians do, that not merely the pleasure of the moment must be -regarded as the object of life, but what will produce the greatest amount -and highest kind of pleasure in the long run; that, _e.g._ a greater -pleasure must not be sacrificed to a lesser one, or a pleasure pursued -which will be followed by pain. And from reason they also deduced that, -nature having bound men together by the ties of Society, and no one in -particular being a special favourite of nature, men are bound, in the -pursuit of pleasure, to regard the pleasures of others as well as their -own--to act, in fact, in the spirit of the golden rule; which course of -action, though it may involve some immediate sacrifice, they saw clearly -never costs so much as it brings back, both in the interchange of mutual -benefits, and in the mental pleasure of conferring kindnesses on others. -And thus they arrived at the same result as modern utilitarians, that, -while 'nature enjoins _pleasure_ as the end of all men's efforts,' she -enjoins such a reasonable and far-sighted pursuit of it that 'to live by -this rule is "_virtue_."' - -In other words, in Utopian philosophy, '_utility_' was recognised as _a_ -criterion of right and wrong; and from experience of what, under the laws -of Nature, is man's real far-sighted interest, was derived _a_ sanction to -the golden rule. And thus, instead of setting themselves against the -doctrine of utility, as some would do, on the ground of a supposed -opposition to Christianity, they recognised the identity between the two -standards. They recognised, as Mr. Mill urges, that Christians ought to do -now, 'in the golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth, the complete spirit of the -ethics of utility.'[566] - -The Utopians had no hesitation in defining 'virtue' as 'living according -to nature;' for, they said, 'to this end we have been created by God.' -Their religion itself taught them that 'God in his goodness created men -for happiness;' and therefore there was nothing unnatural in his -rewarding, with the promise of endless happiness hereafter, that 'virtue' -which is living according to those very laws of nature which He Himself -established to promote the happiness of men on earth. - -Nor was this, in More's hands, a merely philosophical theory. He made the -right practical use of it, in correcting those false notions of religion -and piety which had poisoned the morality of the middle ages, and soured -the devotion even of those mediaeval mystics whose mission it was to uphold -the true religion of the heart. Who does not see that the deep devotion -even of a Tauler, or of a Thomas a Kempis, would have been deepened had -it recognised the truth that the religion of Christ was intended to add -heartiness and happiness to daily life, and not to draw men out of it; -that the highest ideal of virtue is, not to stamp out those feelings and -instincts which, under the rule of selfishness, make a hell of earth, but -so, as it were, to tune them into harmony, that, under the guidance of a -heart of love, they may add to the charm and the perfectness of life? The -ascetic himself who, seeing the vileness and the misery which spring out -of selfish riot in pleasure, condemns natural pleasure as almost in itself -a sin, fills the heaven of his dreams with white robes, golden crowns, -harps, music and angelic songs. Even _his_ highest ideal of perfect -existence is the unalloyed enjoyment of pleasure. He is a Utilitarian in -his dreams of heaven. - -More, in his 'Utopia,' dreamed of this celestial morality as practised -under earthly conditions. He had banished selfishness from his -commonwealth. He was bitter as any ascetic against vanity, and empty show, -and shams of all kinds, as well as all sensuality and excess; but his -definition of 'virtue' as 'living according to nature' made him reject the -ascetic notion of virtue as consisting in crossing all natural desires, in -abstinence from natural pleasure, and stamping out the natural instincts. -The Utopians, More said, 'gratefully acknowledged the tenderness of the -great Father of nature, who hath given us appetites which make the things -necessary for our preservation also agreeable to us. How miserable would -life be if hunger and thirst could only be relieved by bitter drugs.'[567] -Hence, too, the Utopians esteemed it not only 'madness,' but also -'_ingratitude to God_,' to waste the body by fasting, or to reject the -delights of life, unless by so doing a man can serve the public or promote -the happiness of others.[568] - -[Sidenote: The reverence of the Utopians for natural science.] - -Hence also they regarded the pursuit of natural science, the 'searching -out the secrets of nature,' not only as an agreeable pursuit, but as -'peculiarly acceptable to God.'[569] Seeing that they believed that 'the -first dictate of reason is love and reverence for Him to whom we owe all -we have and all we can hope for,'[570] it was natural that they should -regard the pursuit of science rather as a part of their religion than as -in any way antagonistic to it. But their science was not likely to be -speculative and dogmatic like that of the Schoolmen; accordingly, whilst -they were said to be very expert in the mathematical sciences (_numerandi -et metiendi scientia_), they knew nothing, More said, 'of what even boys -learn here in the "_Parva logicalia_;"' and whilst, by long use and -observation, they had acquired very exact knowledge of the motions of the -planets and stars, and even of winds and weather, and had invented very -exact instruments, they had never dreamed, More said, of those -astrological arts of divination 'which are now-a-days in vogue amongst -Christians.'[571] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Their religion broad and tolerant.] - -[Sidenote: No man punished for his religion.] - -From the expression of so fearless a faith in the consistency of -Christianity with science, it might be inferred that More would represent -the religion of the Utopians as at once broad and tolerant. It could not -logically be otherwise. The Utopians, we are told, differed very widely; -but notwithstanding all their different objects of worship, they agreed -in thinking that there is one Supreme Being who made and governs the -world. By the exigencies of the romance, the Christian religion had only -been recently introduced into the island. It existed there side by side -with other and older religions, and hence the difficulties of complete -toleration in Utopia were much greater hypothetically than they would be -in any European country. Still, sharing Colet's hatred of persecution, -More represented that it was one of the oldest laws of Utopia 'that no man -is to be punished for his religion.' Every one might be of any religion he -pleased, and might use argument to induce others to accept it. It was only -when men resorted to other force than that of persuasion, using reproaches -and violence, that they were banished from Utopia; and _then_, not on -account of their religion, and irrespective of whether their religion were -true or false, but for sowing sedition and creating a tumult.[572] - -This law Utopus founded to preserve the public peace, and for the -interests of religion itself. Supposing only one religion to be true and -the rest false (which he dared not rashly assert), Utopus had faith that -in the long run the innate force of truth would prevail, if supported only -by fair argument, and not damaged by resort to violence and tumult. Thus, -he did not punish even avowed atheists, although he considered them unfit -for any public trust.[573] - -[Sidenote: Priests of both sexes selected by ballot.] - -[Sidenote: Utopian priests.] - -Their priests were very few in number, of either sex,[574] and, like all -their other magistrates, elected by ballot (_suffragiis occultis_);[575] -and it was a point of dispute even with the Utopian _Christians_, whether -_they_ could not elect their own Christian priests in like manner, and -qualify them to perform all priestly offices, without any apostolic -succession or authority from the Pope.[576] Their priests were, in fact, -rather conductors of the public worship, inspectors of the public morals, -and ministers of education, than 'priests' in any sacerdotal sense of the -word. Thus whilst representing _Confession_ as in common use amongst the -Utopians, More significantly described them as confessing not to the -priests but to the heads of families.[577] Whilst also, as in Europe, such -was the respect shown them that they were not amenable to the civil -tribunals, it was said to be on account of the extreme fewness of their -number, and the high character secured by their mode of election, that no -great inconvenience resulted from this exemption in Utopian practice. - -If the diversity of religions in Utopia made it more difficult to suppose -perfect toleration, and thus made the contrast between Utopian and -European practice in this respect all the more telling, so also was this -the case in respect to the conduct of _public worship_. - -[Sidenote: Public worship in Utopia.] - -The hatred of the Oxford Reformers for the endless dissensions of European -Christians; the advice Colet was wont to give to theological students, 'to -keep to the Bible and the Apostles' Creed, and let divines, if they like, -dispute about the rest;' the appeal of Erasmus to Servatius, whether it -would not be better for 'all Christendom to be regarded as one monastery, -and all Christians as belonging to the same religious brotherhood,'--all -pointed, if directed to the practical question of public worship, to a -mode of worship in which all of every shade of sentiment could unite. - -This might be a dream even then, while as yet Christendom was nominally -united in one Catholic Church; and still more practically impossible in a -country like Utopia, where men worshipped the Supreme Being under -different symbols and different names, as it might be now even in a -Protestant country like England, where religion seems to be the source of -social divisions and castes rather than a tie of brotherhood, separating -men in their education, in their social life, and even in their graves, by -the hard line of sectarian difference. It might be a dream, but it was one -worth a place in the dream-land of More's ideal commonwealth. - -[Sidenote: All sects unite in public worship.] - -Temples, nobly built and spacious, in whose solemn twilight men of all -sects meet, in spite of their distinctions, to unite in a public worship -avowedly so arranged that nothing may be seen or heard which shall jar -with the feelings of any class of the worshippers--nothing in which all -cannot unite (for every sect performs its own _peculiar_ rites in -_private_);--no images, so that every one may represent the Deity to his -own thoughts in his own way; no forms of prayer, but such as every one may -use without prejudice to his own private opinion;--a service so expressive -of their common brotherhood that they think it a great impiety to enter -upon it with a consciousness of anger or hatred to any one, without having -first purified their hearts and reconciled every difference; incense and -other sweet odours and waxen lights burned, not from any notion that they -can confer any benefit on God, which even men's prayers cannot, but -because they are useful aids to the worshippers;[578] the men occupying -one side of the temple, the women the other, and all clothed in white; -the whole people rising as the priest who conducts the worship enters the -temple in his beautiful vestments, wonderfully wrought of birds' plumage, -to join in hymns of praise, accompanied by music; then priest and people -uniting in solemn prayer to God in a set form of words, so composed that -each can apply its meaning to himself, offering thanks for the blessings -which surround them, for the happiness of their commonwealth, for their -having embraced a religious persuasion which they _hope_ is the most true -one; praying that if they are mistaken they may be led to what is _really_ -the true one, so that all may be brought to unity of faith and practice, -unless in his inscrutable will the Almighty should otherwise ordain; and -concluding with a prayer that, as soon as it may please Him, He may take -them to Himself; lastly, this prayer concluded, the whole congregation -bowing solemnly to the ground, and then, after a short pause, separating -to spend the remainder of the day in innocent amusement,--this was More's -ideal of public worship![579] - -Such was the second book of the 'Utopia,' probably written by More whilst -on the embassy, towards the close of 1515, or soon after his return. Well -might he conclude with the words, 'I freely confess that many things in -the commonwealth of Utopia I rather _wish_ than _hope_ to see adopted in -_our own_!' - - -IV. THE 'INSTITUTIO PRINCIPIS CHRISTIANI' OF ERASMUS (1516). - -Some months before More began to write his 'Utopia,' Erasmus had commenced -a little treatise with a very similar object. In the spring of 1515, -while staying with More in London, he had mentioned, in a letter to -Cardinal Grimanus[580] at Rome, that he was already at work on his -'Institutes of the Christian Prince,' designed for the benefit of Prince -Charles, into whose honorary service he had recently been drawn. - -[Sidenote: Connection between the 'Utopia' and the 'Christian Prince.'] - -The similarity in the sentiments expressed in this little treatise and in -the 'Utopia' would lead to the conclusion that they were written in -concert by the two friends, as their imitations of Lucian had been under -similar circumstances. Political events must have often formed the topic -of their conversation when together in the spring; and the connection of -the one with the Court of Henry VIII. and the other with that of Prince -Charles, would be likely to give their thoughts a practical direction. -Possibly they may have parted with the understanding that, independently -of each other, both works should be written on the common subject, and -expressing their common views. Be this as it may, while More went on his -embassy to Flanders, and returned to write his 'Utopia,' Erasmus went to -Basle to correct the proof-sheets of the 'Novum Instrumentum,' and to -finish the 'Institutio Principis Christiani.' - -On his return from Basle in the spring of the following year Erasmus -brought his manuscript with him, and left it under the care of the -Chancellor of Prince Charles,[581] to be printed by Thierry Martins, the -printer of Louvain, whilst he himself proceeded to England. Thus it was -being printed while Erasmus was in England in August 1516, and while the -manuscript of the second book of More's 'Utopia' was still lying -unpublished, waiting until More should find leisure to write the -Introductory Book which he was intending to prefix to it. - - * * * * * - -The publication by Erasmus of the 'Christian Prince' so soon after the -'Novum Instrumentum' that the two came before the public together was not -without its significance. It gave to the public expression of the views of -Erasmus that wideness and completeness of range which More had given to -his views by embracing both religious and political subjects in his as yet -unpublished 'Utopia.' - -[Sidenote: Christianity and the laws of nature.] - -By laying hold of the truth that the laws of nature and Christianity owe -their origin to the same great Founder, More had adopted the one -standpoint from which alone, in the long run, the Christian in an age of -rapid progress can look calmly on the discoveries of science and -philosophy without fears for his faith. He had trusted his bark to the -current, because he was sure it must lead into the ocean of truth; while -other men, for lack of that faith, were hugging the shore, mistaking -forsooth, in their idle dreams, the shallow bay in which they had moored -their craft for the fathomless ocean itself! This faith of More's had been -shared by Colet--nay, most probably More had caught it from him. It was -Colet who had been the first of the little group of Oxford Reformers to -proclaim that Christianity had nothing to fear from the 'new -learning,'--witness his school, and the tone and spirit of his Oxford -lectures. Erasmus, too, had shared in this same faith. In his 'Novum -Instrumentum' he had placed Christianity, so far as he was able, in its -proper place--at the head of the advanced thought of the age. - -But More had gone one step further. The man who believes that Christianity -and the laws of nature were thus framed in perfect harmony by the same -Founder must have faith in _both_. As he will not shrink from accepting -the results of science and philosophy, so he will not shrink, on the other -hand, from carrying out Christianity into practice in every department of -social and political life. - -Accordingly More had fearlessly done this in his 'Utopia.' And this Colet -also had done in his own practical way; preaching Christian politics to -Henry VIII. and Wolsey, from his pulpit as occasion required, believing -Christianity to be equally of force in the sphere of international policy -as within the walls of a cloister. And now, in the 'Institutio Principis -Christiani,' Erasmus followed in the same track for the special benefit of -Prince Charles, who, then sixteen years old, had succeeded, on the death -of Ferdinand in the spring of 1516, to the crowns of Castile and Aragon, -as well as to the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily and of the island of -Sardinia. - -[Sidenote: '_The Prince_,' of Machiavelli.] - -[Sidenote: Hugo Grotius.] - -The full significance of this joint action of the three friends will only -be justly appreciated if it be taken into account that probably, at the -very moment when Erasmus was writing his 'Christian Prince' and More his -'Utopia,' the as yet unpublished manuscript of '_The Prince_' of -_Machiavelli_ was lying in the study of its author. The semi-pagan school -of Italy was not only drifting into the denial of Christianity itself, but -it had already cast aside the Christian standard of morals as one which -would not work in practice at least in political affairs. The -Machiavellian theory was already avowedly accepted and acted upon in -international affairs by the Pope himself; and indeed, as I have said, it -was not a theory invented by Machiavelli; what that great philosopher had -achieved was rather the codification of the current practice and -traditions of the age.[582] A revolution had to be wrought in public -feeling before the Christian theory of politics could be established in -place of the one then in the ascendant--a revolution to attempt which at -that time might well have seemed like a forlorn hope. But placed as the -Oxford Reformers were, so close to the ears of royalty, in a position -which gave them some influence at least with Henry VIII., with Prince -Charles, and with Leo X., it was their duty to do what they could. And -possibly it may have been in some measure owing to their labours that a -century later Hugo Grotius, the father of the modern international system, -was able in the name of Europe to reject the Machiavellian theory as one -that would not work, and to adopt in its place the Christian theory as the -one which was sanctioned by the laws of nature, and upon which alone it -was safe to found the polity of the civilised world.[583] - -It may be worth while to notice also one other point which may be said to -turn upon this perception of the relation of Christianity to the laws of -nature. - -To the man who does not recognise the harmony between them, religion and -the world are divorced, as it were. Religion has no place in politics or -business, and scarcely even in family life. These secular matters begin to -be considered as the devil's concerns. A man must choose whether he will -be a monk or man of the world, or still more often he tries to live at the -same time two separate lives, the one sacred, the other secular, trusting -that he shall be able to atone for the sins of the one by the penances and -devotions of the other. This was the condition into which the dogmatic -creed of the Schoolmen had, in fact, brought its adherents. It is a matter -of notorious history that there _had_ grown up this vicious severance -between the clergy and the laity, and between things religious and -secular, and that in consequence religion had lost its practical and -healthy tone, while worldly affairs were avowedly conducted in a worldly -spirit. The whole machinery of confession, indulgences, and penances bore -witness as well to the completeness of the severance as to the -hopelessness of any reunion. - -But to the man who _does_ recognise in the laws of nature the laws of the -Giver of the golden rule, the distinction between things religious and -things secular begins to give way. In proportion as his heart becomes -Christian, and thus catches the spirit of the golden rule, and his mind -becomes enlightened and begins to understand the laws of social and -political economy, in that proportion does his religion lose its ascetic -and sickly character, and find its proper sphere, not in the fulfilment of -a routine of religious observances, but in the honest discharge of the -daily duties which belong to his position in life. - -[Sidenote: The '_Christian Prince_' of Erasmus.] - -The position assumed by Erasmus in these respects will be best learned by -a brief examination of the 'Institutes of the Christian Prince.' - -First he struck at the root of the notion that a prince having received -his kingdom _jure Divino_ had a right to use it for his own selfish ends. -He laid down at starting the proposition that the one thing which a -'prince ought to keep in view in the administration of his government is -that same thing which a people ought to keep in view in choosing a prince, -viz. _the public good_.'[584] - -Christianity in his view was as obligatory on a prince as on a priest or -monk. Thus he wrote to Prince Charles:-- - -'As often as it comes into your mind that you are a prince, call to mind -also that you are a _Christian_ prince.'[585] - -[Sidenote: Duties of a Christian Prince to his people.] - -But the Christianity he spoke of was a very different thing from what it -was thought to be by many. 'Do not think,' he wrote, 'that Christianity -consists in ceremonies, that is, in the observance of the decrees and -constitutions of the Church. The Christian is not he who is baptized, or -he who is consecrated, or he who is present at holy rites; but he who is -united to Christ in closest affection, and who shows it by his holy -actions.... Do not think that you have done your duty to Christ when you -have sent a fleet against the Turks, or when you have founded a church or -a monastery. There is no duty by the performance of which _you_ can more -secure the favour of God _than by making yourself a prince useful to the -people_.'[586] - -Having taken at the outset this healthy and practical view of the -relations of Christianity to the conduct of a prince, Erasmus proceeded to -refer everything to the Christian standard. Thus he continued:-- - -'If you find that you cannot defend your kingdom, without violating -justice, without shedding much human blood, without much injury to -religion, rather lay it down and retire from it.' - -But he was not to retire from the duties of his kingdom merely to save -himself from trouble or danger. 'If you cannot defend the interests of -your people without risk to your life, prefer the public good even to your -own life.'[587]... The Christian prince should be a true father to his -people.[588] - -The good of the people was from the Christian point of view to override -everything else, even royal prerogatives. - -[Sidenote: Limited monarchy the best.] - -'If princes were perfect in every virtue, a pure and simple monarchy -might be desirable; but as this can hardly ever be in actual practice, as -human affairs are now, a _limited monarchy_[589] is preferable, one in -which the aristocratic and democratic elements are mixed and united, and -so balance one another.'[590] And lest Prince Charles should kick against -the pricks, and shrink from the abridgment of his autocratic power, -Erasmus tells him that 'if a prince wish well to the republic, his power -will not be restrained, but aided by these means.'[591] - -After contrasting the position of the pagan and Christian prince, Erasmus -further remarks:-- - -[Sidenote: Consent of the people makes a Prince.] - -'He who wields his empire as becomes a Christian, does not _part_ with his -right, but he holds it in a different way; both more gloriously and more -safely.... Those are not your subjects whom you _force_ to obey you, for -it is _consent_ which makes a prince, but those are your true subjects who -serve you voluntarily.... The duties between a prince and people are -_mutual_. The people owe _you_ taxes, loyalty, and honour; you in your -turn ought to be to the people a good and watchful prince. If you wish to -levy taxes on your people as of right, take care that you first perform -your part--first in the discharge of your duties pay _your_ taxes to -them.'[592] - -[Sidenote: Taxes should not oppress the poor.] - -Proceeding from the general to the particular, there is a separate -chapter, 'De Vectigalibus et Exactionibus,' remarkable for the clear -expression of the views which More had advanced in his 'Utopia,' and -which the Oxford Reformers held in common, with regard to the unchristian -way in which the interests of the poor were too often sacrificed and lost -sight of in the levying of taxes. The great aim of a prince, he contended, -should be to reduce taxation as much as possible. Rather than increase it, -it would be better, he wrote, for a prince to reduce his unnecessary -expenditure, to dismiss idle ministers, to avoid wars and foreign -enterprises, to restrain the rapacity of ministers, and rather to study -the right administration of revenues than their augmentation. If it should -be really necessary to exact something from the people, then, he -maintained, it is the part of a good prince to choose such ways of doing -so as should cause as little inconvenience as possible to those of -_slender means_. It may perhaps be expedient to call upon the rich to be -frugal; but to reduce the _poor_ to hunger and crime would be both most -inhuman and also hardly _safe_.... It requires care also, he continued, -lest the inequality of property should be too great. 'Not that I would -wish to take away any property from any one by force, but that means -should be taken to prevent the wealth of the multitude from getting into -few hands.'[593] - -[Sidenote: Necessaries of life should not be taxed.] - -[Sidenote: It is best to tax luxuries.] - -Erasmus then proceeded to inquire what mode of taxation would prove least -burdensome to the people. And the conclusion he came to was, that 'a good -prince will burden with as few taxes as possible such things as are in -_common use amongst the lowest classes_, such things as corn, bread, beer, -wine, clothes, and other things necessary to life. Whereas these are what -are now most burdened, and that in more than one way; first by heavy taxes -which are farmed out, and commonly called _assizes_; then by _customs_, -which again are farmed out in the same way; lastly by _monopolies_, from -which little revenue comes to the prince, while the poor are mulcted with -great charges. Therefore it would be best, as I have said, that a prince -should increase his revenue by contracting his expenditure; ... and if he -cannot avoid taxing something, and the affairs of the people require it, -let those foreign products be taxed which minister not so much to the -necessities of life as to _luxury and pleasure, and which are used only by -the rich_; as, for instance, fine linen, silk, purple, pepper, spices, -ointments, gems, and whatever else is of that kind.'[594] - -Erasmus wound up this chapter on taxation by applying the principles of -common honesty to the question of _coinage_, in connection with which many -iniquities were perpetrated by princes in the sixteenth century. - -[Sidenote: Honesty in regard to the coinage.] - -'Finally, in coining money a good prince will maintain that good faith -which he owes to both God and man, ... in which matter there are four ways -in which the people are wont to be plundered, as we saw some time ago -after the death of Charles, when a long anarchy more hurtful than any -tyranny afflicted your dominions. First the metal of the coins is -deteriorated by mixture with alloys, next its weight is lessened, then it -is diminished by clipping, and lastly its nominal value is increased or -lowered whenever such a process would be likely to suit the exchequer of -the prince.'[595] - -In the chapter on the '_Making and Amending of Laws_,'[596] Erasmus in the -same way fixes upon some of the points which are so prominently mentioned -in the 'Utopia.' - -[Sidenote: Prevention of crime rather than punishment.] - -Thus he urges that the greatest attention should be paid, not to the -punishment of crimes when committed, but to the prevention of the -commission of crimes worthy of punishment. Again, there is a paragraph in -which it is urged that just as a wise surgeon does not proceed to -amputation except as a last resort, so all remedies should be tried before -_capital punishment_ is resorted to.[597] This was one of the points urged -by More. - -[Sidenote: The nobility.] - -[Sidenote: War.] - -Thus also in speaking of the removal of occasions and causes of crime, he -urged, just as More had done, that idle people should either be set to -work or banished from the realm. The number of priests and monasteries -should be kept in moderation. Other idle classes--especially -soldiers--should not be allowed. As to the nobility, he would not, he -said, detract from the honour of their noble birth, if their character -were noble also. 'But if they are such as we see plenty nowadays, softened -by ease, made effeminate by pleasure, unskilled in all good arts, -revellers, eager sportsmen, not to say anything worse; ... why should this -race of men be preferred to shoemakers or husbandmen?'[598] The next -chapter is '_De Magistratibus et Officiis_,' and then follows one, '_De -Foederibus_,'[599] in which Erasmus takes the same ground as that taken by -More, that Christianity itself is a bond of union between Christian -nations which ought to make leagues unnecessary.[600] In the chapter '_De -Bello suscipiendo_,' he expressed his well-known hatred of war. 'A good -prince,' he said, 'will never enter upon any war at all unless after -trying all possible means it cannot be avoided. If we were of this mind, -scarcely any wars would ever occur between any nations. Lastly, if so -pestilential a thing cannot be avoided, it should be the next care of a -prince that it should be waged with as little evil as possible to his -people, and as little expense as possible of Christian blood, and as -quickly as possible brought to an end.' It was natural that, holding as he -did in common with Colet and More such strong views against war, he should -express them as strongly in this little treatise as he had already done -elsewhere. It is not needful here to follow his remarks throughout. It -would involve much repetition. But it may be interesting to inquire what -remedy or substitutes for war be proposed. He mentioned two. First, the -reference of disputes between princes to arbitrators; second, the -disposition on the part of princes rather to concede a point in dispute -than to insist upon it at far greater cost than the thing is worth.[601] - -[Sidenote: Conclusion.] - -He concludes this, the last chapter of the book, with a personal appeal to -Prince Charles. 'Christ founded a bloodless empire. He wished it always to -be bloodless. He delighted to call himself the "Prince of _Peace_." May He -grant likewise that by _your_ good offices and by _your_ wisdom there may -be a cessation at last from the maddest of wars. The remembrance of past -evils will commend peace to our acceptance, and the calamities of former -times redouble the honour of the benefits conferred by _you_!' - -This was the 'Institutio Principis Christiani' of Erasmus; a work written, -as I have said, while More was writing his 'Utopia,' but printed in August -1516, at Louvain, while Erasmus was in England, and while the manuscript -of the 'Utopia' was lying unpublished, waiting for the completion of -More's Introduction. - - -V. MORE COMPLETES HIS 'UTOPIA'--THE INTRODUCTORY BOOK (1516). - -More's Introduction was still unwritten, and the 'Utopia' thus in an -unfinished state, when Erasmus arrived in England in the autumn of 1516. -Erasmus seems on this occasion to have spent more time with Fisher at -Rochester than with More in London; but he at least paid the latter a -short visit on his way to Rochester,[602] and repeated it before leaving -England. The latter visit seems also to have been more than a flying one, -for we find him writing to Ammonius, that he might possibly stay a few -days longer in England, were he not 'afraid of making himself a stale -guest to More's wife.'[603] Encouraged as More doubtless was by Erasmus, -and spurred on by the knowledge that the 'Institutio Principis Christiani' -was already in the press, he still does not seem to have been able to find -time to complete his manuscript before Erasmus left England. Probably, -however, it was arranged between them that it should be completed and -printed with as little delay as possible at the same press and in the same -type and form as Erasmus's work. - -[Sidenote: 'Utopia' sent to the press.] - -The manuscript was accordingly sent after Erasmus in October,[604] and by -him and Peter Giles at once placed in the hands of Thierry Martins for -publication at Louvain.[605] - -This long delay in the completion of the 'Utopia' had been caused by a -concurrence of circumstances. More had been closely occupied by public -matters, in addition to his judicial duties in the city, and a large -private practice at the bar--a combination of pressing engagements likely -to leave him but little leisure for literary purposes. Even when the daily -routine of public labours was completed, there were domestic duties which -it was not in his nature to neglect. He was passionately fond of his home, -and 'reckoned the enjoyment of his family a necessary part of the business -of the man who does not wish to be a stranger in his own house.'[606] - -Nor did the 'Utopia' itself suffer from the delay in its publication. -Instead of losing its freshness it gained in interest and point; for, as -it happened, the introductory book was written under circumstances which -gave it a peculiar value which it could not otherwise have had. - -On More's return to England from his foreign mission, he had been obliged -to throw himself again into the vortex of public business. The singular -discretion and ability displayed by him in the conduct of the delicate -negotiations entrusted to his charge on this and another occasion, had -induced Henry VIII. to try to attach him to his court. - -[Sidenote: More declines to enter the Royal service.] - -Hitherto he had acted more on behalf of the London merchants than directly -for the King. Now Wolsey was ordered to retain him in the King's service. -More was unwilling, however, to accede to the proposal, and made excuses. -Wolsey, thinking no doubt that he shrank from relinquishing the emoluments -of his position as undersheriff, and the income arising from his practice -at the bar, offered him a pension, and suggested that the King could not, -consistently with his honour, offer him less than the income he would -relinquish by entering his service.[607] More wrote to Erasmus that he had -declined the pension, and thought he should continue to do so; he -preferred, he said, his present judicial position to a higher one, and was -afraid that were he to accept a pension without relinquishing it, his -fellow-citizens would lose their confidence in his impartiality in case -any questions were to arise, as they sometimes did, between them and the -Crown. The fact that he was indebted to the King for his pension might -make them think him a little the less true to their cause.[608] Wolsey -reported More's refusal to the King, who it seems honourably declined to -press him further at present.[609] Such, however, was More's popularity in -the city, and the rising estimation in which he was held, that it was -evident the King would not rest until he had drawn him into his -service--yes, '_dragged_,' exclaims Erasmus, 'for no one ever tried harder -to get admitted to court than he did to keep out of it.'[610] - -[Sidenote: Writes the Introductory Book to explain his reasons.] - -As the months of 1516 went by, More, feeling that his entry into Royal -service was only a question of time, determined, it would seem, to take -the opportunity, while as yet he was free and unfettered, to insert in the -introduction to his unfinished 'Utopia' still more pointed allusion to one -or two matters relating to the social condition of the country and the -policy of Henry VIII.; also at the same time to make some public -explanation of his reluctance to enter the service of his sovereign. - -The prefatory book which More now added to his description of the -commonwealth of Utopia was arranged so as to introduce the latter to the -reader in a way likely to attract his interest, and to throw an air of -reality over the romance. - -[Sidenote: More's imaginary story.] - -[Sidenote: Meets Raphael.] - -More related how he had been sent as an ambassador to Flanders in company -with Tunstal, to compose some important disputes between Henry VIII. and -Prince Charles. They met the Flemish ambassadors at Bruges. They had -several meetings without coming to an agreement. While the others went -back to Brussels to consult their prince, More went to Antwerp to see his -friend Peter Giles. One day, coming from mass, he saw Giles talking to a -stranger--a man past middle age, his face tanned, his beard long, his -cloak hanging carelessly about him, and wearing altogether the aspect of a -seafaring man. - -More then related how he had joined in the conversation, which turned upon -the manners and habits of the people of the new lands which Raphael (for -that was the stranger's name) had visited in voyages he had recently taken -with Vespucci. After he had told them how well and wisely governed were -some of these newly-found peoples, and especially the Utopians, and here -and there had thrown in just criticisms on the defects of European -governments, Giles asked the question, why, with all his knowledge and -judgment, he did not enter into Royal service, in which his great -experience might be turned to so good an account? Raphael expressed in -reply his unwillingness to enter into Royal servitude. Giles explained -that he did not mean any '_servitude_' at all, but _honourable service_, -in which he might confer great public benefits, as well as increase his -own happiness. The other replied that he did not see how he was to be made -happier by doing what would be so entirely against his inclinations. Now -he was free to do as he liked, and he suspected very few courtiers could -say the same. - -[Sidenote: Why Raphael will not enter into Royal service.] - -Here More put in a word, and urged that even though it might be against -the grain to Raphael, he ought not to throw away the great influence for -good which he might exert by entering the council of some great prince. -Raphael replied that his friend More was doubly mistaken. His talents were -not so great as he supposed, and if they were, his sacrifice of rest and -peace would be thrown away. It would do no good, for nearly all princes -busy themselves far more in military affairs (of which, he said, he -neither had, nor wished to have, any experience), than in the good arts of -peace. They care a great deal more how, by fair means or foul, to acquire -new kingdoms, than how to govern well those which they have already. -Besides, their ministers either are, or think that they are, too wise to -listen to any new counsellor; and, if they ever do so, it is only to -attach to their own interest some one whom they see to be rising in their -prince's favour. - -[Sidenote: Raphael on the number of thieves in England.] - -After this, Raphael having made a remark which showed that he had been in -England, the conversation turned incidentally upon _English_ affairs, and -Raphael proceeded to tell how once at the table of Cardinal Morton he had -expressed his opinions freely upon the social evils of England. He had on -this occasion, he said, ventured to condemn the system of the wholesale -execution of thieves, who were hanged so fast that there were sometimes -twenty on a gibbet.[611] The severity was both unjustly great, and also -ineffectual. No punishment, however severe, could deter those from robbing -who can find no other means of livelihood. - -Then Raphael is made to allude to three causes why the number of thieves -was so large:-- - -1st. There are numbers of wounded and disbanded soldiers who are unable to -resume their old employments, and are too old to learn new ones. - -2nd. The gentry who live at ease out of the labour of others, keep around -them so great a number of idle fellows not brought up to any trade, that -often, from the death of their lord or their own illness, numbers of these -idle fellows are liable to be thrown upon the world without resources, to -steal or starve. Raphael then is made to ridicule the notion that it is -needful to maintain this idle class, as some argue, in order to keep up a -reserve of men ready for the army, and still more severely to criticise -the notion that it is necessary to keep a standing army in time of peace. -France, he said, had found to her cost the evil of keeping in readiness -these human wild beasts, as also had Rome, Carthage, and Syria, in ancient -times. - -[Sidenote: Raphael on the rage for pasture-farming.] - -3rd. Raphael pointed out as another cause of the number of thieves--an -evil peculiar to England--the rage for sheep-farming, and the ejections -consequent upon it. 'For,' he said, 'when some greedy and insatiable -fellow, the pest of his county, chooses to enclose several thousand acres -of contiguous fields within the circle of one sheepfold, farmers are -ejected from their holdings, being got rid of either by fraud or force, or -tired out by repeated injuries into parting with their property. In this -way it comes to pass that these poor wretches, men, women, husbands, -wives, orphans, widows, parents with little children--households greater -in number than in wealth, for arable-farming requires many hands--all -these emigrate from their native fields without knowing where to go. Their -effects are not worth much at best; they are obliged to sell them for -almost nothing when they are forced to go. And the produce of the sale -being spent, as it soon must be, what resource then is left to them but -either to steal, and to be hanged, justly forsooth, for stealing, or to -wander about and beg. If they do the latter, they are thrown into prison -as idle vagabonds when they would thankfully work if only some one would -give them employment. For there is no work for husbandmen when there is no -arable-farming. One shepherd and herdsman will suffice for a pasture-farm, -which, while under tillage, employed many hands. Corn has in the meantime -been made dearer in many places by the same cause. Wool, too, has risen in -price, owing to the rot amongst the sheep, and now the little clothmakers -are unable to supply themselves with it. For the sheep are falling into -few and powerful hands; and these, if they have not a _monopoly_, have at -least an _oligopoly_, and can keep up the price. - -[Sidenote: On beer-houses, &c.] - -'Add to these causes the increasing luxury and extravagance of the upper -classes, and indeed of all classes--the tippling houses, taverns, -brothels, and other dens of iniquity, wine and beer houses, and places for -gambling. Do not all these, after rapidly exhausting the resources of -their devotees, educate them for crime? - -[Sidenote: Practical remedies suggested.] - -'Let these pernicious plagues be rooted out. Enact that those who destroy -agricultural hamlets or towns should rebuild them, or give them up to -those who will do so. Restrain these engrossings of the rich, and the -license of exercising what is in fact a monopoly. Let fewer persons be -bred up in idleness. Let tillage farming be restored. Let the woollen -manufacture be introduced, so that honest employment may be found for -those whom want has already made into thieves, or who, being now vagabonds -or idle retainers, will become thieves ere long. Surely if you do not -remedy these evils, your rigorous execution of justice in punishing -thieves will be in vain, which indeed is more specious than either just or -efficacious. For verily if you allow your people to be badly educated, -their morals corrupted from childhood, and then, when they are men, punish -them for the very crimes to which they have been trained from childhood, -what is this, I ask, but first to make the thieves and then to punish -them?'[612] - -Raphael then went on to show that, in his opinion, it was both a bad and a -mistaken policy to inflict the same punishment in the case of both theft -and murder, such a practice being sure to operate as an encouragement to -the thief to commit murder to cover his crime, and suggested that hard -labour on public works would be a better punishment for theft than -hanging. - -[Sidenote: More's connection with Henry VIII.] - -After Raphael had given an amusing account of the way in which these -suggestions of his had been received at Cardinal Morton's table, More -repeated his regret that his talents could not be turned to practical -account at some royal court, for the benefit of mankind. Thus the point of -the story was brought round again to the question whether Raphael should -or should not attach himself to some royal court--the question which Henry -VIII. was pressing upon More, and which he would have finally to settle, -in the course of a few months, one way or the other. It is obvious that, -in framing Raphael's reply to this question, More intended to express his -own feelings, and to do so in such a way that if, after the publication of -the 'Utopia,' Henry VIII. were still to press him into his service, it -would be with a clear understanding of his strong disapproval of the -King's most cherished schemes, as well as of many of those expedients -which would be likely to be suggested by courtiers as the best means of -tiding over the evils which must of necessity be entailed upon the country -by his persistence in them. - -Raphael, in his reply, puts the supposition that the councillors were -proposing schemes of international intrigue, with a view to the -furtherance of the King's desires for the ultimate extension of his -empire:-- - -[Sidenote: Evident reference to English politics and More's position.] - -What if Raphael were then to express his own judgment that this policy -should be entirely changed, the notion of extension of empire given up, -that the kingdom was already too great to be governed by one man, and that -the King had better not think of adding others to it? What if he were to -put the case of the 'Achorians,' neighbours of the Utopians, who some time -ago waged war to obtain possession of another kingdom to which their king -contended that he was entitled by descent through an ancient marriage -alliance [just as Henry VIII. had claimed France as '_his very true -patrimony and inheritance_'], but which people, after conquering the new -kingdom, found the trouble of keeping it a constant burden [just as -England was already finding Henry's recent conquests in France], involving -the continuance of a standing army, the burden of taxes, the loss of their -property, the shedding of their blood for another's glory, the destruction -of domestic peace, the corrupting of their morals by war, the nurture of -the lust of plunder and robbery, till murders became more and more -audacious, and the laws were treated with contempt? What if Raphael were -to suggest that the example of these Achorians should be followed, who -under such circumstances refused to be governed by half a king, and -insisted that their king should choose which of his two kingdoms he would -govern, and give up the other; how, Raphael was made to ask, would such -counsel be received? - -And further: what if the question of ways and means were discussed for -the supply of the royal exchequer, and one were to propose tampering with -the currency; a second, the pretence of imminent war to justify war taxes, -and the proclamation of peace as soon as these were collected; a third, -the exaction of penalties under antiquated and obsolete laws which have -long been forgotten, and thus are often transgressed; a fourth, the -prohibition under great penalties of such things as are against public -interest, and then the granting of dispensations and licenses for large -sums of money; a fifth, the securing of the judges on the side of the -royal prerogative;--'What if here again I were to rise' [Raphael is made -to say] 'and contend that all these counsels were dishonest and -pernicious, that not only the king's honour, but also his safety, rests -more upon his people's wealth than upon his own, who (I might go on to -show) choose a king for their own sake and not for his, viz. that by his -care and labour they might live happily and secure from danger; ... that -if a king should fall into such contempt or hatred of his people that he -cannot secure their loyalty without resort to threats, exactions, and -confiscations, and his people's impoverishment, he had better abdicate his -throne, rather than attempt by these means to retain the name without the -glory of empire?... What if I were to advise him to put aside his sloth -and his pride, ... that he should live on his own revenue, that he should -accommodate his expenditure to his income, that he should restrain crime, -and by good laws prevent it, rather than allow it to increase and then -punish it, that he should repeal obsolete laws instead of attempting to -exact their penalties?... If I were to make such suggestions as these to -men strongly inclined to contrary views, would it not be telling idle -tales to the deaf?'[613] - -Thus was Raphael made to use words which must have been understood by -Henry VIII. himself, when he read them, as intended to convey to a great -extent More's own reasons for declining to accept the offer which Wolsey -had been commissioned to make to him. - -The introductory story was then brought to a close by the conversation -being made again to turn upon the laws and customs of the Utopians, the -detailed particulars of which, at the urgent request of Giles and More, -Raphael agreed to give after the three had dined together. A woodcut in -the Basle edition, probably executed by Holbein, represents them sitting -on a bench in the garden behind the house, under the shade of the trees, -listening to Raphael's discourse, of which the second book of the 'Utopia' -proposed to give, as nearly as might be, a verbatim report. - -[Sidenote: _Utopia_ published at Louvain.] - -With this bold and honest introduction the 'Utopia' was published at -Louvain by Thierry Martins, with a woodcut prefixed, representing the -island of Utopia, and with an imaginary specimen of the Utopian language -and characters. It was in the hands of the public by the beginning of the -new year.[614] - -Such was the remarkable political romance, which, from its literary -interest and merit, has been translated into almost every modern -language--a work which, viewed in its close relations to the history of -the times in which it was written, and the personal circumstances of its -author when he wrote it, derives still greater interest and importance, -inasmuch as it not only discloses the visions of hope and progress -floating before the eyes of the Oxford Reformers, but also embodies, as I -think I have been able to show, perhaps one of the boldest declarations of -a political creed ever uttered by an English statesman on the eve of his -entry into a king's service.[615] - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - - -I. WHAT COLET THOUGHT OF THE 'NOVUM INSTRUMENTUM' (1516). - -Having traced the progress and final publication of these works by Erasmus -and More, the enquiry suggests itself, how were they received? - -And first it may naturally be asked, What did Colet think of them, -especially of the 'Novum Instrumentum'? - -[Sidenote: Erasmus envies Colet's retirement, but works harder than ever.] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus begins his Paraphrases.] - -An early copy had doubtless been sent to him, and with the volume itself, -it would seem, came a letter from Erasmus, probably from Antwerp, by the -hand of Peter Meghen--'Unoculus,' as his friends called him.[616] In this -letter Erasmus had consulted him about his future plans. After the labours -of the past, and suffering as he was from feeble and precarious health, he -had indulged, it would seem, in the expression of longings that he could -share with Colet his prospects of rest. He knew how often Colet had -mentioned the wish to spend his old age in retirement and peace, with one -or two congenial companions, such as Erasmus; and now, just escaped from -his monotonous labours at Basle, he was for the moment inclined to take -Colet at his word. Still, much as he talked of rest, his mind would not -stop working. Witness, for instance, his 'Institutio Principis -Christiani.' In fact, while the 'Novum Instrumentum' and the works of St. -Jerome had been passing through the press the number of other works of his -had increased rather than lessened. During the very intervals of travel he -was sure to be writing some book. On his way to Basle he had written his -letter to Dorpius, and he had published with it a commentary on the first -Psalm, '_Beatus est vir_,' &c., which, by the way, he had dedicated to his -gentle friend, _Beatus_ Rhenanus, because, said he, '_blessed is_ the man -who is such as the Psalm describes.' New editions, also, of the 'De -Copia,' of the 'Praise of Folly,' and of the 'Adagia,' were constantly -being issued from the press of Froben, Martins, Schurerius, or some other -printer; for whatever bore the name of Erasmus now found so ready a sale, -that printers were anxious for his patronage. Visions, too, of future work -kept rising up before him. He wanted to write a commentary on the Epistle -to the Romans; and in writing to Colet it would seem that he had confided -to him his project of adding to his Latin version of the New Testament an -honest exposition of its meaning in the form of a simple _paraphrase_--a -work which it took him years to complete. Thus it came to pass that he had -mentioned these literary projects in the same letter in which he had -expressed himself as envious of Colet's anticipated rest, and that freedom -from the cares of poverty to which he himself was so constantly a prey. -Doubtless for a moment it had seemed to him easier to wish himself in -Colet's place than with renewed energy to toil on in his own. - -[Sidenote: Colet driven into retirement.] - -But every heart knoweth its own bitterness. Colet had his share of -troubles, which made him, in his turn, almost envy Erasmus. He felt as -keenly as Erasmus and More did, how the mad rush of princes to arms had -blasted the happy visions of what had seemed like a golden age -approaching, and he had been the first to speak out what he thought; but -now, while More and Erasmus could speak boldly and get Europe to listen to -what they had to say, he was thwarted and harassed by his bishop, and -obliged to crawl into retirement. His work was almost done. He could not -use his pulpit as he used to do. He had spent his patrimony in the -foundation of his school, and he had not another fortune to spend, for his -uncle's quarrel and other demands upon the residue had reduced his means -even below his wants. Nor had he much of bodily strength and energy left. -The sole survivor of a family of twenty-two, his health was not likely to -be robust, and now, at fifty, he spoke of himself as growing old, and -alluded with admiration to the high spirits of his still surviving mother, -and the beauty of her happy old age. - -[Sidenote: He procures the release from prison of one who had injured -him.] - -Still Colet had his heart in the work as much as ever. We do not hear much -of his doings, but what we _do_ hear is all in keeping with his character. -Thus we find him incidentally exerting himself to get some poor prisoner -released from the royal prison, and Erasmus exclaiming, 'I love that -Christian spirit of Colet's, for I hear that it was all owing to him, and -him alone, that N. was released, notwithstanding that N., though always -treated in the most friendly way by Colet, and professing himself as -friendly to Colet, had sided with Colet's enemies at the time that he was -accused by the calumnies of the bishops.'[617] - -It was about the time that he was thus returning good for evil to this -unfortunate prisoner, that the letter of Erasmus and the copy of the -'Novum Instrumentum' came to his hands. - -[Sidenote: Colet's delight in the success of Erasmus.] - -In spite of his own troubles he could hail the labours and success of -Erasmus with delight. Twenty years ago, while alone and single-handed, he -had longed for fellowship; now he could rejoice that in Erasmus he had not -only found a fellow-worker, but a successor who would carry on the work -much further than he could do. He had looked forward with eager -expectation to the appearance of the 'Novum Instrumentum,' and, -anticipating its perusal, had for months past[618] been working hard to -recover the little knowledge of Greek which, during the active business of -life, he had almost lost. And the more he felt that his own work was -drawing to a close, the more was he disposed to encourage Erasmus to go on -with his. He looked upon Erasmus now as the leader of the little band, -forgetting that Erasmus owed, in one sense, almost everything to him. - -This is the beautiful letter he wrote after reading the 'Novum -Instrumentum:'-- - - _Colet to Erasmus._ - - 'You cannot easily believe, my dear Erasmus, how much joy your letter - gave me, which was brought to me by our "one-eyed friend." For I - learned from it where you are (which I did not know before), and also - that you are likely to return to us, which would be very delightful - both to me and to your other friends, of whom you have a great many - here. - - [Sidenote: What Colet thought of the 'Novum Instrumentum.'] - - 'What you say about the New Testament I can understand. The volumes of - your new edition of it [the "Novum Instrumentum"] are here both - eagerly bought and everywhere read. By many, your labours are received - with approval and admiration. There are a few, also, who disapprove - and carp at them, saying what was said in the letter of Martin Dorpius - to you. But these are those divines whom you have described in your - "Praise of Folly" and elsewhere, no less truly than wittily, as men - whose praise is blame, and by whom it is an honour to be censured. - - 'For myself, I so love your work, and so clasp to my heart this new - edition of yours, that it excites mingled feelings. For at one time I - am seized with sorrow that I have not that knowledge of Greek, without - which one is good for nothing; at another time I rejoice in that light - which you have shed forth from the sun of your genius. - - 'Indeed, Erasmus, I marvel at the fruitfulness of your mind, in the - conception, production, and daily completion of so much, during a life - so unsettled, and without the assistance of any large and regular - income. - - [Sidenote: Edition of 'Jerome.'] - - 'I am looking out for your "Jerome," who will owe much to you, and so - shall _we_ also when able to read him with your corrections and - explanations. - - [Sidenote: The 'Christian Prince.'] - - 'You have done well to write "De Institutione Principis Christiani." I - wish Christian princes would follow good institutes! By their madness - everything is thrown into confusion.... - - 'As to the "peaceful resting-place" which you say you long for, I - also wish for one for you, both peaceful and happy; both your age and - your studies require it. I wish, too, that this your final - resting-place may be with us, if you think us worthy of so great a - man; but what we are you have often experienced. Still you have here - some who love you exceedingly. - - 'Our friend, the Archbishop of Canterbury, when I was with him a few - days ago, spoke much of you, and desired your presence here very much. - Freed from all business cares, he lives now in quiet retirement. - - 'What you say about "Christian philosophising" is true. There is - nobody, I think, in Christendom more fit and suited for that - profession and work than you are, on account of the wide range of your - knowledge. _You_ do not say so, but I say so because I think so. - - [Sidenote: Treatise of Erasmus on the First Psalm.] - - 'I have read what you have written on the First Psalm, and I admire - your eloquence. I want to know what you are going to write on the - Epistle to the Romans. - - [Sidenote: The projected 'Paraphrases' of Erasmus.] - - 'Go on, Erasmus. As you have given us the New Testament in Latin, - illustrate it by your expositions, and give us your commentary most at - length on the Gospels. Your length is brevity; the appetite increases - if only the digestive organs are sound. You will confer a great boon - upon those who delight to read your writings if you will explain the - meaning [of the Gospels], which no one can do better than you can. And - in so doing, you will make your name immortal--_immortal_ did I - say?--the name of Erasmus never can perish; but you will confer - eternal _glory_ on your name, and, toiling on in the name of Jesus, - you will become a partaker of his eternal life. - - 'In deploring your fortune you do not act bravely. In so great a - work--in making known the Scriptures--your fortune cannot fail you. - Only put your trust in God, who will be the first to help you, and who - will stir up others to aid you in your sacred labours. - - 'That you should call me happy, I marvel! If you speak of fortune, - although I am not wholly without any, yet I have not much, hardly - sufficient for my expenses. I should think myself happy if, even in - extreme poverty, I had a thousandth part of that learning and wisdom - which you have got without wealth, and which, as it is peculiar to - yourself, so also you have a way of imparting it, which I don't know - how to describe, unless I call it that "Erasmican" way of your own. - - 'If you will let me, I will become your disciple, even in learning - Greek, notwithstanding my advanced years (being almost an old man), - recollecting that Cato learned Greek in his old age, and that you - yourself, of equal age with me, are studying Hebrew. - - 'Love me as ever; and, if you should return to us, count upon my - devotion to your service.--Farewell. - - [Sidenote: Colet's mother.] - - 'From the country at Stepney, with my mother, who still lives, and - wears her advancing age beautifully; often happily and joyfully - speaking of you. On the Feast of the Translation of St. Edward.'[619] - - -II. RECEPTION OF THE 'NOVUM INSTRUMENTUM' IN OTHER QUARTERS (1516). - -Colet was not alone in his admiration of the 'Novum Instrumentum' and its -author. - -[Sidenote: Reception of the 'Novum Instrumentum' in England.] - -William Latimer, of Oxford, one of the earliest Greek scholars in England, -expressed his ardent approval of the new Latin translation, and would have -been glad, he said, if Erasmus had gone still further, and translated even -such words as 'sabbatum' and the like into classical Latin.[620] - -Warham had all along encouraged Erasmus in his labours, both by presents -of money and constant good offices, and now he recommended the 'Novum -Instrumentum' to some of his brother bishops and divines, who, he wrote to -Erasmus, all acknowledged that the work was worthy of the labour bestowed -upon it.[621] - -Fox, the Bishop of Winchester, in a large assembly of magnates, when the -conversation turned on Erasmus and his works, declared that his new -version threw so much light on the New Testament, that it was worth more -to him than ten commentaries, and this remark was approved by those -present.[622] The Dean of Salisbury used almost the same words of -commendation.[623] - -In fact, it would appear that in England it was received coldly only by -that class of pseudo-orthodox divines, now waning both in numbers and -influence, who had consistently opposed the progress of the new learning, -'blasphemed' Colet's school, and censured the heretical tendencies of -Erasmus as soon as their blind eyes had been opened to them by the recent -edition of the 'Praise of Folly.' - -Thus while Erasmus was in England in the autumn, enjoying at Rochester the -hospitality of Bishop Fisher, who was Chancellor of the University of -Cambridge, he was informed that his 'Novum Testamentum' had encountered no -little opposition in some circles at that centre of learning. - -[Sidenote: Its reception at Cambridge.] - -In one of his letters from the Bishop's palace to his friend Boville, who -was resident at Cambridge, he mentions a report that a decree had been -formally issued in one of the colleges, forbidding anyone to bring 'that -book' within the precincts of the college, 'by horse or by boat, on wheels -or on foot.' He hardly knew, he said, whether to laugh at or to grieve -over men 'so studiously blind to their own interests; so morose and -implacable, harder to appease even than wild beasts! How pitiful for men -to condemn and revile a book which they have not even read, or, having -read, cannot understand! They had possibly heard of the new work over -their cups, or in the gossip of the market, ... and thereupon exclaimed, -"O heavens! O earth! Erasmus has corrected the Gospels!" when it is they -themselves who have _depraved_ them.... - -'Are they indeed afraid,' Erasmus continued, 'lest it should divert their -scholars, and empty their lecture-rooms? Why do they not examine the -facts? Scarcely thirty years ago, nothing was taught at Cambridge but the -"parva logicalia" of Alexander, antiquated exercises from Aristotle, and -the "Quaestiones" of Scotus. In process of time improved studies were -added--mathematics, a new, or, at all events, a _renovated_ Aristotle, and -a knowledge of Greek letters.... What has been the result of all this? Now -the University is so flourishing, that it can compete with the best -universities of the age. It contains men, compared with whom, theologians -of the old school seem only the _ghosts_ of theologians. These men grieve -because more and more students study with more and more earnestness the -Gospels and the apostolic Epistles. They had rather that they spent all -their time, as heretofore, in frivolous quibbles. Hitherto there have been -theologians who so far from having read the Scriptures, had never read -even the "_Sentences_," or touched anything beyond the collections of -questions. Ought not,' exclaimed Erasmus, 'such men to be called back to -the very fountain-head?' He then told Boville that he wished his works to -be useful to _all_. He looked to Christ for his chief reward; still he was -glad to have the approval of wise men. He hoped too, that what now was -approved by the _best_ men, would ere long meet with _general_ approval. -He felt sure that posterity would do him justice.[624] - -Nor was the opposition to the 'Novum Instrumentum' by any means confined -to Cambridge. A few weeks later, very soon after Erasmus had left -England--in October--More wrote to inform him that a set of acute men had -determined to scrutinise closely, and criticise remorselessly, what they -could discover to find fault with. A party of them, with a Franciscan -divine at their head, had agreed to divide the works of Erasmus between -them, and to pick out all the faults they could find as they read them. -But, More added, he had heard that they had already given up the project. -The labour of reading was more laborious and less productive than the -ordinary work of mendicants, and so they had gone back again to that.[625] - -The work was indeed full of small errors which might easily give occasion -to adverse critics to exercise their talents. But Erasmus was fully -conscious of this, and within a year of the completion of the first -edition, he was busily at work making all the corrections he could, with a -view to a second edition. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Reception of the 'Novum Instrumentum' on the Continent.] - -The reception of the 'Novum Instrumentum' on the Continent was much the -same as in England. It had some bitter enemies, especially at Louvain and -Cologne.[626] But, on the other hand, letters poured in upon Erasmus from -all sides of warm approval and congratulation,[627] and so great a power -had his name become, that ere long princes competed for his residence -within their dominions; and if their numerous promises had but been -faithfully performed, Erasmus need have had little fear for the future -respecting 'ways and means.' - -[Sidenote: Philip Melanchthon.] - -Amongst the numerous tributes of admiration received by Erasmus, was one -forwarded to him by Beatus Rhenanus, in Greek verse,[628] from the pen of -an accomplished and learned youth at the University of Tubingen, already -known by name to Erasmus, and mentioned with honour in the 'Novum -Instrumentum'--a student devoted to study, and reported to be working so -hard, that his health was in danger of giving way, whom another -correspondent introduced as worthy of the love of 'Erasmus the first,' -inasmuch as he was likely to prove 'Erasmus the second.' His name--then -little known beyond the circle of his intimate friends--was _Philip -Melanchthon_.[629] - - -III. MARTIN LUTHER READS THE 'NOVUM INSTRUMENTUM' (1516). - -[Sidenote: Letter from Spalatin.] - -In the winter of 1516-17, Erasmus received a letter from George Spalatin, -whose name he may have heard before, but to whom he was personally a -stranger. It was dated from the castle of the Elector of Saxony. It was a -letter full of flattering compliments. The writer introduced himself as -acquainted with a friend of Erasmus, and as being a pupil of one of his -old schoolfellows at Deventer. He mentioned his intimacy with the Elector, -whom he reported to be a diligent and admiring reader of the works of -Erasmus, and informed him that these had honourable places on the shelves -of the ducal library. It was, in fact, a letter evidently written with a -definite object; but beating about the bush so long, that one begins to -wonder what matter of importance could require so roundabout an -introduction. - -At length the writer disclosed the object of his letter:--'A friend of -his,' whose name he did not give, had written to him suggesting that -Erasmus in his Annotations on the Epistle to the Romans, in the 'Novum -Instrumentum,' had misinterpreted St. Paul's expression, _justicia -operum_, or _legis_, and also had not spoken out clearly respecting -'original sin.' He believed that if Erasmus would read St. Augustine's -books against Pelagius, &c., he would see his mistake. His friend -interpreted _justicia legis_, or the 'righteousness of works,' not as -referring only to the keeping of the ceremonial law, but to the observance -of the whole decalogue. The observance of the latter might make a -Fabricius or a Regulus, but without Christian faith it would no more -savour of 'righteousness' than a medlar would taste like a fig. This was -the weighty question upon which his friend had asked him to consult the -oracle, and a response, however short, would be esteemed a most gracious -favour.[630] - -[Sidenote: Martin Luther reads the 'Novum Instrumentum.'] - -This unnamed friend of Spalatin was in fact _Martin Luther_. The singular -coincidence, that not only this letter of Spalatin to Erasmus, but also -the letter of Luther to Spalatin,[631] have been preserved, enables us to -picture the monk of Wittemberg sitting in his room in a corner of the -monastery, pondering over the pages of the 'Novum Instrumentum,' and -'moved,' as he reads it, with feelings of grief and disappointment, -because his quick eye discerns that the path in which Erasmus is treading -points in a different direction from his own. - -In truth, Luther, though as yet without European fame--not having yet -nailed his memorable theses to the Wittemberg church-door--had for years -past fixed, if I may use the expression, the cardinal points of his -theology. He had already clenched his fundamental convictions with too -firm a grasp ever to relax. He had chosen his permanent standpoint, and -for years had made it the centre of his public teaching in his -professorial chair at the university, and in his pulpit also. - -The standpoint which he had so firmly taken was _Augustinian_. - -[Sidenote: Luther's Augustinian tendencies.] - -During the four years spent by him in the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt, -into which he had fled to escape from the terrors of conscience, he had -deeply studied, along with the Scriptures, the works of St. Augustine. It -was from the light which these works had shed upon the Epistles of St. -Paul that he had mainly been led to embrace those views upon -'justification by faith' which had calmed the tumult and disarmed the -lightnings of his troubled conscience. This statement rests upon the -authority of Melanchthon, and is therefore beyond dispute.[632] - -Eight years had passed since he had left Erfurt to become a professor in -the Wittemberg University, and four or five years since his return from -his memorable visit to Rome. During these last years his teaching and -preaching had been full of the Augustinian theology. Melanchthon states -that during this period he had written commentaries on the 'Romans,' and -that in them and in his lectures and sermons he had laboured to refute the -prevalent error, that it is possible to merit the forgiveness of sins by -good works, pointing men to the Lamb of God, and throwing great light upon -such questions as 'penitence,' 'remission of sins,' 'faith,' the -difference between the 'Law' and the 'Gospel,' and the like. He also -mentions that Luther, catching the spirit which the writings of Erasmus -had diffused, had taken to the study of Greek and Hebrew.[633] - -We may therefore picture the Augustinian monk--deeply read in the works of -St. Augustine, and, as Ranke expresses it,[634] '_embracing even his -severer views_,' having for years constantly taught them from his pulpit -and professorial chair, clinging to them with a grasp which would never -relax, looking at everything from this immovable Augustinian -standpoint--now in 1516 with a copy of the 'Novum Instrumentum' before him -on his table in his room in the cloisters of Wittemberg, reading it -probably with eager expectation of finding his own views reflected in the -writings of a man who was looked upon as the great restorer of Scriptural -theology. - -[Sidenote: Luther detects the Anti-Augustinian tendencies of Erasmus.] - -He reads the Annotations on the Epistle to the Romans. He does not find -Erasmus using the watchwords of the Augustinian theology. He does not find -the words _justicia legis_ understood in the Augustinian sense, as -referring to the observance of the whole moral law, but, rather, explained -as referring to the Jewish ceremonial. - -He turns as a kind of touchstone to Chapter V., where the Apostle speaks -of death as 'having reigned from Adam to Moses over those who had not -sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.' He finds Erasmus -remarking that he does not think it needful here to resort to the doctrine -of '_original sin_,' however true in itself; he finds him hinting at the -possibility 'of hating Pelagius more than enough,' and of resorting too -freely to the doctrine of 'original sin' as a means of getting rid of -theological difficulties, in the same way as astrologers had invented a -system of _epicycles_ to get them out of their astronomical ones.[635] - -The Augustinian doctrine of 'original sin' compared to the _epicycles_ of -the astrologers! No wonder that Luther was _moved_ as he traced in these -Annotations symptoms of wide divergence from his own Augustinian views. In -writing to Spalatin, he told him that he was 'moved;' and in asking him to -question Erasmus further on the subject, he added that he felt no doubt -that the difference in opinion between himself and Erasmus was a real one, -because that, as regards the interpretation of Scripture, he saw clearly -that Erasmus preferred Jerome to Augustine, just as much as he himself -preferred Augustine to Jerome. Jerome, evidently on principle, he said, -follows the _historical_ sense, and he very much feared that the great -authority of Erasmus might induce many to attempt to defend that -_literal_, i.e. _dead_, understanding [of the Scriptures] of which the -commentaries of Lyra and almost all after Augustine are full.[636] - -Still Luther went on with the study of his 'Novum Instrumentum,' and we -find him writing again from his 'hermitage' at Wittemberg, that every day -as he reads he loses his liking for Erasmus. And again the reason crops -out. Erasmus, with all his Greek and Hebrew, is lacking in Christian -wisdom; 'just as Jerome, with all his knowledge of five languages, was not -a match for Augustine with his one.'... 'The judgment of a man who -attributes _anything_ to the human will' [which Jerome and Erasmus did] -is 'one thing, the judgment of him who recognises _nothing but grace_' -[which Augustine and Luther did] 'is quite another thing.'... -'Nevertheless [continues Luther] I carefully keep this opinion to myself, -lest I should play into the hands of his enemies. May God give him -understanding in his own good time!'[637] - -[Sidenote: Difference in principle between Erasmus and Luther.] - -This is not the place to discuss the rights of the question between Luther -and Erasmus. It is well, however, that by the preservation of these -letters the fact is established to us, which as yet was unknown to -Erasmus, that this Augustinian monk, as the result of hard-fought mental -struggle, had years before this irrevocably adopted and, if we may so -speak, welded into his very being that Augustinian system of religious -convictions, a considerable portion of which Erasmus made no scruple in -rejecting; that at the root of their religious thought there was a -divergence in principle which must widen as each proceeded on his separate -path--unknown as yet, let me repeat it, to Erasmus, but already fully -recognised, though wisely concealed, by Luther. - - -IV. THE 'EPISTOLAE OBSCURORUM VIRORUM' (1516-17). - -In the meantime symptoms had appeared portending that a storm was brewing -in another quarter against Erasmus. It was not perhaps to be wondered at -that the monks should persist in regarding him as a renegade monk. His -bold reply to the letter of Servatius, and the unsubdued tone in which he -had answered the attack of Martin Dorpius, must have made the monastic -party hopeless of his reconversion to orthodox views. At the same time, -neither his letter to Servatius nor his reply to Dorpius had at all -converted them to his way of thinking. Men perfectly self-satisfied, -blindly believing in the sanctity of their own order, and arrogating to -themselves a monopoly of orthodox learning, were in a state of mind, both -intellectually and morally, beyond the reach of argument, however earnest -and convincing. They still really did believe, through thick and thin, -that the Latin of the Vulgate and the Schoolmen was the sacred language. -They still did believe that Hebrew and Greek were the languages of -heretics; and that to be learned in these, to scoff at the Schoolmen and -to criticise the Vulgate, were the surest proofs of _ignorance_ as well as -impiety. - -[Sidenote: 'Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum.'] - -It was in the years 1516 and 1517 that the 'Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum' -were published. They were written in exaggerated monkish Latin, and -professed to be a correspondence chiefly between monks, conveying their -views and feelings upon current events and the tendencies of modern -thought. Of course the picture they gave was a caricature, but -nevertheless it so nearly hit the truth that More wrote to Erasmus that -'in England it delighted every one. To the learned it was capital fun. -Even the ignorant, who seriously took it all in, smiled at its style, and -did not attempt to defend it; but they said the _weighty opinions_ it -contained made up for that, and under a rude scabbard was concealed a most -excellent blade.'[638] - -The first part was full of the monks' hatred of Reuchlin and the Jews. One -monk writes to his superior to consult him in a difficulty. Two Jews were -walking in the town in a dress so like that of monks that he bowed to them -by mistake. To have made obeisance to a Jew! Was this a venial or a mortal -sin? Should he seek absolution from episcopal authority, or would it -require a dispensation from the Pope?[639] - -Side by side with scrupulosity such as this were hints of secret -immorality and scandal. Immense straining at gnats was put in contrast -with the ease with which camels were swallowed within the walls of the -cloister. - -[Sidenote: Mention of Erasmus in them.] - -In the appendix to the first part Erasmus at length makes his appearance. -The writer of the letter, a medical graduate, informs his learned -correspondent that, being at Strasburg, he was told that a man who was -called 'Erasmus Roterdamus' (till then unknown to him) was in the city--a -man said to be most learned in all branches of knowledge. This, however, -he did not believe. He could not believe that so small a man could have so -vast a knowledge. To test the matter, he laid a scheme with one or two -others to meet Erasmus at table, get him into an argument, and confute -him. He thereupon betook himself to his 'vademecum,' and crammed himself -with some abstruse medical questions, and so armed entered the field. One -of his friends was a lawyer, the other a speculative divine. They met as -appointed. All were silent. Nobody would begin. At length Erasmus, in a -low tone of voice, began to sermonise (_sermonizare_), and when he had -done, another began to dispute _de ente et essencia_. To which the writer -himself responded in a few words. Then a dead silence again. They could -not draw the lion out. At length their host started another hare--praising -both the deeds and writings of Julius Caesar. The writer here again put -in. He knew something of _poetry_, and did not believe that Caesar's -'Commentaries' were written by Caesar at all. Caesar was a warrior, and -always engaged in military affairs. Such men never are learned men, -therefore Caesar cannot have known Latin. 'I think,' he continued, 'that -_Suetonius_ (!) wrote those "Commentaries," because I never saw anyone -whose style was so like Caesar's as his. When I had said this,' he -continued, 'Erasmus laughed, and said nothing, because the subtlety of my -argument had confounded him. So I put an end to the discussion. I did not -care to propound my question in medicine, because I knew he knew nothing -about it, since, though himself a poet, he did not know how to solve my -argument in poetry. And I assert before God that there is not as much in -him as people say. He does not know more than other men, although I -concede that in poetry he knows how to speak pretty Latin. But what of -that!'[640] - -In the second part, published in 1517, Erasmus makes a more prominent -figure. One correspondent had met him at Basle, and 'found many perverse -heretics in Froben's house.'[641] Another writes that he hears Erasmus has -written many books, especially a letter to the Pope, in which he commends -Reuchlin:-- - -'That letter, you know, I have seen. One other book of his also I have -seen--a great book--entitled "Novum Testamentum," and he has sent this -book to the Pope, and I believe he wants the Pope's authority for it, but -I hope he won't give it. One holy man told me that he could prove that -Erasmus was a heretic; because he censured holy doctors, and thought -nothing of divines. One of his things, called "Moria Erasmi," contained,' -he said, 'many scandalous propositions and open blasphemies. On this -account the book would be burned at Paris. Therefore I do not believe that -the Pope will sanction his "great book."'[642] - -Another reports that his edition of St. Jerome has been examined at -Cologne; that in this work Erasmus says that Jerome was not a Cardinal; -that he thinks evil of St. George and St. Christopher, the relics of the -saints and candles, and the sacrament of confession; that many passages -contain blasphemy against the holy doctors.[643] - -These 'Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum' were widely read, and proved like an -advertisement, throughout the monasteries of Europe, of the heresy of -Erasmus and his hatred of monks. As by degrees the latter began to -understand that these allusions to Erasmus were intended to bring ridicule -on themselves, instead of, as they thought at first, to censure Erasmus, -it was likely that their anger should know no bounds.[644] - - -V. THE 'PYTHAGORICA' AND 'CABALISTICA' OF REUCHLIN (1517). - -[Sidenote: Studies of Reuchlin.] - -Reuchlin in his zeal for Hebrew had been led to study along with the old -Testament Scriptures, other Hebrew books, especially the 'Cabala,' and, -after the fashion of his Jewish teachers, had lost himself in the -'mystical value of words' and in the Pythagorean philosophy. He believed, -writes Ranke, that by treading in the footsteps of the 'Cabala,' he should -ascend from symbol to symbol, from form to form, till he should reach -that last and purest form which rules the empire of mind, and in which -human mutability approaches to the Immutable and Divine[645]--whatever -that might mean. - -Reuchlin had embodied his speculations on these subjects in a work upon -which he wished for the opinion of Erasmus and his friends. - -[Sidenote: Reuchlin's works sent by Erasmus to England.] - -Erasmus accordingly sent a copy of this book to Bishop Fisher, with a -letter asking his opinion thereupon.[646] He sent it, it seems, by More, -who, _more suo_, as Fisher jokingly complained, purloined it,[647] so that -it did not reach its destination. What had become of it may be learned -from the following letter from Colet to Erasmus, playful and laconic as -usual, and beaming with that true humility which enabled him to unite with -his habitual strength of conviction an equally habitual sense of his own -fallibility and imperfect knowledge. It is doubly interesting also as the -last letter written by Colet which time has spared. - - _Colet to Erasmus._[648] - - 'I am half angry with you, Erasmus, that you send messages to me in - letters to others, instead of writing direct to myself; for though I - have no distrust of our friendship, yet this roundabout way of - greeting me through messages in other people's letters makes me - jealous lest others should think you loved me less than you do. - - 'Also, I am half angry with you for another thing--for sending the - "Cabalistica" of Reuchlin to Bishop Fisher and not to me. I do not - grudge your sending _him_ a copy, but you might have sent _me_ one - also. For I so delight in your love, that I am jealous when I see you - more mindful of others than of myself. - - 'That book did, however, after all come into my hands first. I read it - through before it was handed to the bishop. - - 'I dare not express an opinion on this book. I am conscious of my own - ignorance, and how blind I am in matters so mysterious, and in the - works (opibus--_operibus_?) of so great a man. However, in reading it, - the chief miracles seemed to me to lie more in the words than the - things; for, according to him, Hebrew words seem to have no end of - mystery in their characters and combinations. - - [Sidenote: Colet's opinion on them.] - - 'O Erasmus! of books and of knowledge there is no end. There is no - thing better for _us_ in this short life than to live holily and - purely, and to make it our daily care to be purified and enlightened, - and really to practise what these "Pythagorica" and "Cabalistica" of - Reuchlin promise; but, in my opinion, there is no other way for us to - attain this than by the earnest love and imitation of _Jesus_. - Wherefore leaving these wandering paths, let us go the short way to - work. I long, to the best of my ability, to do so.[649] - Farewell.--_From London, 1517._' - - -VI. MORE PAYS A VISIT TO COVENTRY (1517?). - -It chanced about this time that More had occasion to go to Coventry to see -a sister of his there. - -[Sidenote: Coventry.] - -[Sidenote: Monastic establishments at Coventry.] - -Coventry was a very nest of religious and monastic establishments. It -contained, shut up in its narrow streets, some six thousand souls. On the -high ground in the heart of the city the ancient Monastery and Cathedral -Church of the monks of St. Benedict lifted their huge piles of masonry -above surrounding roofs. By their side, and belonging to the same ancient -order, rose into the air like a rocket the beautiful spire of St. -Michael's, lightly poised and supported by its four flying buttresses, -whilst in the niches of the square tower, from which these were made to -spring, stood the carved images of saints, worn and crumbled by a -century's storms and hot suns. There, too, almost within a stone's throw -of this older and nobler one, and as if faintly striving but failing to -outvie it, rose the rival spires of Trinity Church, and the Church of the -Grey Friars of St. Francis; while in the distance might be seen the square -massive tower of the College of Babbelake, afterwards called the Church of -St. John; the Monastery of the Carmelites or White Friars; and the -Charterhouse, where Carthusian monks were supposed to keep strict vigils -and fasts in lonely and separate cells. And beneath the shadow of the -spire of St. Michael's stood the Hall of St. Mary, chased over with carved -work depicting the glory of the Virgin Mother, and covered within by -tapestry representing her before the Great Throne of Heaven, the moon -under her feet, and apostles and choirs of angels doing her homage. Other -hospitals and religious houses which have left no trace behind them, were -to be found within the walls of this old city. Far and wide had spread the -fame of the annual processions and festivals, pageants and miracle plays, -which even royal guests were sometimes known to witness. And from out the -babble and confusion of tongues produced by the close proximity of so many -rival monastic sects, rose ever and anon the cry for the martyrdom of -honest Lollards, in the persecution of whom the Pharisees and Sadducees of -Coventry found a temporary point of agreement. It would seem that, not -many months after the time of More's visit, _seven_ poor gospellers were -burned in Coventry for teaching their children the paternoster and ten -commandments in their own English tongue.[650] - -[Sidenote: Fit of Mariolatry at Coventry.] - -This was Coventry--its citizens, if not 'wholly given up to idolatry,' yet -'in all things too superstitious,' and, like the Athenians of old, prone -to run after 'some new thing.' At the time of which we speak, they were -the subjects of a strange religious frenzy--a fit of _Mariolatry_. - -The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin had not -yet been finally settled. It was the bone of contention between the rival -monastic orders. The Franciscans or Grey Friars, following Scotus, waged -war with the Dominicans, who followed Aquinas. Pope Sixtus IV. had in 1483 -issued a bull favouring the Franciscans and the doctrine of the Immaculate -Conception, and Foxe tells us that it was in consequence 'holden in their -schools, written in their books, preached in their sermons, taught in -their churches, and set forth in their pictures.' On the other side had -occurred the tragedy of the weeping image of the Virgin, and the detection -and burning of the Dominican monks who were parties to the fraud. - -It chanced that in Coventry a Franciscan monk made bold to preach publicly -to the people, that _whoever should daily pray through the Psalter of the -Blessed Virgin could never be damned_. The regular pastor of the place, -thinking that it would soon blow over, and that a little more devotion to -the Virgin could do no harm, took little notice of it at first. But when -he saw the worst men were the most religious in their devotion to the -Virgin's Psalter, and that, relying on the friar's doctrine, they were -getting more and more bold in crime, he mildly admonished the people from -his pulpit not to be led astray by this new doctrine. The result was he -was hissed at, derided, and publicly slandered as an enemy of the Virgin. -The friar again mounted his pulpit, recounted miraculous stories in favour -of his creed, and carried the people away with him. - -[Sidenote: More's dispute with a friar.] - -More shall tell the rest in his own words:-- - -'While this frenzy was at its height, it so happened that I had to go to -Coventry to visit a sister of mine there. I had scarcely alighted from my -horse when I was asked the question, "Whether a person who daily prayed -through the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin could be damned?" I laughed at -the question as absurd. I was told forthwith that my answer was a -dangerous one. A most holy and learned father had declared the contrary. I -put by the whole affair as no business of mine. Soon after I was asked to -supper. I promised, and went. Lo and behold! in came an old, stooping, -heavy, crabbed friar! A servant followed with his books. I saw I must -prepare for a brush. We sat down, and lest any time should be lost, the -point was at once brought forward by our host. The friar made answer as he -already had preached. I held my tongue, not liking to mix myself up in -fruitless and provoking disputations. At last they asked me what view I -took of it. And when I was obliged to speak, I spoke what I thought, but -in few words and offhand. Upon this the friar began a long premeditated -oration, long enough for at least two sermons, and bawled all supper time. -He drew all his argument from the miracles, which he poured out upon us in -numbers enough from the "Marial;" and then from other books of the same -kind, which he ordered to be put on the table, he drew further authority -for his stories. Soon after he had done I modestly began to answer; first, -that in all his long discourse he had said nothing to convince those who -perchance did not admit the miracles which he had recited, and _this might -well be, and a man's faith in Christ be firm notwithstanding_. And even if -these were mostly true, they proved nothing of any moment; for though you -might easily find a prince who would concede something to his enemies at -the entreaty of his mother, yet never was there one so foolish as to -publish a law which should provoke daring against him by the promise of -impunity to all traitors who should perform certain offices to his mother. - -'Much having been said on both sides, I found that he was lauded to the -skies while I was laughed at as a fool. The matter came at last to that -pass, by the depraved zeal of men who cloaked their own vices under -colour of piety, that the opinion could hardly be put down, though the -Bishop with all his energy tried all the means in his power to do -so.'[651] - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - - -I. THE SALE OF INDULGENCES (1517-18). - -While Erasmus in 1517 was hard at work at the revision of his New -Testament, publishing the first instalment of his Paraphrases,[652] -recommending the 'Utopia' and the 'Christian Prince' to the perusal of -princes and their courtiers,[653] expressing to his friends at the Papal -Court his trust that under Leo X. Rome herself might become the centre of -peace and religion,[654]--while Erasmus was thus working on hopefully, -preparing the way, as he thought, for a peaceful reform, Europe was -suddenly brought, by the scandalous conduct of princes and the Pope, to -the very brink of revolution. - -[Sidenote: Leo X. wants money.] - -Leo X. was in want of money. He had no scruple to tax the Christian world -for selfish family purposes any more than his predecessors in the Papal -chair; but times had altered, and he thought it prudent, instead of doing -so openly, to avoid scandal, by cloaking his crime in double folds of -imposture and deception. It mattered little that a few shrewd men might -suspect the dishonesty of the pretexts put forth, if only the multitude -could be sufficiently deluded to make them part with their money. - -[Sidenote: Tenths and indulgences.] - -A war against the Turks could be proposed and abandoned the moment the -'tenths' demanded to pay its expenses were safe in the Papal exchequer. If -_indulgences_ were granted to all who should contribute towards the -building of St. Peter's at Rome, the profits could easily be devoted to -more pressing uses. So, in the spring of 1517, the payment of a tenth was -demanded from all the clergy of Europe, and commissions were at the same -time issued for the sale of indulgences to the laity. Some opposition was -to be expected from disaffected princes; but experience on former -occasions had proved that these would be easily bribed to connive at any -exactions from their subjects by the promise of a share in the spoil.[655] - -Hence the project seemed to the Papal mind justified on Machiavellian -principles, and, judged by the precedents of the past, likely to succeed. - -[Sidenote: Satire on indulgences in the 'Praise of Folly.'] - -But the seeds of opposition to Machiavellian projects of this kind had -recently been widely sown. More in his 'Utopia,' and Erasmus in his -'Christian Prince,' had only a few months before spoken plain words to -people and princes on taxation and unjust exactions. Erasmus, too, in his -'Praise of Folly,' had spoken contemptuously of the _crime of false -pardons_, in other words, of Papal _indulgences_.[656] And though -Lystrius, in his recent marginal note on this passage, had explained that -Papal indulgences are not included in this sweeping censure, '_unless they -be false_, it being no part of our business to dispute of the pontifical -power,' yet he had almost made matters worse by adding:-- - -'This one thing I know, that what Christ promised concerning the remission -of sins is more certain than what is promised by men, especially since -this whole affair [of indulgences] is of recent date and invention. -Finally a great many people, relying on these pardons, are encouraged in -crime, and never think of changing their lives.'[657] - -How eagerly the 'Praise of Folly' was bought and read by the people has -already been seen. New editions had recently been exceedingly numerous, -for the notes of Lystrius had opened the eyes of many who had not fully -caught its drift before. An edition in French had moreover appeared, and -(Erasmus wrote) it was thereby made intelligible even to monks, who -hitherto had been too deeply drowned in sensual indulgence to care -anything about it, whose ignorance of Latin was such that they could not -even understand the Psalms, which they were constantly mumbling over in a -senseless routine.[658] - -[Sidenote: Luther's Theses.] - -Silently and unseen the leaven had been working; and when, on October 31, -Luther posted up his theses on the church-door at Wittemberg, defying -Tetzel and his wicked trade, he was but the spokesman, perhaps -unconsciously to himself, of the grumbling dissent of Europe. - -[Sidenote: Other opposition to indulgences.] - -Discontent against the proceedings of the Papal Court was not by any means -confined to Wittemberg. It had got wind that the tenths and indulgences -were resorted to for private family purposes of the Pope's; that they -were part of a system of imposture and deception; and hence they -encountered opposition, political as well as religious, in more quarters -than one. - -[Sidenote: European princes bribed by a share in the spoil.] - -[Sidenote: Opposition of German princes.] - -Unhappily, the Pope had reckoned with reason on the connivance of princes. -Their exchequers were more than usually empty, and they had proved for the -most part glad enough to sell their consciences, and the interests of -their subjects, at the price of a share in the spoil. Had it been -otherwise the Papal collectors would have been forbidden entrance into the -dominions of many a prince besides Frederic of Saxony! The Pope offered -Henry VIII. a fourth of the moneys received from the sale of indulgences -in England, and the English Ambassador suggested that one-third would be a -reasonable proportion.[659] When in December 1515 the Pope had asked for a -tenth from the English clergy, he had found it needful to abate his demand -by one-half, and even this was refused by Convocation on the ground that -they had already paid six-tenths to enable the King to defend the -patrimony of St. Peter, and that the victories of Henry VIII. had removed -all dangers from the Roman See;[660] and no sooner was there any talk of -the new tenth of 1517, than the Papal collector in England was immediately -sworn, probably as a precautionary measure, not to send any money to -Rome.[661] Prince Charles, in anticipation of the amount to be collected -in his Spanish dominions, obtained a loan of 175,000 ducats. The King of -France made a purse for himself out of the collections in France,[662] -and by the Pope's express orders paid over a part of what was left direct -to the Pope's nephew Lorenzo,[663] for whom it was rumoured in select -circles that the money was required. The Elector of Maintz also received a -share of the spoil taken from his subjects.[664] The Emperor had made -common cause with the Pope, in hopes of attaining thereby the realisation -of long-indulged dreams of ambition, and all Europe would have been thus -bought over;[665] had not the princes of the empire unexpectedly refused -to follow his leading, and to grant any taxes on their subjects without -their consent.[666] - -[Sidenote: Political condition of Europe.] - -[Sidenote: Political scandals.] - -These facts will be sufficient to show that the question of Papal taxation -was becoming a serious political question. The ascendency of ecclesiastics -in the courts of princes had, moreover, again and again been the subject -of complaint on the part of the Oxford Reformers. These Papal scandals -revealed a state not only of ecclesiastical, but also of political -rottenness surpassing anything which had yet been seen. Church and State, -the Pope and the Emperor, princes and their ecclesiastical advisers, were -seen wedded in an unholy alliance against the rights of the people. -Ecclesiastical influence, and the practice of Machiavellian principles, -had brought Christendom into a condition of anarchy in which every man's -hand was against his neighbour. The politics of Europe were in greater -confusion than ever. Not only was the Emperor in league with the Pope -against the interests of Europe, but he was obtaining money from England -under the pretext of siding with England against France and Prince -Charles, while he was at the same moment making a secret treaty with -France and preparing the way for the succession of Charles to the empire. -The three young and aspiring princes--Henry, Francis, and Charles--were -eyeing one another with shifting suspicions, and jealously plotting -against one another in the dark. Europe in the meantime was kept in a -chronic state of warfare. Scotland was kept by France always on the point -of quarrelling with England. The Duke of Gueldres and his 'black band' -were committing cruel depredations in the Netherlands to the destruction -of the peace and prosperity of an industrious people.[667] Franz von -Sickingen was engaged in what those who suffered from it spoke of as -'inhuman private warfare.'[668] Such was the state of Germany, that, to -quote the words of Ranke, 'there was hardly a part of the country which -was not either distracted by private wars, troubled by internal divisions, -or terrified by the danger of an attack from some neighbouring -power.'[669] The administration of civil and criminal law was equally bad. -Again, to quote from the same historian, 'The criminal under ban found -shelter and protection; and as the other courts of justice were in no -better condition--in all, incapable judges, impunity for misdoers, and -abuses without end--disquiet and tumult had broken out in all parts. -Neither by land nor water were the ways safe: ... the husbandman, by whose -labours all classes were fed, was ruined; widows and orphans were -deserted; not a pilgrim or a messenger or a tradesman could travel along -the roads....'[670] Such, according to Ranke, were the complaints of the -German people in the Diet of Maintz in 1517, and the Diet separated -without even suggesting a remedy.[671] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus meditates a journey southward, and then returning to -England.] - -It was from a continent thus brought, by the madness of the Pope and -princes, to the very brink of both a civil and a religious revolution, -that Erasmus looked longingly to England as 'out of the world, and perhaps -the least corrupted portion of it'[672]--as that retreat in which, after -one more journey southwards, to print the second edition of his New -Testament and 'some other works,' he hoped at length to spend his -declining years in peaceful retirement. The following portion of a letter -to Colet will also show how fully he saw through the policy of Leo X., -hated the madness of princes, and shared the indignation of Luther at the -sale of indulgences. - - _Erasmus to Colet._ - - [Sidenote: Erasmus on indulgences.] - - [Sidenote: He sees through the Pope's pretexts.] - - 'I am obliged, in order to print the New Testament and some other - books, to go either to Basle, or, more probably, I think, to _Venice_: - for I am deterred from Basle partly by the plague and partly by the - death of Lachnerus, whose pecuniary aid was almost indispensable to - the work. "What," you will say, "are you, an old man, in delicate - health, going to undertake so laborious a journey!--in these times, - too, than which none worse have been seen for six hundred years; while - everywhere lawless robbery abounds!" But why do you say so? I was - _born_ to this fate; if I _die_, I die in a work which, unless I am - mistaken, is not altogether a bad one. But if, this last stroke of my - work being accomplished according to my intention, I should chance to - return, I have made up my mind to spend the remainder of my life with - you, in retirement from a world which is everywhere rotten. - Ecclesiastical hypocrites rule in the courts of princes. The court of - Rome clearly has lost all sense of shame; for _what could be more - shameless than these continued indulgences_? Now a war against the - Turks is put forth as a pretext, when the real purpose is to drive the - Spaniards from Naples; for Lorenzo, the Pope's nephew, who has married - the daughter of the King of Navarre, lays claim to Campania. If these - turmoils continue, the rule of the Turks would be easier to bear than - that of these Christians.'[673] - -[Sidenote: 'Julius de Coelo exclusus.'] - -Erasmus wrote to Warham in precisely the same strain,[674] and shortly -afterwards, on March 5, 1518, in a letter to More, he exclaimed, 'The Pope -and some princes are playing a fresh game under the pretext of a horrid -war against the Turks. Oh, wretched Turks! unless this is too much like -bluster on the part of us Christians.' And, he added, 'They write to me -from Cologne that a book has been printed by somebody, describing "Pope -Julius disputing with Peter at the gate of paradise." The author's name is -not mentioned. The German press will not cease to be violent until some -law shall restrain their boldness, to the detriment also of us, who are -labouring to benefit mankind.'[675] - -This satire, entitled 'Julius de Coelo exclusus,' was eagerly purchased -and widely read,[676] and was one of a series of satirical pamphlets upon -the Papacy and the policy of the Papal party, for which the way had been -prepared by the 'Praise of Folly' and the 'Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum.' -It was one of the signs of the times. - - -II. MORE DRAWN INTO THE SERVICE OF HENRY VIII.--ERASMUS LEAVES GERMANY FOR -BASLE (1518). - -It was at this juncture--at this crisis it may well be called--in European -politics, that More was induced at length, by the earnest solicitations of -Henry VIII., to attach himself to his court under circumstances which -deserve attention. - -[Sidenote: 'Evil May-day.'] - -In the spring of 1517, a frenzy more dangerous than that in which the men -of Coventry indulged had seized the London apprentices. Not wholly without -excuse, they had risen in arms against the merchant strangers, who were -very numerous in London, and to some of whom commercial privileges and -licenses had, perhaps, been too freely granted by a minister anxious to -increase his revenue. Thus had resulted the riots of 'the evil May-day,' -and More had some part to play in the restoration of order in the city. - -[Sidenote: More's embassy to Calais.] - -Then, in August 1517, he was sent on an embassy to Calais with Wingfield -and Knight. Their mission ostensibly was to settle disputes between French -and English merchants, but probably its real import was quite as much to -pave the way for more important negotiations. - -[Sidenote: Henry VIII. meditates giving up his French conquests.] - -No sooner had English statesmen opened their eyes to the fact that -Maximilian had been playing into the hands of the French King against the -interests of England, than, with the natural perversity of men who had no -settled principles to guide their international policy, they began -themselves, out of sheer jealousy, once more to court the favour of the -sovereign against whom they had so long been fruitlessly plotting. They -began secretly to seek to bring about a French alliance with England, -which should out-manoeuvre the recent treaty of the Emperor with France. -Thus, by a sudden and unlooked-for turn in continental politics, was -brought about the curious fact that, within a few months of the -publication of the 'Utopia,' in which More had advocated such a policy, -the surrender of Henry's recent conquests in France was under discussion. -By February in the following year (1518) not only was Tournay restored to -France, but a marriage had been arranged between the infant Dauphin of -France and the infant Princess Mary of England. This of course involved -the abandonment, at all events for a time, of Henry's personal claims on -the crown of France.[677] What share More had in the conversion of the -King to this new policy remains untold; but it is remarkable that within -so short a time his Utopian counsels should have been so far practically -followed, and that he himself should have been chosen as one of the -ambassadors to Calais to prepare the way for it. - -[Sidenote: More's Utopian counsels followed.] - -It would be impossible here to enter into a detailed examination of the -political relations of England; suffice it to say, that a pacific policy -seems to have gained the upper hand for the moment, and that even Wolsey -himself seems to have admitted the necessity of so far following More's -Utopian counsels as to cut down the annual expenditure of the kingdom, and -to husband her resources.[678] - -It may have been only a momentary lull in the King's stormy passion for -war, but it lasted long enough to admit of the renewal of the King's -endeavours to draw More into his service, and of More's yielding at last -to Royal persuasions. - -[Sidenote: More drawn into court.] - -Roper tells us that the immediate occasion of his doing so was the great -ability shown by him in the conduct of a suit respecting a 'great ship' -belonging to the Pope, which the King claimed for a forfeiture. In -connection with which, Roper tells us that More, 'in defence on the Pope's -side, argued so learnedly, that both was the aforesaid forfeiture restored -to the Pope, and himself among all the hearers, for his upright and -commendable demeanour therein, so greatly renowned that for no entreaty -would the King from henceforth be induced any longer to forbear his -service.'[679] - -What passed between the King and his new courtier on this occasion, and -upon what conditions More yielded to the King's entreaties, Roper does not -mention in this connection; but that he maintained his independence of -thought and action, may be inferred from the fact that eighteen years -after, when in peril of his life from Royal displeasure, he had occasion -upon his knees to remind his sovereign of 'the most godly words that his -Highness spake unto him at his first coming into his noble service--the -most virtuous lesson that ever a prince taught his servant--willing him -_first to look to God, and after God unto him_!'[680] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Henry VIII. rises again in the favour of Erasmus.] - -Now that Henry VIII. had apparently changed his policy, now that he was -giving up his pretensions to the crown of France, and no longer talking of -invading her shores, now that he seemed to be calling to his counsels the -very man who, next to Colet, had spoken more plainly than anyone else in -condemnation of that warlike policy in which Henry VIII. had so long -indulged, now that Henry VIII. himself seemed to be returning to his first -love of letters and the 'new learning,' the hopes of Erasmus began once -more to rely upon _him_ rather than upon any other of the princes of -Europe. Erasmus had lost his confidence in Leo X. Prince Charles was now -going to Spain, leaving the Netherlands in a state of confusion and -anarchy, a prey to the devastations of the 'black band,' and for the -present little could reasonably be expected from him, notwithstanding all -the good advice Erasmus had given him in the 'Christian Prince.' - -While Henry VIII. had been wild after military glory, and had seemed ready -to sacrifice everything to this dominant passion, Erasmus had thought it -useless to waste words upon him which he would not heed; but the war being -over in September 1517, he had sent him a copy of the 'Christian Prince,' -and encouraged his royal endeavours to still the tempests which during the -past few years had so violently raged in human affairs. Nor is it without -significance that in this letter to Henry VIII. we find him using warm -words in commendation of a trait of the King's character, which Erasmus -said he admired above all others; viz. this,--that he delighted 'in the -converse of prudent and learned men, _especially of those who did not know -how to speak just what they thought would please_.'[681] - -Under other circumstances such words written to Henry VIII. might have -seemed like satire or perhaps empty adulation, but written as they were -while Henry was as yet unsuccessfully trying to induce More to enter his -service, and only a few months after the publication of the 'Utopia,' they -do not read like words of flattery. - -When in writing to Fisher he had spoken of England as 'out of the world, -or perhaps the least corrupted portion of it,' he had honestly expressed -his real feelings at a time when, whilst continental affairs were in -hopeless confusion and anarchy, there were at least some hopeful symptoms -that a better policy would be adopted for the future by Henry VIII. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus thinks More will serve the best of kings.] - -It was strictly in accordance with the same feelings that, on hearing that -More had yielded to the King's wishes, he wrote to him on April 24, 1518, -not to congratulate him on the step he had taken, but to tell him that the -only thing which consoled him in regard to it was the consideration that -he would serve under 'the best of kings.' And from this remark he passed -by a natural train of thought to speak of the dangers which would attend -his own projected journey southwards through Germany, and bitterly to -allude to the '_novel clemency_' of the Dukes of Cleves, Juliers, and -Nassau, who had been secretly conspiring to disperse in safety the 'black -band' of political ruffians, at whose depredations they had too long -connived. Had their scheme been successful, it would have cast loose these -lawless ruffians upon society without even the control of their robber -leaders. But, as it was, the people took the matter into their own hands, -and disconcerted the conspiracy of their princes. The peasantry, -exasperated by constant depredations, and thirsting for the destruction of -the robbers, had risen in a body and surrounded them. A chance blast from -a trumpet had revealed their whereabouts, and in the _melee_ which -followed, more than a thousand were cut to pieces; the rest escaped to -continue their work of plunder.[682] It was not remarkable if, living in -the midst of anarchy such as this, Erasmus should envy the comparative -security of England, and even for the moment be inclined to praise the -harsh justice with which English robbers, instead of being secretly -protected and encouraged, were sent to the gallows.[683] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus going to Basle.] - -Erasmus had decided upon going to Basle, and in writing to Beatus -Rhenanus[684] to inform him that he intended to do so in the course of the -summer, 'if it should be safe to travel through Germany,' he spoke of the -condition of Germany as '_worse than that of the infernal regions_,' on -account of the numbers of robbers; and asked what princes could be about -to allow such a state of things to exist. - -'All sense of shame,' he wrote, 'has vanished altogether from human -affairs. I see that the very height of tyranny has been reached. The Pope -and kings count the people not as men, but _as cattle in the market_.' - -[Sidenote: Erasmus leaves Louvain for Basle.] - -Once more, on May 1, Erasmus wrote to Colet before leaving for Basle, to -tell him that he really was going, in spite of the dangers of travel -through a country full of disbanded ruffians; to complain of the cruel -clemency of princes who spare scoundrels and cut-throats, and yet do not -spare their own subjects, to whom those who oppress their people are -dearer than the people themselves; and to reiterate his intention to fly -back to his English friends as soon as his work at Basle should be -accomplished. And then he ventured on the journey.[685] - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - - -I. ERASMUS ARRIVES AT BASLE--HIS LABOURS THERE (1518). - -Erasmus arrived at Basle on Ascension Day, May 13, 1518.[686] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus reaches Basle and falls ill.] - -But though he had escaped the robbers, and survived the toils of the -journey, he reached Basle in a state of health so susceptible of -infection, that, in the course of a day or two, he found himself laid up -with that very disease which he had mentioned in his letter to Colet as -prevalent at Basle, and as one great reason why he had shrunk from going -there.[687] - -But even an attack of this 'plague' did not prevent him from beginning his -work at once. - -[Sidenote: His reply to Dr. Eck.] - -Whilst suffering from its early symptoms, during intervals of pain and -weakness,[688] he wrote a careful reply to a letter he had received from -Dr. Eck, Professor of the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria, -complaining, as Luther had already done, indirectly through Spalatin, of -the anti-Augustinian proclivities of the 'Novum Instrumentum.'[689] - -Luther and Eck had already had communications on theological subjects. -The Wittemberg theologian had sent to his Ingolstadt brother for his -approval, through a mutual friend, a set of propositions aimed against the -Pelagian tendencies of the times.[690] - -But Eck and Luther, whilst both admirers of St. Augustine, and both -jealous of Erasmus and his anti-Augustinian proclivities, rested their -objections on somewhat different grounds. - -[Sidenote: Dr. Eck holds to plenary inspiration.] - -Luther looked coldly on the 'Novum Instrumentum' mainly because he thought -he found in its doctrinal statements traces of Pelagian heresy. Dr. Eck -objected not so much to any error in doctrine which it might contain, as -_to the method of Biblical criticism which it adopted throughout_. He -objected to the suggestion it contained, that the Apostles quoted the old -Testament from memory, and, therefore, not always correctly. He objected -to the insinuation that their Greek was colloquial, and not strictly -classical. - -With regard to the first point, he referred to the well-known, and, as he -thought, 'most excellent argument of St. Augustine' against the admission -of _any_ error in the Scriptures, lest the authority of the _whole_ should -be lost. And with regard to the second, he charged Erasmus with making -himself a preceptor to the Holy Spirit, as though the Holy Spirit had been -wanting in attention or learning, and required the defects resulting from -his negligence to be now, after so many centuries, supplied by Erasmus. - -He made these criticisms, he wrote, not in the spirit of opposition, but -because he could not agree with the preference shown by Erasmus to Jerome -over Augustine. It was the one point in which the Erasmian creed was at -fault. Nearly all the learned world was Erasmian already, but this one -thing all Erasmians complained of in Erasmus--that he would not study the -works of St. Augustine. If he would but do this, Eck was sure he would -acknowledge that it would be rash indeed to assign to St. Augustine any -other than the highest place amongst the fathers of the Church.[691] - -[Sidenote: Reply of Erasmus.] - -Erasmus replied[692] to the first objection, that, in his judgment, the -authority of the whole Scriptures would _not_ fall with any slip of memory -on the part of an Evangelist--_e.g._ if he put 'Isaiah' by mistake for -'Jeremiah'--because no point of importance turns upon it. We do not -forthwith think evil of the whole life of Peter because Augustine and -Ambrose affirm that even after he had received the Holy Ghost he fell into -error on some points; and so our faith is not altogether shaken in a whole -book because it has some defects. - -With regard to the colloquial Greek of the Apostles, he took the authority -of Jerome, and Origen, and the Greek fathers as good evidence on that -point. - -With respect to his preference for Jerome over Augustine, he knew what he -was about. His preference for Jerome was deliberate, and rested on good -grounds. When he came to the passage in Eck's letter, where he stated that -all Erasmians complained of his one fault--not reading Augustine--he could -not read it without laughing. 'I know of nothing in me,' he wrote, 'why -anyone should wish to be _Erasmian_, and I altogether hate that term of -division. We are all _Christians_, and labour, each in his own sphere, to -advance the glory of Christ.' But that he had not read the works of -Augustine! Why, they were the very first that he did read of the writings -of the fathers. He had read them over and over again. Let his critics -examine his works, they would find that there was scarcely a work of St. -Augustine which was not there quoted many hundred times. Let him compare -Augustine and Jerome on their merits. Jerome was a pupil of Origen, and -one page of Origen teaches more Christian philosophy than ten of -Augustine. Augustine scarcely knew Greek; at all events was not at home in -Greek writers. Besides this, by his own confession, he was busied with his -bishopric, and could hardly snatch time to learn what he taught to others. -Jerome devoted _thirty-five years_ to the study of the Scriptures. - -In the meantime, in conclusion, he observed that the difference of opinion -between himself and Eck upon these points need not interrupt their -friendship, any more than the difference of opinion upon the same point -between Jerome and Augustine interrupted theirs. - -Having despatched this reply to Eck, and recovered from what proved a -short but sharp attack of illness, Erasmus wrote to More on the 1st of -June to advise him of his safe arrival at Basle, of his illness and -recovery, and to express the hope that a few months would see his labours -there accomplished. If the Fates were propitious, he hoped to return to -Brabant in September.[693] - - * * * * * - -What were the works which he had come to Basle to publish during these -tumultuous times? - -[Sidenote: New editions of works of Erasmus.] - -The second edition of the New Testament will require a separate notice -by-and-by. A new and corrected edition of More's 'Utopia' was already in -hand, and waiting only for a letter which Budaeus was writing to be -prefixed to it.[694] A new edition of the 'Institutio Principis -Christiani' was also to come forth from the press of Froben.[695] - -It might seem hopeless to put forth works such as these, expressing views -so far in advance of the practices of the times, but the fact that new -editions were so rapidly called for proved that they were eagerly read. In -the same letter in which Erasmus ridiculed to More the projected -expedition against the Turks, and spoke of the violence of the German -press and the satire which had just appeared, '_Julius de Coelo -exclusus_,' he spoke of his having seen another edition of the 'Utopia' -just printed at Paris.[696] - -In the previous year, 1517, Froben had printed a sixth edition of the -'Adagia,' which had now expanded into a thick folio volume, and become a -receptacle for the views of Erasmus on many chance subjects. In this -edition he had expressed his indignant feelings against the political -anarchy and Papal scandals of the period, and he told More to look -particularly at what he had written on the adage, '_Ut fici oculis -incumbunt_;'[697] in which was an allusion to the 'insatiable avarice, -unbridled lust, most pernicious cruelty, and great tyranny' of princes; -and to the evil influence of those ecclesiastics who, ever ready to do the -dirty work of princes and popes, abetted and mixed themselves up with the -worst scandals.[698] And again it is remarkable to find how rapidly this -ponderous edition of the 'Adagia' must have been sold to admit of another -following in 1520, still further increased in bulk--a large folio volume -of nearly 800 pages. - -[Sidenote: Collections of letters printed.] - -[Sidenote: Letter to Volzius.] - -In addition to these reprints, two separate collections of some of his -letters were printed by Froben in 1518,[699] evidently intended to aid in -spreading more widely those plain-spoken views on various subjects which -he had expressed in his private letters to his friends during the last few -years. Another edition was also called for of the 'Enchiridion;' and -Erasmus, on his arrival at Basle, burning as well he might with increased -indignation against the scandals of the times, wrote a new preface, in the -form of a letter to Volzius, the Abbot of a monastery at Schelestadt--a -letter which, containing in almost every line of it pointed allusion to -passing events, was eagerly devoured by thinking men all over Europe, and -passed through several editions in a very short space of time. - -It was a letter in which he repeated the conviction which he had learned -twenty years before from Colet, that the true Christian creed was -exceedingly simple, adapted not for the learned alone, but for _all_ men. - -And upon this ground he defended the simplicity of his little handy-book, -contrasting it with the '_Summa_' of Aquinas. 'Let the great doctors, -which must needs be but few in comparison with other men, study and busy -themselves in those great volumes.' The 'unlearned and rude multitude, -which Christ died for, ought to be provided for also.' 'Christ would that -the way should be plain and open to every man,' and therefore, we -ourselves ought to endeavour, with all 'our strength to make it as easy as -can be.'[700] - -He then alluded to the war against the Turks, and hinted that it would be -better to try to convert them. Do we wonder, he urged, that Christianity -does not spread? that we cannot convert the Turks? What is the use of -laying before them the ponderous tomes of the Schoolmen, full of 'thorny -and cumbrous and inextricably subtle imaginations of instants, -formalities, quiddities,' and the like? We ought to place before them the -simple philosophy of Christ contained in the _Gospels_ and _Apostolic -Epistles_, simplifying even their phraseology; giving them in fact the -pith of them _in as simple and clear a form as possible_. And of what use -would even this be if our lives belied our creed? They must see that we -ourselves are servants and imitators of Jesus Christ, that we do not covet -anything of theirs for ourselves, but that we desire their salvation and -the glory of Christ. This was the true, pure, and powerful theology which -in olden time subjected to Christ the pride of philosophers and the -sceptres of kings. - -Erasmus then, after a passing censure of the scandals brought upon -Christianity by the warlike policy of priests and princes, the sale of -indulgences, and so forth, proceeded to criticise the religion of modern -monks, their reliance on ceremonies, their degeneracy, and worldliness. - -'... Once the monastic life was a _retreat_ or _retirement_ from the -world, of men who were called out of idolatry to Christ: now those who are -called monks are found in the very vortex of worldly business, exercising -a sort of tyrannical rule over the affairs of men. They alone are holy, -other men are scarcely Christians. _Why should we thus narrow the -Christian profession, when Christ wished it to be as broad as -possible?_[701] Except the big name, what is a _state_ but one great -monastery? Let no one despise another because his manner of life is -different.... In every path of life let all strive to attain to the mind -of Christ [_scopum Christi_]. Let us assist one another, neither envying -those who surpass us, nor despising those who may lag behind. And if -anyone should excel another, let him beware lest he be like the Pharisee -in the Gospel, who recounted his good deeds to God; rather let him follow -the teaching of Christ, and say, "I am an unprofitable servant." No one -more truly has faith than he who distrusts himself. No one is really -farther from true religion than he who thinks himself most religious. -Nothing is worse for Christian piety than for what is really of the world -to be misconstrued to be of Christ--for human authority to be preferred to -Divine.'[702] - -It was a letter firm and calm in its tone, and well adapted to the end in -view. It was dated from Basle, in August, 1518. - -The 'Enchiridion,' with this prefatory letter, was published in September, -together with some minor works, amongst which was the 'Discussion on the -Agony in the Garden,' including Colet's reply, in which he had expressed -his views on the theory of the 'manifold senses' of Scripture, the whole -forming an elegant quarto volume printed in the very best type of Froben. -Another beautiful edition was published at Cologne in the following year. - - -II. THE SECOND EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT (1518-19). - -The time had come for Erasmus more fully and publicly to reply to the -various attacks which had been made upon the 'Novum Instrumentum.' - -Its most bitter opponents had been the ignorant Scotists and monks who -were caricatured in the 'Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum.' 'There are none,' -wrote Erasmus to a friend, 'who bark at me more furiously than they who -have never seen even the outside of my book. Try the experiment upon any -of them, and you will find what I tell you is true. When you meet any one -of these brawlers, let him rave on at my New Testament till he has made -himself hoarse and out of breath, then ask him gently whether he has read -it. If he have the impudence to say "_yes_," urge him to produce one -passage that deserves to be blamed. You will find that he cannot.'[703] - -To opponents such as these, Erasmus had sufficiently replied by the -re-issue of the 'Enchiridion' with the new prefatory letter to Volzius. - -But there was another class of objectors to the 'Novum Instrumentum' who -were not ignorant and altogether bigoted, and who honestly differed from -the views of Erasmus; some of them, like Luther, because he did not follow -the Augustinian theology; others, like Eck, who adhered to Augustine's -theory of verbal inspiration; others, again, who were jealous of the -tendencies of the 'new learning,' and saw covert heresies in all -departures from the beaten track. - -[Sidenote: Second edition of the New Testament.] - -The reply of Erasmus to these was a second edition of his New Testament; -and this was already in course of publication at Froben's press.[704] - -Erasmus took pains in the second edition to correct an immense number of -little errors which had crept into the first. But in those points in which -it was the expression of the views of the Oxford Reformers, he altered -nothing, unless it were to express them more clearly and strongly, or to -defend what he had said in the 'Novum Instrumentum.' - -Thus the passage condemned by Luther, in which the resort by theologians -to the doctrine of 'original sin' was compared to the invention of -epicycles by mediaeval astronomers, was retained in all essential -particulars without modification.[705] - -So, too, the passages censured by Eck as inimical to the Augustinian -theory of the inspiration of the Scriptures, were not only retained, but -amplified, while opportunity was taken to strengthen the arguments in -favour of the freer view of inspiration held by the Oxford Reformers.[706] - -Again; the main drift and spirit of the body of the work remained -unchanged. Its title, however, was altered from 'Novum Instrumentum' to -'Novum Testamentum.' - -In speaking of the 'Novum Instrumentum' it was observed, that perhaps the -most remarkable portion of the work was the prefatory matter, especially -the 'Paraclesis.' - -[Sidenote: 'Paraclesis.'] - -This 'Paraclesis' remained the same in the second edition as in the 'Novum -Instrumentum,' including the passages quoted in a former chapter, urging -the translation of the New Testament into every language, so that it might -become the common property of the ploughman and the mechanic, and even of -Turks and Saracens, and ending also with the passage in which Erasmus had -so forcibly summed up the value of the Gospels and Epistles, by pointing -out how 'living and breathing a picture' they presented of Christ -'speaking, healing, dying, and rising again, bringing his life so vividly -before the eye, that we almost seem to have seen it ourselves.' - -[Sidenote: 'Ratio Verae Theologiae.'] - -Next to the 'Paraclesis,' in the first edition, had followed a few -paragraphs treating of the 'method of theological study.' This in the -second edition was so greatly enlarged as to become an important feature -of the work. It was also printed separately, and passed through several -editions under the title, '_Ratio Verae Theologiae_.' - -Erasmus in this treatise pointed out, as he had done before, the great -advantages of the study of the New Testament in its original language, -and urged that all branches of knowledge, natural philosophy, geography, -history, classics, mythology, should be brought to bear upon it, again -assigning the reason which he had before given,--'that we may follow the -story, and seem not only to read it but to _see_ it; for it is wonderful -how much light--how much _life_, so to speak--is thrown by this method -into what before seemed dry and lifeless.' - -[Sidenote: Example of the historical method from Origen.] - -Contrasting the results of this method with that commonly in use in -lectures and sermons, he exclaimed, 'How these very things which were -meant to warm and to enliven, themselves lie cold and without any life!' -And then, to give an example of the true method, he recommended the -student to study the homily of Origen on 'Abraham commanded to sacrifice -his son,' in which a type or example is set before our eyes, to show that -the power of faith is stronger than all human passions. The object [of -Origen] is to point out, dwelling on each little circumstance, by what and -how many ways the trial struck home over and over again to the heart of -the father. 'Take, he said, thy _son_. What parent's heart would not -soften at the name of son? But that the sacrifice might be still greater, -it is added--thy _dearest_ son--and yet more emphatic--_whom thou lovest_. -Here surely, was enough for a human heart to grapple with.... But Isaac -was more than merely a son, he was the son of promise. The good man longed -for posterity, and all his hope depended on the life of this one child. He -was commanded to ascend a high mountain, and it took him _three days_ to -get there. During all the time, what conflicting thoughts must have rent -the heart of the parent! his human affections on the one side, the Divine -command on the other. As they are going, the boy carrying the wood, calls -to his father who bears the fire and the sword, "Father!" and he replies, -"What dost thou want, my son?" How must the heart of the old man have -throbbed with the pulsations of his love! Who would not have been moved -with loving pity for the simplicity of the obedient boy, when he said, -"Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the victim?" In how many ways -was the faith of Abraham tried! And now mark with what firmness, with what -constancy, did he go on doing what he was commanded to do. He did not -reply to God, he did not argue with him concerning his promised -faithfulness, he did not even mourn with his friends and relations over -his childlessness, as most men would have done to lighten their grief. -Seeing the place afar off, he told his servants to stop, lest any of them -should hinder his carrying out what was commanded.... He himself built the -altar; he himself bound the boy and put him on the wood; the sword -quivered in his grasp, and would have slain his only son, on whom all his -cherished hope of posterity depended, had not suddenly the voice of an -angel stayed the old man's hand.'[707] - -Thus (continued Erasmus), but more at length and more elegantly, are these -things related by Origen, I hardly know whether more to the pleasure or -profit of the reader; although, be it observed, they are construed -_altogether according to the historical sense_; nor does he apply any -other method to the Holy Scriptures than that which Donatus applies to the -comedies of Terence when elucidating the meaning of the classics. - -It would almost seem that Erasmus might have read Luther's letter to -Spalatin in which he complained of St. Jerome's adhering upon principle to -the _historical_ sense, and mourned over the tendency he had seen in -Erasmus to follow his example. Luther spoke of this literal historical -method of interpretation as the reason why, in the hands of commentators -since St. Augustine, the Bible had been a _dead_ book. Erasmus thought, on -the other hand, that the only way to restore the position of the Bible as -a _living_ book was to apply to it the same method which common sense -applied to all other books; to resume, in fact, that literal and -historical method which had been neglected since the days of St. Jerome, -and which Origen had so successfully applied to the story of Abraham in -the passage he had cited. It is singular also that, in quoting from Origen -this example of the skilful application of the historical method, he was -quoting from the father whose rich imagination was mainly responsible for -the theory of 'the manifold senses.' - -The adoption of the common sense historical method of interpreting the -Scriptures, made it possible and needful to rest faith in Christianity on -its own evidences rather than upon the dogmatic authority of the Church, -her fathers, doctors, schoolmen, or councils. To this Erasmus seems to -have been fully alive. He was not prepared to throw aside the authority of -the general consent of Christians, especially of the early fathers, as a -thing of naught, but he was too conscious of the fallibility of all such -authority to rest wholly upon it. Besides, one evident object he had in -view was to gain back again to Christianity those disciples of the new -learning who, in revulsion from the Christianity of Alexander VI., Caesar -Borgia, and Julius II., were trying to satisfy themselves with a refined -semi-pagan philosophy. And no ecclesiastical authority could avail to undo -what ecclesiastical scandal had done in that quarter. - -The stress which in this little treatise Erasmus laid upon internal -evidence will be best illustrated by a few examples. - -Take first the following argument for the truth of Christianity. - -[Sidenote: Argument for the truth of Christianity.] - -He recommends the student 'attentively to observe, in both New and Old -Testaments, the wonderful compass and consistency of the whole story, if I -may so speak, of Christ becoming a man for our sake. This will help us not -only more rightly to understand what we read, but also to read with -greater faith. For no _lie_ was ever framed with such skill as in -everything to comport with itself. Compare the types and prophecies of the -Old Testament which foreshadowed Christ, and these same things happening -as they were revealed to the eye of faith. Next to them was the testimony -of angels--of Gabriel to the Virgin at his conception, and again of a -choir of angels at his birth. Then came the testimony of the shepherds, -then that of the Magi, besides that of Simeon and Anna. John the Baptist -foretold his coming. He pointed him out with his finger when he came as he -whose _coming_ the prophets predicted. And lest we should not know what to -hope for from him, he added, "Behold him who taketh away the sin of the -world!"... - -'Next observe the whole course of his life, how he grew up to youth, -always in favour with both God and man.... At twelve years of age, -teaching and listening in the temple, he first gave a glimpse of what he -was. Then by his first miracle, at the marriage feast, in private, he made -himself known to a few. For it was not until after he had been baptized -and commended by the voice of his Father and the sign of the dove; lastly, -not until after he had been tried and proved by the forty days' fast and -the temptation of Satan, that he commenced the work of _preaching_. Mark -his birth, education, preaching, death; you will find nothing but a -perfect example of poverty and humility, yea of innocence. The whole range -of his doctrine, as it was consistent with itself, so it was consistent -with his life, and also consistent with his nature. He taught innocence; -he himself so lived that not even suborned witnesses, after trying in many -ways to do so, could find anything that could plausibly be laid to his -charge. He taught gentleness: he himself was led as a lamb to the -slaughter. He taught poverty, and we do not read that he ever possessed -anything. He warned against ambition and pride: he himself washed his -disciples' feet. He taught that this was the way to true glory and -immortality: he himself, by the ignominy of the cross, has obtained a name -which is above every name; and whilst he sought no earthly kingdom, he -earned the empire both of heaven and earth. When he rose from the dead, he -taught what he had taught before. He had taught that death is not to be -feared by the good, and on that account he showed himself risen again. In -the presence of the same disciples he ascended into heaven, that we might -know whither we are to strive to follow. Lastly, that heavenly Spirit -descended which by its inspiration made his apostles what Christ wished -them to be. You may perhaps find in the books of Plato or Seneca what is -not inconsistent with the teaching of Christ; you may find in the life of -Socrates some things which are certainly consistent with the life of -Christ; but this wide range, and all things belonging to it in harmonious -agreement _inter se_, you will find in _Christ_ alone. There are many -things in the prophets both divinely said and piously done, many things in -Moses and other men famous for holiness of life, but this complete range -you will not find in any _man_.'[708]... - -From this general view of the 'wonderful compass and consistency of the -whole story' let us pass with Erasmus to details. We shall find him -following the same method in treating of each point, taking pains to rest -his belief rather on the evidence of _facts_ than upon mere dogmatic -authority. - -[Sidenote: Proofs of the innocence of Christ.] - -Thus in treating of the '_innocence_ of Christ,' it would have been easy -to have quoted a few authoritative passages from the Apostolic epistles, -and to have relied upon these, but Erasmus chose rather to rest on the -variety of evidence afforded by the many different kinds of witnesses -whose testimony is recorded in the New Testament. After alluding to the -testimony of the voice from heaven, of John the Baptist, and of the -_friends_ of Jesus, he thus proceeds:-- - -'... The men who were sent to take him bore witness that "never man spake -as this man."... _Pilate_ also bore witness, "I am pure from the blood of -this _just man_; see ye to it." Pilate's _wife_ also bore witness, "have -nothing to do with that _just person_."... Hostile judges recognised his -innocence, rejecting the evidence of the many witnesses. They declared, -and themselves were witnesses, that the suborned men _lied_: they had -nothing to object but the saying about the destruction and rebuilding of -the temple.... The wretched _Judas_ confessed, "I have sinned, in -betraying _innocent_ blood." The centurion at the cross confessed, "truly -this was the Son of God." The wicked Pharisees confessed that they had -nothing to lay to his charge why he should be crucified, but the saying -about the temple. Thus was he so guiltless, that nothing could even be -_invented_ against him with any show of _probability_.'[709] - -[Sidenote: Proofs of Christ's humanity.] - -In the same way, in order to show that Christ was truly a _man_, instead -of quoting texts to prove it, he pointed to the facts 'that he called -himself the "Son of man;" that he grew up through the usual stages of -growth; that he slept, ate, hungered, and thirsted; that he was wearied by -travel; that he was touched by human passions. We read in Matthew that he -pitied the crowd; in Mark, that he was angry and grieved and groaned in -spirit; in John, that his mind was moved before his passion; that such was -his anguish in the garden that his sweat was like drops of blood; that he -thirsted on the cross, which was what usually happened during crucifixion; -that he wept over the city of Jerusalem; that he wept and was moved at the -grave of Lazarus.'[710] - -[Sidenote: Proofs of the divinity of Christ.] - -And in the same way to prove Christ's divinity, Erasmus pointed to his -miracles, and their consistency with his own declarations. Again he -wrote, 'Who indeed would look for true salvation from a mere man?... He -said that he was sent from heaven, that he was the Son of God, that he had -been in heaven. He called God his Father; and the Jews understood what he -meant by it, for they said, "Thou, a man, makest thyself God." Lastly, he -rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sent down the Paraclete, by -whom the Apostles were suddenly refreshed.'[711] - -[Sidenote: The mode by which Christ influenced the world.] - -Another subject upon which Erasmus dwelt was 'the way which was adopted by -Christ to draw the world under his influence.' He showed how the prophets -and the preaching of John had prepared the way for him. 'He did not seek -suddenly to change the world; for it is difficult to remove from men's -minds what they have imbibed in childhood, and what has been handed down -to them by common consent from their ancestors. First, John went before -with the baptism of repentance; then the Apostles went forth, not yet -announcing the coming Messiah, but only that the kingdom of heaven was at -hand. By means of poor and unlearned men the thing began, ... and for a -long while he bore with the rudeness and distrust of even these, that they -might not seem to have believed rashly. Thomas pertinaciously disbelieved, -and not until he had touched the marks of the nails and the spear did he -exclaim, "My Lord and my God!" When about to ascend to heaven, he -upbraided all of them for their hardness of heart and difficulty in -believing what they had seen.... He added the evidence of miracles, but -even these were nothing but acts of kindness. He never worked a miracle -for anyone who had not faith. The crowd were witnesses of nearly all he -did. He sent the lepers to the priests, not that they might be healed, but -that it might be more clearly known that they were healed.... And for all -the benefits he rendered, he never once took any reward, nor glory, nor -money, nor pleasure, nor rule, so that the suspicion of a corrupt motive -might not be imputed to him. And it was not till after the Holy Spirit had -been sent that the Gospel trumpet was sounded through the whole world, -_lest it should seem that he had sought anything for himself while alive_. -Moreover, there is no testimony held more efficacious amongst mortals than -blood. By his own death, and that of his disciples, he set a seal to the -truth of his teaching. I have already alluded to the consistency of his -whole life.'[712] - -[Sidenote: Precepts of the New Testament.] - -These passages will serve as examples of the means by which, in this -treatise, Erasmus sought to bring out the facts of the life of Christ as -the true foundation of the Christian faith, instead of the dogmas of -scholastic theology. After thus thoughtfully dwelling upon the facts of -the life of Christ, he proceeds to examine his teaching, and he concludes -that there were two things which he peculiarly and perpetually -inculcated--faith and love--and, after describing them more at length, he -writes, 'Read the New Testament through, you will not find in it any -precept which pertains to _ceremonies_. Where is there a single word of -meats or vestments? Where is there any mention of fasts and the like? -_Love_ alone He calls _His_ precept. Ceremonies give rise to differences; -from love flows peace.... And yet _we_ burden those who have been made -free by the blood of Christ with all these almost senseless and more than -Jewish constitutions!'[713] - -Finally, turning from the New Testament and its theology to the Schoolmen -and theirs, he exclaimed, 'What a spectacle it is to see a divine of -eighty years old knowing nothing but mere sophisms!'[714] and ended with -the sentences which have already been quoted as the conclusion of the -shorter treatise prefixed to the 'Novum Instrumentum.' - -This somewhat lengthy examination of 'the method of true theology' will -not have been fruitless, if it should place beyond dispute what was -pointed out with reference to the 'Novum Instrumentum,' that its value lay -more in its prefaces, and its main drift and spirit as a whole, than in -the critical exactness of its Greek text or the correctness of its -readings. If it could be said of the 'Novum Instrumentum' that much of its -value lay in its preface--in its beautiful '_Paraclesis_'--it may also be -said that the importance of the second edition was greatly enhanced by the -addition of the '_Ratio Verae Theologiae_.' - -And as, like its forerunner, this second edition went forth under the -shield of Leo X.'s approval, with the additional sanction of the -Archbishops of Basle and of Canterbury, and with all the prestige of -former success, it must have been felt to be not only a firm and -dignified, but also a triumphant reply to the various attacks which had -been made upon Erasmus--a reply more powerful than the keenest satire or -the most bitter invective could have been--a reply in which the honest -dissentient found a calm restatement of what perhaps he had only half -comprehended; the candid critic, the errors of which he complained -corrected; and the blind bigot, the luxury of something further to -denounce.[715] - - -III. ERASMUS'S HEALTH GIVES WAY (1518). - -[Sidenote: Erasmus leaves Basle.] - -[Sidenote: Reaches Louvain ill.] - -After several months' hard and close labour in Froben's office in the -autumn of 1518, Erasmus left Basle, jaded and in poor health. As he -proceeded on his journey to Louvain his maladies increased. Carbuncles -made their appearance, and added to the pains of travel. He reached -Louvain thoroughly ill; and turned into the house of the hospitable -printer, Thierry Martins, almost exhausted. A physician was sent for. He -told Martins and his wife that Erasmus had the plague, and never came -again for fear of contagion. Another was sent for, but he likewise did not -repeat his visit. A third came, and pronounced it not to be the plague. A -fourth, at the first mention of ulcers, was seized with fear, and though -he promised to call again, sent his servant instead. And thus for weeks -lay Erasmus, ill and neglected by the doctors, in the house of the good -printer at Louvain.[716] - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Joy of the monks at the report of the death of Erasmus.] - -Some monks were drinking together at Cologne, a city where Erasmus had -many bigoted enemies. One of the fraternity of preaching friars brought -to them the news that Erasmus was dead at Louvain! The intelligence was -received with applause by the convivial monks, and again and again was the -applause repeated, when the preacher added, in his monkish Latin, that -Erasmus had died, like a heretic as he was, '_sine lux, sine crux, sine -Deus_.'[717] - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - - -I. ERASMUS DOES NOT DIE (1518). - -The monks of Cologne were disappointed. Erasmus did not die. His illness -turned out not to be the plague. After four weeks' nursing at the good -printer's house, he was well enough to be removed to his own lodgings -within the precincts of the college. Thence he wrote to Beatus Rhenanus in -these words:-- - - _Erasmus to Beatus Rhenanus._[718] - - * * * * * - - [Sidenote: Erasmus describes his illness.] - - 'My dear Beatus,--Who would have believed that this frail delicate - body, now weaker from increasing age, after the toils of so many - journeys, after the labours of so many studies, should have survived - such an illness? You know how hard I had been working at Basle just - before.... A suspicion had crossed my mind that this year would prove - fatal to me, one malady succeeded so rapidly upon another, and each - worse than the one which preceded it. When the disease was at its - height, I neither felt distressed with desire of life, nor did I - tremble at the fear of death. All my hope was in Christ alone, and I - prayed for nothing to him except that he would do what he thought - best for me. Formerly, when a youth, I remember I used to tremble at - the very name of death!...' - -Had Erasmus fallen a victim to the plague and died at the house of Martins -the printer, as the friar had reported, and the convivial monks had too -readily believed, it does not seem likely that his death would have been -as dark and godless as they fancied it might have been. As it was, instead -of dying without lighted tapers and crucifix and transubstantiated wafer, -or, in monkish jargon, '_sine lux, sine crux, sine Deus_,' their enemy -_still lived_, and the disappointed monks, instead of ill-concealed -rejoicings over his death, were obliged to content themselves for many -years to come with muttering in quite another tone, 'It were good for that -man if he had never been born.'[719] - - -II. MORE AT THE COURT OF HENRY VIII. (1518). - -[Sidenote: The sweating sickness.] - -[Sidenote: Death of Ammonius.] - -While the plague had been raging in Germany, the sweating sickness had -been continuing its ravages in England. Before More left for Calais it had -struck down, after a few days' illness, Ammonius, with whom Erasmus and -More had long enjoyed intimate friendship. Wolsey also had narrowly -escaped with his life, after repeated attacks. When More returned from the -embassy he found the sickness still raging. In the spring of 1518 the -court was removed to Abingdon, to escape the contagion of the great city; -and whilst there, More, who now was obliged to follow the King wherever he -might go, had to busy himself with precautionary measures to prevent its -spread in Oxford, where it had made its appearance.[720] - -[Sidenote: Greeks and Trojans at Oxford.] - -Whilst at Abingdon, he was called upon, also, to interfere with his -influence to quiet a foolish excitement which had seized the students at -Oxford. It was not the spread of the sweating sickness which had caused -their alarm; but the increasing taste for the study of Greek had roused -the fears of divines of the old school. The enemies of the 'new learning' -had raised a faction against it. The students had taken sides, calling -themselves Greeks and Trojans, and, not content with wordy warfare, they -had come to open and public insult. At length, the most virulent abuse had -been poured upon the Greek language and literature, even from the -university pulpit, by an impudent and ignorant preacher. He had denounced -all who favoured Greek studies as 'heretics;' in his coarse phraseology, -those who taught the obnoxious language were '_diabolos maximos_' and its -students '_diabolos minutulos_.' - -More, upon hearing what had been passing, wrote a letter of indignant but -respectful remonstrance to the university authorities.[721] He and Pace -interested the King also in the affair, and at their suggestion he took -occasion to express his royal pleasure that the students 'would do well to -devote themselves with energy and spirit to the study of Greek -literature;' and so, says Erasmus, 'silence was imposed upon these -brawlers.'[722] - -[Sidenote: A foolish preacher at Court.] - -On another occasion the King and his courtiers had attended Divine -service. The court preacher had, like the Oxford divine, indulged in abuse -of Greek literature and the modern school of interpretation--having -Erasmus and his New Testament in his eye. Pace looked at the King to see -what he thought of it. The King answered his look with a satirical smile. -After the sermon the divine was ordered to attend upon the King. It was -arranged that More should reply to the arguments he had urged against -Greek literature. After he had done so, the divine, instead of replying to -his arguments, dropped down on his knees before the King, and simply -prayed for forgiveness, urging, however, by way of extenuating his fault, -that he was carried away by the spirit in his sermon when he poured forth -all this abuse of the Greek language. 'But,' the King here observed, 'that -spirit was not the spirit of _Christ_, but the spirit of _foolishness_.' -He then asked the preacher what works of Erasmus he had read. He had not -read any. 'Then,' said the King, 'you prove yourself to be a fool, for you -condemn what you have never read.' 'I read once,' replied the divine, 'a -thing called the "Moria."'... Pace here suggested that there was a decided -congruity between that and the preacher. And finally the preacher himself -relented so far as to admit:--'After all I am not so _very_ hostile to -Greek letters, because they were derived from the Hebrew.' The King, -wondering at the distinguished folly of the man, bade him retire, but with -strict injunctions never again to preach at Court![723] - -So far, then, from More's new position having extinguished his own -opinions or changed his views, he had the satisfaction of being able now -and then to advance the interests of the 'new learning,' and to act the -part of its 'friend at court.' - - -III. THE EVENING OF COLET'S LIFE (1518-19). - -[Sidenote: The sweating sickness.] - -The sweating sickness continued its ravages in England, striking down one -here and another there with merciless rapidity. It was generally fatal on -the first day. If the patient survived twenty-four hours he was looked -upon as out of danger. But it was liable to recur, and sometimes attacked -the same person four times in succession. This was the case with Cardinal -Wolsey; whilst several of the royal retinue were attacked and carried off -at once, Wolsey's strong constitution carried him through four successive -attacks.[724] - -[Sidenote: Colet three times attacked by it.] - -During the period of its ravages Colet was three times attacked by it and -survived, but with a constitution so shattered, and with symptoms so -premonitory of consumptive tendencies, as to suggest to him that the time -might not be far distant when he too must follow after his twenty-one -brothers and sisters, and leave his aged mother the survivor of all her -children. - -Meanwhile an accidental ray of light falls here and there upon the -otherwise obscure life of Colet during these years of peril, revealing -little pictures, too beautiful in their simple consistency with all else -we know of him to be passed by unheeded. - -The first glimpse we get of Colet reveals him engaged in the careful and -final completion of the rules and statutes by which his school was to be -governed after his own death. Having spent a good part of his life and his -fortune in the foundation of this school, as the best means of promoting -the cause which he had so deeply at heart, one might have expected that he -would have tried, in fixing his statutes, to give permanence and -perpetuity to his own views. This is what most people try to do by -endowments of this kind. - -No sooner do most reformers clear away a little ground, and discover what -they take to be truths, than they attempt, by organising a sect, founding -endowments, and framing articles and trust-deeds, to secure the permanent -tradition of their own views to posterity in the form in which they are -apprehended by themselves. Hence, in the very act of striking off the -fetters of the past, they are often forging the fetters of the future. -Even the Protestant Reformers, whilst on the one hand bravely breaking the -yoke under which their ancestors had lived in bondage, ended by fixing -another on the neck of their posterity. Those who remained in the old -bondage found themselves, as the result of the Reformation, bound still -tighter under Tridentine decrees: whilst those who had joined the exodus, -and entered the promised land of the Reformers, found it to be a land of -almost narrower boundaries than the one they had left. Freed from Papal -thraldom it might be, but bound down by an Augustinian theology as rigid -and dogmatic as that from which they had escaped. - -If Colet did not do likewise, he resisted with singular wisdom and success -a temptation which besets every one under his circumstances. That Colet -strove to found no sect of his own has already been seen. If the movement -which he had done so much to set agoing had produced its fruits--if a -school or party had been the result--he had not called it, or felt it to -be, in any way his _own_; he might call it 'Erasmican' in joke, and leave -Erasmus indignantly to repudiate 'that name of division;' but Erasmus -expressed the view of Colet as well as his own when he said to the abbot, -'Why should we try to narrow what Christ intended to be broad?' - -Perfectly consistent with this feeling, Colet did not now show any anxiety -to perpetuate his own particular views by means of the power which, as the -founder of the endowment, he had a perfect right to exercise. The truth -was, I think, that he retained the spirit of free enquiry--the mind open -to light from whatever direction--to the last, in full faith that the -facts of Christianity--in so far as they are facts--must have everything -to gain and nothing to lose from the discovery of other facts in other -fields of knowledge. As I have before pointed out, the Oxford Reformers -felt that they were living in an age of discovery and progress; they never -dreamed that they had reached finality either in knowledge or creed; it -would have been a sad blow to their hopes if they had been told that they -had. They took a humble view of their own attainments, and had faith in -the future. - -[Sidenote: Colet settles the statutes of his school.] - -In this spirit do we find Colet in these days of peril from the sweating -sickness, and conscious that his shattered health must soon give way, -settling the statutes of his school with a wisdom seldom surpassed even in -more modern times. - -First, with great practical shrewdness, instead of putting his school -under the charge of ecclesiastics or clergymen, he intrusted it entirely -'to the most honest and faithful fellowship of the _Mercers_ of London.' -As Erasmus expressed it, 'of the whole concern, he set in charge, not a -bishop, not a chapter, not dignitaries, but married citizens of -established reputation.'[725] Time had been when Colet had regarded -'marriage' as almost an unholy thing. But he had seen much both of the -church and the world since then; and as perhaps his faith in Dionysian -speculations had lessened, his English common sense had more and more -asserted its own. He had, as already mentioned, wisely advised Thomas More -to marry. In his 'Right fruitful Admonition concerning the Order of a good -Christian Man's Life,' from which I have quoted before, he had said, 'If -thou intend to marry, or be married, and hast a good wife, thank our Lord -therefor, for she is of his sending.' So now he intrusted his school to -'married citizens;' and Erasmus adds, 'when he was asked the reason, he -said, that nothing indeed is certain in human affairs, but that yet -amongst _these_ he had found the least corruption.[726]... He used to -declare that he had nowhere found less corrupt morals than among married -people, because natural affection, the care of their children, and -domestic duties, are like so many rails which keep them from sliding into -all kinds of vice.'[727] - -In defining the duties and salaries of the masters of his school, he -provided expressly that they might be married men (and those chosen by him -actually were so);[728] but they were to hold their office 'in no rome of -continuance and perpetuity, but upon their duty in the school.' The -chaplain was to be 'some good, honest, and virtuous man, and to help to -teach in the school.' - -Respecting the children he expressed his desire to be that they should not -be received into the school until they could read and write fairly, and -explained 'what they shall be taught' in general terms; 'for,' said he, -'it passeth my wit to devise and determine in particular.' - -Then, last of all, he added the following clause, headed, 'Liberty to -Declare the Statutes:'-- - -[Sidenote: Colet wisely gives power to alter the statutes.] - -'And notwithstanding these statutes and ordinances before written, in -which I have declared my mind and will; yet because in time to come many -things may and shall survive and grow by many occasions and causes which -at the making of this book was not possible to come to mind; in -consideration of the assured truth and circumspect wisdom and faithful -goodness of the most honest and substantial fellowship of the Mercery of -London, to whom I have committed all the care of the school, and trusting -in their fidelity and love that they have to God and man and to the -school; and also believing verily that they shall always dread the great -wrath of God:--_Both all this that is said, and all that is not said, -which hereafter shall come into my mind while I live to be said, I leave -it wholly to their discretion and charity_: I mean of the wardens and -assistances of the fellowship, with such other counsel as they shall call -unto them--good lettered and learned men--_they to add and diminish of -this book and to supply it in every default_; and also to declare in it -every obscurity and darkness as time and place and just occasion shall -require; calling the dreadful God to look upon them in all such business, -and exhorting them to fear the terrible judgment of God, which seeth in -darkness, and shall render to every man according to his works; and -finally, praying the great Lord of mercy, for their faithful dealing in -this matter, now and always to send unto them in this world much wealth -and prosperity, and after this life much joy and glory.'[729] - -This done, he wrote in the Book of Statutes the following -memorandum:--'This book I, John Colet, delivered into the hands of Master -Lilly the 18th day of June 1518, that he may keep it and observe it in the -school.'[730] - -[Sidenote: Colet prepares his tomb at St. Paul's.] - -Having completed the statutes of his school, Colet turned his attention to -a few other final arrangements, including certain reforms in the church of -St. Paul's.[731] He had already prepared a simple tomb for himself at the -side of the choir of the great cathedral with which his labours had been -so closely connected, and the simple inscription, 'Johannes Coletus,' was -already carved on the plain monumental stone which was to cover his grave. -Thus he was ready to depart whenever the summons should arrive. But the -pale messenger came not yet. - -Meanwhile Colet retained his interest in passing events. If he seemed to -take little part in public affairs, it was not owing to his want of -interest in them. It would almost seem that he sympathised much during -this quiet season with Luther's attack upon Indulgences, and was a reader -of those of his works--chiefly pamphlets--which had reached England. This, -however, rests only upon the remark of Erasmus, that he was in the habit -of reading heretical books, declaring that he often got more good from -them than from the Schoolmen;[732] and the further statement made -incidentally by Erasmus to Luther, that there were in England some men in -the highest position who thought well of his works.[733] His close -retirement may be accounted for as well by his shattered health as by the -circumstance that Bishop Fitzjames still lived in his grey hairs to harass -him. - -It was probably to secure a safe retreat in emergency beyond the -jurisdiction of this bigoted bishop that Colet was building his 'nest,' as -he called it, within the precincts of the Charterhouse--not in London, but -at Sheen, near Richmond. Whether he ever really entered this 'nest,' so -long in course of preparation, does not appear. Perhaps there was no need -for it. - -[Sidenote: Colet receives a letter from Marquard von Hatstein.] - -Little as of late he had mixed himself up with public affairs, he was -still looked up to by those who, through the report of Erasmus, recognised -his almost apostolic piety and wisdom. Thus, in his quiet retirement, he -received a letter from Marquard von Hatstein, one of the canons of Maintz, -a connection of Ulrich von Hutten's,[734] mentioned by Erasmus as 'a most -excellent young man;'[735] one of the little group of men who, under the -lead of the Archbishop of Maintz, had boldly taken the side of Reuchlin -against his persecutors--a letter which shows so true an appreciation of -Colet's character and relation to the movement which was now known as -'Erasmian,' that it must have been exceedingly grateful to the feelings of -Colet, now that he had set his house in order, and was ready to leave in -other hands the work which he himself had commenced. - - _Marquard von Hatstein to John Colet._[736] - - 'I have often thought with admiration of _your_ blessedness, who born - to wealth and of so illustrious a family have added to these gifts of - fortune manners and intellectual culture abundantly corresponding - therewith. For such is your learning, piety, and manner of life, such - lastly your Christian constancy, that notwithstanding all these gifts - of fortune, you seem to care for little but that you may run in the - path of Christ in so noble a spirit, that you are not surpassed by any - even of those who call themselves "mendicants." For they in many - things simulate and dissimulate for the sake of sensual pleasures. - - 'When recently the trumpet of cruel war sounded so terribly, how did - you hold up against it the image of Christ! the olive-branch of peace! - You exhorted us to tolerance, to concord, to the yielding up of our - goods for the good of a brother, instead of invading one another's - rights. You told us that there was no cause of war between Christians, - who are bound together by holy ties in a love more than fraternal. And - many other things of a like nature did you urge, with so great - authority, that I may truly say that the virtue of Christ thus set - forth by Colet was seen from afar. And thus did you discomfit the dark - designs of your enemies. Men raging against the truth, you conquered - with the mildness of an apostle. You opposed your gentleness to their - insane violence. Through your innocence you escaped from any harm, - even though by their numbers (for there is always the most abundant - crop of what is bad) they were able to override your better opinion. - With a skill like that with which Homer published the praises of - Achilles, Erasmus has studiously held up to the admiration of the - world and of posterity the name of England, and especially of Colet, - whom he has so described that there is not a good man of any nation - who does not honour you. I seem to myself to see that each of you owes - much to the other, but which of the two owes most to the other I am - doubtful. For he must have received good from you: seeing that you are - hardly likely to have been magnified by his colouring pen. You, - however, if I may freely say what I think, do seem to owe some thanks - to him for making publicly known those virtues which before were - unknown to us. Still I fancy you are not the less victor in the matter - of benefits conferred, since you have blessed Erasmus, a stranger to - England, otherwise an incomparable man, with so many - friends--Mountjoy, More, Linacre, Tunstal, &c.... - - 'Having commenced my theological studies, I have learned from the - conversation and writings of Erasmus to regard you as my exemplar. I - wish I could really follow you as closely as I long to do. I long, not - only to improve myself in letters, but to lead a holier life. Farewell - in Christ. VI. Cal. Maii, Anno MDXX.' (should be probably 1519).[737] - - -IV. MORE'S CONVERSION ATTEMPTED BY THE MONKS (1519). - -Erasmus was as much hated by the monks in England as by the monks at -Cologne; but they found their attempts to stir up ill-feeling against him -checkmated by the influence of More and his friends. - -More's father was known to be a good Catholic, and probably to belong, as -an old man with conservative tendencies was likely to do, to the orthodox -party. He himself was now too near the royal ear to be a harmless adherent -of the new learning--as they had learned to their cost before now. He was -so popular, too, with all parties! If only he could be detached from -Erasmus and brought over to their own side, what a triumph it would be! - -[Sidenote: More receives a letter from a monk.] - -So an anonymous letter was written by a monk to More, expressing great -solicitude for his welfare, and fears lest he should be corrupted by too -great intimacy with Erasmus; lest he should be led astray, by too great -love of his writings, into the adoption of his new and foreign doctrines! - -The good monk was particularly shocked at the hints thrown out by Erasmus -in his writings, that, after all, the holy doctors and fathers of the -Church were fallible. - -He took up the vulgar objections which the letter of Dorpius, and a still -more recent attack upon Erasmus, by an Englishman named Edward Lee, had -put into every one's mouth, and tried to persuade More to be wise in time, -lest he should become infected with the Erasmian poison. - -More's letter in reply to the over-anxious monk has been preserved.[738] - -[Sidenote: His reply.] - -He indignantly repelled the insinuation that he was in danger of -contamination from his intimacy with Erasmus, whose New Testament the very -Pope had sanctioned, who lived in the nearest intimacy with such men as -Colet, Fisher, and Warham; to say nothing of Mountjoy, Tunstal, Pace, and -Grocyn. Those who knew Erasmus best, loved him most. - -Then turning to the charge made against Erasmus, that he denied the -infallibility of the fathers, More wrote:-- - -[Sidenote: Alludes to Luther's clinging by tooth and nail to Augustine.] - -'Do _you_ deny that they ever made mistakes? I put it to you--when -Augustine thought that Jerome had mistranslated a passage, and Jerome -defended what he had done, was not _one of the two_ mistaken? When -Augustine asserted that the Septuagint is to be taken as an indubitably -faithful translation, and Jerome denied it, and asserted that its -translators had fallen into errors, was not one of the two mistaken? When -Augustine, in support of his view, adduced the story of the wonderful -agreement of the different translations produced by the inspired -translators writing in separate cells, and Jerome laughed at the story as -absurd, was not one of the two mistaken? When Jerome, writing on the -Epistle to the Galatians, translated its meaning to be that, Peter was -blamed by Paul for dissimulating, and Augustine denied it, was not one of -them mistaken?... Augustine asserts that demons and angels also have -material and substantial bodies. I doubt not that even _you_ deny this! He -asserts that infants dying without baptism are consigned to physical -torments in eternal punishment--how many are there who believe this now? -unless it be that Luther, _clinging by tooth and nail to the doctrine of -Augustine_, should be induced to revive this antiquated notion....'[739] - -I have quoted this passage from More's letter because it shows clearly, -not only how fully More had adopted the position taken up by Erasmus, but -also how fully his eyes were open to the fact, that the rising reformer of -Wittemberg did '_cling by tooth and nail to the doctrine of Augustine_,' -and was likely, by doing so, to be led astray into some of the harsh -views, and, as he thought, obvious errors of that Holy Father. - -[Sidenote: But his own view not Pelagian.] - -At the same time the following passage may be quoted as proof that, in -rejecting the Augustinian creed, More and his friends did not run into the -other extreme of Pelagianism. - -He had told the monk at the beginning of his letter, that after he had -shown how safe was the ground upon which Erasmus and he were walking in -the valley, he would turn round and assail the lofty but tottering -citadel, from which the monk looked down upon them with so proud a sense -of security. So after he had disposed of the monk's arguments, he began:-- - -'Into what factions--into how many sects is the order cut up! Then, what -tumults, what tragedies arise about little differences in the colour or -mode of girding the monastic habit, or some matter of ceremony which, if -not altogether despicable, is at all events not so important as to -warrant the banishment of all charity. How many, too, are there (and this -is surely worst of all) who, relying on the assurances of their monastic -profession, inwardly raise their crests so high that they seem to -themselves to move in the heavens, and reclining among the solar rays, to -look down from on high upon the people creeping on the ground like ants, -looking down thus, not only on the ungodly, but also upon all who are -without the circle of the enclosure of their order, so that for the most -part nothing is holy but what they do themselves.... They make more of -things which appertain specially to the religious order, than of those -valueless and very humble things which are in no way peculiar to them but -entirely common to all Christian people, such as the vulgar -virtues--faith, hope, charity, the fear of God, humility, and others of -the kind. Nor, indeed, is this a new thing. Nay, it is what Christ long -ago denounced to his chosen people, "Ye make the word of God of none -effect through your traditions."... - -'There are multitudes enough who would be afraid that the devil would come -upon them and take them alive to hell, if, forsooth, they were to set -aside their usual garb, whom nothing can move when they are grasping at -_money_. - -[Sidenote: More relates an anecdote.] - -'Are there only a few, think you, who would deem it a crime to be expiated -with many tears, if they were to omit a line in their hourly prayers, and -yet have no fearful scruple at all, when they profane themselves by the -worst and most infamous lies?... Indeed, I once knew a man devoted to the -religious life--one of that class who would nowadays be thought "most -religious." This man, by no means a novice, but one who had passed many -years in what they call regular observances, and had advanced so far in -them that he was even set over a convent--but, nevertheless, more careless -of the precepts of God than of monastic rites--slid down from one crime to -another, till at length he went so far as to meditate the most atrocious -of all crimes--a crime execrable beyond belief--and what is more, not a -simple crime, but one pregnant with manifold guilt, for he even purposed -to add sacrilege to murders and parricide. When this man thought himself -insufficient without accomplices for the perpetration of so many crimes, -he associated with himself some ruffians and cutpurses. They committed the -most horrible crimes which I ever heard of. They were all of them thrown -together into prison. I do not wish to give the details, and I abstain -from the names of the criminals, lest I should renew anything of past -hatred to an innocent order. - -'But to proceed to narrate the circumstances on account of which I have -mentioned this affair. I heard from those wicked assassins that, when they -came to that religious man in his chamber, they had not spoken of the -crime; but being introduced into his private chapel, they appeased the -sacred Virgin by a salutation on their bent knees according to custom. -_This being properly accomplished, they at length rose purely and piously -to perpetrate their crime!_... - -'Now, I have not mentioned this with the view either to defame the -religion of the monks with these crimes, since the same soil may bring -forth useful herbs and pestiferous weeds, or to condemn the rites of those -who occasionally salute the sacred Virgin, than which nothing is more -beneficial; but because people trust so much in such things that under the -very security which they thus feel they give themselves up to crime. - -'From reflections such as these you may learn the lesson which the -occasion suggests. That you should not grow too proud of your own -sect--nothing could be more fatal. Nor trust in private observances. That -you should _place your hopes rather in the Christian faith than in your -own_; and not trust in those things which you can do _for yourself_, but -in those which you cannot do _without God's help_. You can fast by -yourself, you can keep vigils by yourself, you can say prayers by -yourself--and you can do these things by the devil! But, verily, Christian -faith, which Christ Jesus truly said to be in spirit; Christian hope, -which, despairing of its own merits, confides only in the mercy of God; -Christian charity, which is not puffed up, is not made angry, does not -seek its own glory,--none, indeed, can attain these except by the grace -and gracious help of God alone. - -'By how much the more you place your trust in those virtues which are -common to Christendom, by so much the less will you have faith in private -ceremonies, whether those of your order or your own; and by how much the -less you trust in them by so much the more will they be useful. For then -at last God will esteem you a faithful servant, when you shall count -yourself good for nothing.' - -That these passages prove that More and his friends had not set aside -monasticism, or even Mariolatry, as altogether wrong, cannot be too -clearly recognised. In an age of transition it is the _direction_ of the -thoughts and aims of men which constitutes the radical difference or -agreement between them, rather than the exact distance that each may have -travelled on the same road. Luther himself had not yet in his hatred of -ceremonies travelled so far as the Oxford Reformers, though in after years -he went farther, because he travelled faster than they did. Upon these -questions they were very much practically at one. And if here and there -the three friends observed in Luther an impetuosity which carried him into -extremes, much as they might differ from some of his statements, and the -tone he sometimes adopted, their respect for his moral earnestness, and -their perception of the amount of exasperation to which his hot nature was -exposed, made them readily pardon what they could not approve. They had as -yet little idea--though More's letter showed that they had _some_--much -less than Luther himself had--how practically important was the difference -between them. For the moment their two orbits seemed almost to coincide. -They seemed even to be approaching each other. They seemed to meet in -their common hatred of the formalism of the monks, in their common attempt -to grasp at the spirit--the reality--of religion through its forms and -shadows. They had little idea that they were crossing each other's path, -and that ere long, as each pursued his course, the divergence would become -wider and wider. - - -V. ERASMUS AND THE REFORMERS OF WITTEMBERG (1519). - -[Sidenote: Luther protected by the Elector of Saxony.] - -In the summer of 1518 Melanchthon had joined Luther at Wittemberg. During -the remainder of that year the controversy on Indulgences was going on. -Rome had taken the matter up. Luther had appeared before the Papal legate -Cajetan, and from his harsh demand of simple recantation, had shrunk with -horror and fled back into Saxony. The legate had threatened that Rome -would never let the matter drop, and urged the Elector of Saxony to send -Luther to Rome. But he had made common cause with the poor monk, and -refused to banish him. Leo X. was afraid to quarrel with Frederic of -Saxony, and under the auspices of Miltitz, aided by the moderation of -Luther and the firmness of his protector, a little oil was thrown on the -troubled waters. But in the spring of 1519, when the Papal tenths came to -be exacted, murmurs were heard again on all sides. Hutten commenced his -series of satirical pamphlets, and it became evident that the storm was -not permanently laid, the lull might last for a while, but fresh tempests -were ahead.[740] - -It was during this interval of uncertainty that the first intercourse took -place between Erasmus and the Wittemberg Reformers. - -[Sidenote: Melanchthon's opinion of Erasmus.] - -Letters had already passed between Melanchthon and Erasmus; they had been -known to one another by name for some years, and were on the best of -terms. Thus Melanchthon, in writing to a friend of his in January 1519, -spoke of Erasmus as 'the first to call back theology to her -fountain-head,'[741] and of Luther as belonging to the same school. He -freely admitted how much greater was the learning of Erasmus than that of -Luther, and when in March he received from Froben a copy of the 'Method of -True Theology,' told Spalatin that 'this illustrious man seemed to have -touched upon many points in the same strain as Luther, for in these -things,' he said, 'they agreed;' adding, that Erasmus was 'freer than -Luther, because he had the assistance of real and sacred learning;' and he -mentioned this as an illustration of what he had just been saying, 'that -every good man thought well of their cause.'[742] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus's opinion of Melanchthon.] - -Erasmus, on his side, also spoke in the highest possible terms of -Melanchthon. He had great hopes from his youth that he might long survive -himself, and if he did, he predicted that his name would throw that of -Erasmus into the shade.[743] - -Whilst, however, Erasmus thus freely acknowledged the friendship and -merits of Melanchthon, he was careful not to commit himself to an approval -of all that Luther was doing. And surely it was wise; for that his strong -Augustinian tendencies were well known to the Oxford Reformers, has -already been seen in More's letter to the anonymous monk. - -[Sidenote: What he says of Luther to Melanchthon.] - -On April 2, 1519, in reply to a letter from Melanchthon[744] mentioning -Luther's desire of his approval, Erasmus wrote, that 'while every one of -his friends honoured Luther's private life, _as to his doctrine there were -different opinions_. He himself had not read Luther's books. Luther had -censured some things deservedly, but he wished that he had done so as -happily as he had freely.' At the end of this letter he expressed his -affectionate anxiety lest Melanchthon should be wearing himself out by too -hard study.[745] - -[Sidenote: Luther writes to Erasmus.] - -On March 28, Luther had written a letter to Erasmus, which probably -crossed this on the way between Wittemberg and Louvain. It was a letter in -which he had not made the slightest allusion to any difference of opinion -between himself and Erasmus. On the contrary, he had spoken as though he -held Erasmus in the greatest possible honour. He had spoken of his having -a place, and 'reigning' in the hearts of all who really loved literature. -He had been reading the new preface to the 'Enchiridion,' and from it and -from his friend Fabricius Capito he had learned that Erasmus had not only -heard but approved of what he had done respecting indulgences. And with -much genuine humility he had begged Erasmus to acknowledge him, however -ignorant and unknown to fame, buried as it were in his cell, _as a brother -in Christ_, by whom he himself was held in the greatest affection and -regard.[746] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus replies to Luther.] - -To this Erasmus, on May 30, replied, in a letter in which he _did_ address -Luther as a 'brother in Christ.' He said he had not yet read the books -which had created so much clamour, and therefore could not judge of them. -He had looked into his Commentaries on the Psalms, was much pleased with -them, and hoped they would prove useful. Some of the best men in England, -even some at Louvain, thought well of him and his writings. As to himself, -he devoted himself, as he had done all along, to the revival of good -literature [including first and foremost the Scriptures]. And it seemed to -him, he said, that more good would come of courteous modesty than of -impetuosity. It was by this that Christ drew the world under his -influence. It was thus that Paul abrogated that Judaical law, treating it -all as typical. It were better to exclaim against _abuses_ of pontifical -authority than against the Popes themselves. 'May the Lord Jesus daily -impart to you abundantly' (he concluded) 'of his own Spirit to his own -glory and the public good.'[747] - -Thus he seems to have said the same things to both Melanchthon and Luther. - -In the same strain, also, he wrote to others _about_ them. - -[Sidenote: What Erasmus says about Luther to others.] - -To the exasperated monks, who charged him with aiding and abetting Luther -in writing the books which had caused such a tumult, he replied that, as -he had not read them, he could not even express a decided opinion upon -them.[748] - -To Cardinal Wolsey he wrote, that he had only read a few pages of Luther's -books, not because he disliked them, but because he was so closely -occupied with his own. Luther's life was such that even his enemies could -not find anything to slander. Germany had young men of learning and -eloquence who would, he foretold, bring her great glory. Eobanus, Hutten, -and Beatus Rhenanus were the only ones he knew personally. If these German -students were too free in their criticisms, it should be remembered to -what constant exasperation they had been submitted in all manner of ways, -both public and private.[749] - -To Hutten, who was perhaps the most hot-headed of these German young men, -and whose satire had already proved itself more trenchant and bitter than -any in which Erasmus had ever indulged, he urged moderation, and said -that for himself he had rather spend a month in trying to explain St. Paul -or the Gospels than waste a day in quarrelling.[750] - -[Sidenote: Erasmus is writing his 'Paraphrases.'] - -Erasmus was, in fact, working hard at his 'Paraphrases.' That on the -Epistle to the Romans had been already printed in 1517, in the very best -type of Thierry Martins, and forming a small and very readable octavo -volume. Those on the next seven epistles[751] now followed in quick -succession in the spring of 1519. How fully the heart of Erasmus was in -his work is incidentally shown by the fact that, being obliged to write a -pamphlet in defence of a former publication of his, he cut it short by -saying that he had rather be working at the Paraphrase on the 'Galatians,' -which he was just completing.[752] And Erasmus was preparing, in addition -to these Paraphrases on the Epistles, others, at Colet's desire, more -lengthy, on the Gospels. Here was work enough surely on hand to excuse him -from entering into the Lutheran controversy--work precisely of that kind, -moreover, which he had told Luther that he was devoting himself to. It was -the work which, when he was longing for rest, and his zeal for the moment -was threatening to flag, Colet had urged him to go on with through good -and evil fortune; and which he himself, in his letter to Servatius, had -said he was determined to work at to the day of his death. It is clear -that he was in earnest when he told Hutten that he 'had rather spend a -month in expounding St. Paul than waste a day in quarrelling.' - -It seems to me, therefore, that the attitude of Erasmus towards Luther -was that, not of a coward, but of a man who knew what he was about. - - -VI. ELECTION OF CHARLES V. TO THE EMPIRE (1519). - -On January 12, 1519, Maximilian had died. It is not within the scope of -this history to trace the steps and countersteps, the plots and -counterplots, the bribery and treachery--the Machiavellian means and -devices--in which nearly every sovereign in Europe was implicated, to the -detriment of both conscience and exchequer, and which ended in placing -Charles V., then absent in Spain, at the head of the German empire. With -the accession of the new emperor commenced a new political era, which -belongs to the history of the Protestant Reformation, and not to that of -the Oxford Reformers. - -Erasmus was too hard at work at his Paraphrases to admit of his meddling -in politics, even though he himself had an honorary connection with the -court of the prince who was the successful candidate, and had written his -'_Christian Prince_' expressly for his benefit. - -Colet was living in retirement, suffering from shattered health, too -closely watched by the restless eye of his bishop to take any part in -public affairs.[753] - -Even More, though now a constant attendant upon Henry VIII., was probably -not initiated into continental secrets, and even had he shared all the -counsels of Wolsey, any part which he might play would be purely -executive, and belong rather to the history of his own political career -than to that of the fellow-work of the three friends. He probably had -little or nothing really to do with Wolsey's plottings to secure the -empire for his master, in order that he might, on the death of Leo X., -secure the Papal chair for himself. But there was one circumstance -connected with the election of the Emperor of too much significance to be -passed over in this history without distinct mention--the part which Duke -Frederic of Saxony played in it; and this shall simply be alluded to in -the words of Erasmus himself. - -[Sidenote: Noble conduct of the Elector of Saxony.] - -'The Duke Frederic of Saxony has written twice to me in reply to my -letter. Luther is supported solely by his protection. He says that he has -acted thus for the sake rather of the _cause_ than of the person [of -Luther]. He adds that he will not lend himself to the oppression of -innocence in his dominions by the malice of those who seek their own, and -not the things of Christ.' And Erasmus goes on to say, that 'when the -imperial crown was offered to Frederic of Saxony by all [the electors], -with great magnanimity he had refused it, the very day before Charles was -elected. And' (he writes) 'Charles never would have worn the imperial -title had it not been declined by Frederic, whose glory in refusing the -honour was greater than if he had accepted it. When he was asked who he -thought should be elected, he said that no one seemed to him able to bear -the weight of so great a name but Charles. In the same noble spirit he -firmly refused the 30,000 florins offered him by our people [_i.e._ the -agents of Charles]. When he was urged that at least he would allow 10,000 -florins to be given to his servants, "They may take them" (he said) "if -they like, but no one shall remain my servant another day who accepts a -single piece of gold."' 'The next day' (continues Erasmus) 'he took horse -and departed, lest they should continue to bother him. This was related to -me as entirely reliable, by the Bishop of Liege, who was present at the -Imperial Diet.'[754] - -Well did the conduct of the Elector of Saxony merit the admiration of -Erasmus. Would that Charles V. had merited as fully the patronage of the -wise Elector! - -It was a significant fact that, after all the bribery and wholesale -corruption by which this election was marked, the only prince who in the -event had a chance of success, other than Charles, was the one man who was -superior to corruption, and would not allow even his servants to be -bribed, who did not covet the imperial dignity for himself, but firmly -refused it when offered to him--the protector of Luther against the Pope -and the empire--the hope and strength of the Protestant Revolution which -was now so rapidly approaching. - - -VII. THE HUSSITES OF BOHEMIA (1519). - -While the election of the Emperor was proceeding the famous disputation at -Leipzig took place, which commenced between Carlstadt and Eck, upon the -question of grace and free-will, and was continued between Eck and Luther -on the primacy of the Pope--that remarkable occasion on which, after -pressing Eck into a declaration that all the Greek and other Christians -who did not acknowledge the primacy of the Pope, were heretics and lost, -Luther himself was finally driven to assert, probably as much to his own -surprise as to that of his auditors, 'that among the articles on which -the Council of Constance grounded its condemnation of John Huss, were some -fundamentally Christian and evangelical.' - -[Sidenote: Luther finds he is a Hussite.] - -Well might Duke George mutter in astonishment '_a plague upon it_.' A few -months later Luther himself, after pondering the matter over and over with -his New Testament and Melanchthon, was obliged to exclaim, 'I taught -Huss's opinions without knowing them, and so did Staupitz: we are all of -us Hussites without knowing it! Paul and _Augustine_ are Hussites! I do -not know what to think for amazement.'[755] - -[Sidenote: Letter from Schlechta to Erasmus.] - -[Sidenote: The Pyghards of Bohemia.] - -Meanwhile, before Luther had come to the conclusion _that he himself_, -with St. Augustine, was a _Hussite_, Erasmus had been in correspondence -with Johannes Schlechta, a Bohemian,[756] on the religious dissensions -which existed in Bohemia and Moravia, and with special reference to the -_Hussite_ sect of the '_Pyghards_,' or United Brethren.[757] Schlechta had -informed Erasmus that, setting aside Jews and unbelieving philosophers -who denied the immortality of the soul, the people were divided into three -sects:--First, the Papal party, including most of the magistrates and -nobility. Secondly, a party to which he himself belonged, who acknowledged -the Papacy, but differed from other good Catholics in dispensing the -Sacrament in both kinds to the laity, and in chanting the Epistle and -Gospel at mass, not in Latin, but in the vulgar tongue; to which customs -they most pertinaciously adhered, on the ground that they were confirmed -and approved in the Council of Basle (1431).[758] Thirdly, the sect of the -'Pyghards' [or 'United Brethren'], who since the times of John Zisca[759] -had maintained their ground through much bloodshed and violence. These, he -said, regarded the Pope and clergy as manifest 'Anti-christs;' the Pope -himself sometimes as the 'Beast,' and sometimes as the 'Harlot' of the -Apocalypse. They chose rude and ignorant and even married laymen as their -priests and bishops. They called each other 'brothers and sisters.' They -acknowledged no writings as of authority but the Old and New Testaments. -Fathers and Schoolmen they counted nothing by. Their priests used no -vestments, and no forms of prayer but 'the Lord's Prayer.' They thought -lightly of the sacraments; used no salt or holy water--only pure -water--in baptism, and rejected extreme unction. They saw only simple -bread and wine, no divinity, in the Sacrament of the Altar, and regarded -these only as signs representing and commemorative of the death of Christ, -who they said was in heaven. The suffrages of the saints and prayers for -the dead they held to be vain and absurd, and also auricular confession -and penance. Vigils and fasts they looked upon as hypocritical. The -festivals of the Virgin, Apostles, and Saints, they said, were invented by -the idle; Sunday, Christmas, Good Friday, and Pentecost they observed. -Other pernicious dogmas of theirs were not worthy of mention to Erasmus. -If, however (his Bohemian friend added), the first two of these three -sects could but be united, then perhaps this vicious sect, now much on the -increase, owing to recent ecclesiastical scandals, might, by the aid of -the King, be either _exterminated_ or forced into a better form of creed -and religion. Erasmus, he concluded, had now the whole circumstances of -these Bohemian divisions before him.[760] - -Here, then, Erasmus was brought into direct contact with the opinions of -the very sect to which Luther was gradually approaching, but had not yet -discovered his proximity. - -The reply of Erasmus may be regarded, therefore, as evidence of his views, -not only on the opinions and practices of the Hussites of Bohemia, but -also as foreshadowing what would be his views with regard to the opinions -and practices of Luther and the Protestant Reformers so soon as they -should publicly profess themselves Hussites. - -[Sidenote: Reply of Erasmus.] - -'You point out,' (Erasmus wrote) 'that Bohemia and Moravia are divided up -into three sects. I wish, my dear Schlechta, that some pious hand could -unite the three into one!' - -The second party (Erasmus said) erred, in his opinion, more in scornfully -rejecting the judgment and custom of the Roman Church than in thinking it -right to take the Eucharist in both kinds, which was not an unreasonable -practice in itself, though it might be better to avoid singularity on such -a point. As to the 'Pyghards,' he did not see why it followed that the -Pope was Antichrist, because there had been some bad popes, or that the -Roman Church was the 'harlot,' because she had often had wicked cardinals -or bishops. Still, however bad the 'Pyghards' might be, he would not -advise a resort to violence. It would be a dangerous precedent. As to -their electing their own priests and bishops, that was not opposed to -primitive practice. St. Nicholas and St. Ambrose were thus elected, and in -ancient times even kings were elected by the people. If they were in the -habit of electing ignorant and unlearned men, that did not matter much, if -only their _holy life_ outweighed their ignorance. He did not see why they -were to be blamed for calling one another 'brothers and sisters.' He -wished the practice could obtain amongst all Christians, if only the fact -were consistent with the words. In thinking less highly of the Doctors -than of the Scriptures--that is, in preferring God to man--they were in -the right; but altogether to reject them was as bad as altogether to -accept them. Christ and the Apostles officiated in their everyday dress; -but it is impious to condemn what was instituted, not without good reason, -by the fathers. Vigils and fasts, in moderation, he did not see why they -rejected, seeing that they were commended by the Apostles; but he had -rather that men were _exhorted_ than _compelled_ to observe them. Their -views about festivals were not very different from Jerome's. Nowadays the -number of festivals had become enormous, and on no days were more crimes -committed. Moreover, the labourer was robbed by so many festivals of his -regular earnings. - -As to the cure for these diseases of Bohemia: he desired _unity_, and -expressed his views how unity could be best attained. - -[Sidenote: Erasmus thinks the Church should be broad and tolerant.] - -'In my opinion' (he wrote) 'many might be reconciled to the Church of Rome -if, instead of everything being defined, we were contented with what is -evidently set forth in the Scriptures or necessary to salvation. And these -things are _few_ in number, and the _fewer_ the easier for _many_ to -accept. Nowadays out of one article we make six hundred, some of which are -such that men might be ignorant of them or doubt them without injury to -piety. It is in human nature to cling by tooth and nail to what has once -been defined. The sum of the philosophy of Christ' (he continued) 'lies in -this--that we should know that all our hope is placed in God, who freely -gives us all things through his son Jesus; that by his death we are -redeemed; that we are united to his body in baptism in order that, dead to -the desires of the world, we may so follow his teaching and example as not -only not to admit of evil, but also to deserve well of all; that if -adversity comes upon us we should bear it in the hope of the future reward -which is in store for all good men at the advent of Christ. Thus we should -always be progressing from virtue to virtue, and whilst assuming nothing -to ourselves, ascribe all that is good to God. If there should be anyone -who would inquire into the Divine nature, or the nature (_hypostasis_) of -Christ, or abstruse points about the sacraments, let him do so; only let -him not try to force his views upon others. In the same way as very -verbose instruments lead to controversies, so too many definitions lead to -differences. Nor should we be ashamed to reply on some questions: "God -knows how this should be so, it is enough for me to believe that it is." I -know that the pure blood and body of Christ are to be taken purely by the -pure, and that he wished it to be a most sacred sign and pledge both of -his love to us and of the fellowship of Christians amongst themselves. Let -me, therefore, examine myself whether there be anything in me inconsistent -with Christ, whether there be any difference between me and my neighbour. -As to the rest, _how_ the same body can exist in so small a form and in so -many places at once, in my opinion such questions can hardly tend to the -increase of piety. I know that I shall rise again, for this was promised -to all by Christ, who was the first who rose from the dead. As to the -questions, with what body, and how it can be the same after having gone -through so many changes, though I do not disapprove of these things being -inquired into in moderation on suitable occasions, yet it conduces very -little to piety to spend too much labour upon them. Nowadays men's minds -are diverted, by these and other innumerable subtleties, from things of -vital importance. Lastly it would tend greatly to the establishment of -concord, if secular princes, and especially the Roman Pontiff, would -abstain from all tyranny and avarice. For men easily revolt when they see -preparations for enslaving them, when they see that they are not to be -invited to piety but caught for plunder. If they saw that we were innocent -and desirous to do them good, they would very readily accept our -faith.'[761] - -It will be seen that the point of this letter turns not _directly_ upon -the difference which Luther had discerned between himself and Erasmus -(viz. that the one rejected and the other accepted the doctrinal system of -St. Augustine), but rather upon questions involving the duty and object of -'_the Church_.' From More's delineation of the Church of Utopia, it has -been seen that the notion of the Oxford Reformers was that the Church was -intended to be broad and tolerant, not to define doctrine and enforce -dogmas, but to afford a practical bond of union whereby Christians might -be kept united in one Christian brotherhood, in spite of their differences -in minor matters of creed. In full accordance with this view, Erasmus had -blamed Schlechta and his party, in this letter, not for holding their -peculiar views respecting the 'Supper,' but for making them a ground for -separation from their fellow-Christians. So also he blamed Schlechta -(himself a dissenter from Rome) for his harsh feelings towards the -'Pyghards' and his wish 'to exterminate' them. So, too, whilst -sympathising strongly with the poor 'Pyghards' in many of the points in -which they differed from the Church of Rome, he blamed them for jumping to -the conclusion that the Church was 'Antichrist,' and for flying into -extremes. So, too, he blamed the Church herself, as he always had blamed -her, for so narrowing her boundaries as to shut out these -ultra-dissenters of Bohemia from her communion. - -Now it is obvious that at the foundation of the position here assumed by -Erasmus, and elsewhere by the Oxford Reformers, lay the conviction that -many points of doctrine were in their nature uncertain and unsettled--that -many attempted definitions of doctrine, on such subjects as those involved -in the Athanasian Creed, in the Augustinian system, and in scholastic -additions to it, were, after all, and in spite of all the ecclesiastical -authority in the world, just as unsettled and uncertain as ever; in fact, -mere hypotheses, which in their nature never _can_ be verified. - -[Sidenote: The point at issue between the Oxford Reformers and those who -held by the Augustinian system.] - -Here again, therefore, was _indirectly_ involved the point at issue -between Erasmus and Luther; between the Oxford and the Wittemberg -Reformers. For the latter in accepting the Augustinian system still -adhered, in spirit, to the scholastic or dogmatic system of theology. To -treat questions such as those above mentioned as open and unsettled seemed -to them to be playing the part of the sceptic. Luther was honestly and -naturally shocked when he found Erasmus hinting that the doctrine of -'original sin' was in some measure analogous to the epicycles of the -astrologer. He was equally shocked again when Erasmus, a few years after, -treated the question of the Freedom of the Will as one insoluble in its -nature, involving the old philosophical questions between free-will and -fate.[762] And why was he shocked? Because the Augustinian system which -he had adopted, treated these questions as finally concluded. And how were -they concluded? By the judgment of the church based upon a verbally -inspired and infallible Bible. - -Luther did not indeed assert so strongly the verbal inspiration of the -Bible, much less of the Vulgate version, as Dr. Eck and other Augustinian -theologians had done; yet his standing-point obliged him practically to -assume the truth of this doctrine, as it obliged his successors more and -more strongly to assert it as the years rolled on. And so, whilst -rejecting, even more thoroughly than Erasmus ever did, the ecclesiastical -authority of the Church of Rome, yet it is curious to observe that, in -doing so, Luther did not reject the notion of ecclesiastical authority in -itself, but rather, amidst many inconsistencies, set up the authority of -what he considered to be the _true_ church against that of the church -which he regarded as the _false_ one. As a consistent Augustinian he was -driven to assume, in replying to the Wittemberg prophets on the one hand -and the scepticism of Erasmus on the other, that there is a true church -somewhere, and that somewhere in the true church there is an authority -capable of establishing theological hypotheses. He was not willing that -the Scriptures should be left simply to the private judgment of each -individual for himself. He even allowed himself to claim for the public -ministers of his own church--'the leaders of the people and the preachers -of the word'--authority 'not only for themselves but also for others, and -for the salvation of others, to judge with the greatest certainty the -spirit and dogmas of all men.'[763] - -Not that Luther always consistently upheld this doctrine any more than -Erasmus consistently upheld its opposite. Luther was often to be found -asserting and using the right of private judgment against the authority of -Rome, as Erasmus was often found upholding the authority of the Catholic -Church and her authorised councils against the rival authority of Luther's -schismatic and unauthorised church. In times of transition, men _are_ -inconsistent; and regard must be had rather to the direction in which they -are moving than the precise point to which at any particular moment they -may have attained. And what I wish to impress upon the reader is -this--that not only Luther, but all other Reformers, from Wickliffe down -to the modern Evangelicals, who have adopted the Augustinian system and -founded their reform upon it, have practically assumed as the basis of -their theology, first, the plenary inspiration of each text contained in -the Scriptures; and, secondly, the existence of an ecclesiastical -authority of some kind capable of establishing theological hypotheses; so -that, _in this respect_, Luther and other Augustinian reformers, instead -of advancing beyond the Oxford Reformers, have lagged far behind, seeing -that they have contentedly remained under a yoke from which the Oxford -Reformers had been labouring for twenty years to set men free. - -[Sidenote: The power of St. Augustine.] - -In saying this I am far from overlooking the fact, that the Protestant -Reformers, in reverting to a purer form of Augustinian doctrine than that -held by the Schoolmen, did practically by it bring Christianity to bear -upon men with a power and a life which contrasted strangely with the cold -dead religion of the Thomists and Scotists. I am as far also from -underrating the force and the fire of St. Augustine. What, indeed, must -not that force and that fire have been to have made it possible for him to -bind the conscience of Western Christendom for fourteen centuries by the -chains of his dogmatic theology! And when it is considered, on the one -hand, that the greatest of the Schoolmen were _so loyal_ to St. Augustine, -that some of their subtlest distinctions were resorted to expressly to -mitigate the harshness of the rigid results of his system, and thus were -attempts, not to get from under its yoke, but _to make it bearable_;[764] -and, on the other hand, that the chief _reactions_ against scholastic -formalism--those of Wickliffe, Huss, Luther, Calvin, the Portroyalists, -the Puritans, the modern Evangelicals--were _Augustinian_ reactions; so -far from _under_-estimating the power of the man whose influence was so -diverse and so vast, it may well become an object of ever-increasing -astonishment to the student of Ecclesiastical History. - -At the same time, these considerations must raise also our estimate of the -need and the value of the firm stand taken 350 years ago by the Oxford -Reformers against this dogmatic power so long dominant in the realm of -religious thought. It has been seen in every page of this history, that -they had taken their standpoint, so to speak, _behind_ that of St. -Augustine; behind even the schism between Eastern and Western Christendom; -behind those patristic hypotheses which grew up into the scholastic -theology; behind that notion of Church authority by which these hypotheses -obtained a fictitious verification; behind the theory of 'plenary -inspiration,' without which the Scriptures could not have been converted, -as they were, into a mass of raw material for the manufacture of any -quantity of hypotheses--behind all these--on the foundation of _fact_ -which underlies them all. - -The essential difference between the standpoints of the Protestant and -Oxford Reformers Luther had been the first to perceive. And the -correctness of this first impression of Luther's has been singularly -confirmed by the history of the three-and-a-half centuries of Protestant -ascendency in Western Christendom. The Protestant movement, whilst -accomplishing by one revolutionary blow many objects which the Oxford -Reformers were striving and striving in vain to compass by constitutional -means, has been so far antagonistic to their work in other directions as -to throw it back--not to say _to wipe it out of remembrance_--so that in -this nineteenth century those Christians who have desired, as they did, to -rest their faith upon honest facts, and not upon dogmas--upon evidence, -and not upon authority--instead of taking up the work where the Oxford -Reformers left it, have had to begin it again at the beginning, as Colet -did at Oxford in 1496. They have had, like the Oxford Reformers, to combat -at the outset the theory of 'plenary inspiration,' and the tendency -inherited along with it from St. Augustine, by both Schoolmen and -Protestant Reformers, to build up a theology, as I have said, upon -unverified hypotheses, and to narrow the boundaries of Christian -fellowship by the imposition of dogmatic creeds so manufactured. They have -had to meet the same arguments and the same blind opposition; to bear the -same taunts of heresy and unsoundness from ascendant orthodox schools; to -be pointed at by their fellow-Christians as insidious enemies of the -Christian faith, because they have striven to present it before the eyes -of a scientific age, as what they think it really is--_not_ a system of -unverified hypotheses, but a faith in _facts_ which it would be -unscientific even in a disciple of the positive philosophy to pass by -unexplored. - - -VIII. MORE'S DOMESTIC LIFE (1519). - -By the aid of a letter from Erasmus to Ulrich Hutten,[765] written in July -1519, one more lingering look may be taken at the beautiful picture of -domestic happiness presented by More's home. This history would be -incomplete without it. - -[Sidenote: More forty years old.] - -[Sidenote: His first wife.] - -The 'young More,' with whom Colet and Erasmus had fallen in love twenty -years ago, was now past forty.[766] The four motherless children, -Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John, awhile ago nestling round their -widowed father's knee, as the dark shadow of sorrow passed over the once -bright home in Bucklersbury, were now from ten to thirteen years old. The -good stepmother, Alice Middleton, is said to have ruled her household -well, and her daughter had taken a place in the family circle as one of -More's children. There was a marked absence of jarring or -quarrelling,[767] which in such a household bore witness to the goodnature -of the mistress. She could not, indeed, fill altogether the void left in -More's heart by the loss of his first wife--the gentle girl brought up in -country retirement with her parents and sisters, whom he had delighted to -educate to his own tastes, in letters and in music, in the fond hope that -she would be to him a lifelong companion,[768] and respecting whom, soon -after his second marriage, in composing the epitaph for the family tomb, -in which _she_ was already laid, he had written this simple line:-- - - 'Cara Thomae jacet hic Joanna uxorcula Mori!'[769] - -[Sidenote: His second wife.] - -The 'dame Alice,' though somewhat older than her husband and matronly in -her habits, 'nec bella nec puella,' as he was fond of jokingly telling -her, out of deference to More's musical tastes, had learned to sing and to -play on the harp;[770] but, after all, she was more of the housekeeper -than of the wife. It was not to her but to his daughter Margaret that his -heart now clung with fondest affection. - -[Sidenote: More's true piety.] - -More himself, Erasmus described to Hutten as humorous without being -foolish, simple in his dress and habits, and, with all his popularity and -success, neither proud nor boastful, but accessible, obliging, and kind to -his neighbours.[771] Fond of liberty and ease he might be, but no one -could be more active or more patient than he when occasion required -it.[772] No one was less influenced by current opinion, and yet no man had -more common sense.[773] Averse as he was to all superstition, and having -shown in his 'Utopia' what were regarded in some quarters as freethinking -tendencies, he had to share with Colet the sneers of the 'orthodox,' yet a -tone of unaffected piety pervaded his life. He had stated times for -devotion, and when he prayed, it was not as a matter of form, but from his -heart. When, too, as he often did, he talked to his intimate friends of -the life to come, Erasmus tells Hutten that he evidently spoke from his -heart, and not without the brightest hope.[774] - -[Sidenote: The children's animals.] - -[Sidenote: Their celebrated monkey.] - -He was careful to cultivate in his children not only a filial regard to -himself, but also feelings of mutual interest and intimacy. He made -himself one of them, and took evidently as much pleasure as they did in -their birds and animals--the monkey, the rabbits, the fox, the ferret, and -the weasel.[775] Thus when Erasmus was a guest at his house, More would -take him into the garden to see the children's rabbit hutches, or to -watch the sly ways of the monkey; which on one occasion so amused Erasmus -by the clever way in which it prevented the weasel from making an assault -upon the rabbits through an aperture between the boards at the back of the -hutch, that he rewarded the animal by making it famous all over Europe, -telling the story in one of his 'Colloquies.'[776] Whereupon so important -a member of the household did this monkey become, that when Hans Holbein -some years afterwards painted his famous picture of the household of Sir -Thomas More, its portrait was taken along with the rest, and there to this -day it may be seen nestling in the folds of dame Alice's robes. - -[Sidenote: Their interest in his pursuits.] - -If More thus took an interest in the children's animals, so they were -trained to take an interest in his pictures, his cabinet of coins and -curiosities, and his literary pursuits. He did everything he could to -allure his children on in acquiring knowledge. If an astronomer came in -his way he would get him to stay awhile in his house, to teach them all -about the stars and planets.[777] And it surely must have been More's -children whom Erasmus speaks of as learning the Greek alphabet by shooting -with their bows and arrows at the letters.[778] - -[Sidenote: Letter to his children in verse.] - -Unhappily of late More had been long and frequently absent from home. -Still, even when away upon an embassy, trudging on horseback dreary stages -along the muddy roads, we find him on the saddle composing a metrical -letter in Latin to his 'sweetest children, Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, -and John,' which, when a second edition of his 'Epigrams' was called for, -was added at the end of the volume and printed with the rest by the great -printer of Basle[779]--a letter in which he expresses his delight in their -companionship, and reminds them how gentle and tender a father he has been -to them, in these loving words:-- - - Kisses enough I have given you forsooth, but stripes hardly ever, - If I have flogged you at all it has been with the tail of a peacock! - - * * * * * - - Manners matured in youth, minds cultured in arts and in knowledge, - Tongues that can speak your thoughts in graceful and elegant language:-- - These bind my heart to yours with so many ties of affection - That now I love you far more than if you were merely my children. - - * * * * * - - Go on (for you can!), my children, in winning your father's affection, - So that as now your goodness has made me to feel as though never - I really had loved you before, you may on some future occasion, - - * * * * * - - Make me to love you so much that my present love may seem nothing! - -What a picture lies here, even in these roughly translated lines, of the -gentle relation which during years of early sorrow had grown up between -the widowed father and the motherless children! - -It is a companion-picture to that which Erasmus drew in colours so -glowing, of More's home at Chelsea many years after this, when his -children were older and he himself Lord Chancellor. What a gleam of light -too does it throw into the future, upon that last farewell embrace between -Sir Thomas More and Margaret Roper upon the Tower-wharf, when even stern -soldiers wept to behold their 'fatherly and daughterly affection!' - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: More's character.] - -This was the man whom Henry VIII. had at last succeeded in drawing into -his court; who reluctantly, this summer of 1519,[780] in order that he -might fulfil his duties to the King, had laid aside his post of -under-sheriff in the city and his private practice at the bar; 'who now,' -to quote the words of Roper, 'was often sent for by the King into his -traverse, where sometimes in matters of astronomy, geometry, divinity, and -such other faculties, and sometimes of his worldly affairs, he would sit -and confer with him. And otherwhiles in the night would he have him up -into the leads there to consider with him the diversities, courses, -motions, and operations of the stars and planets. - -'And because he was of a pleasant disposition, it pleased the King and -Queen after the Council had supped for their pleasure commonly to call for -him to be merry with them. Till he,' continues Roper, 'perceiving them so -much in his talk to delight that he could not once in a month get leave to -go home to his wife and his children (whose company he most desired), and -to be absent from court two days together but that he should be thither -sent for again; much misliking this restraint of his liberty, began -thereupon somewhat to dissemble his nature, and so by little and little -from his former mirth to disuse himself.'[781] - -This was the man who, after 'trying as hard to keep out of court as most -men try to get into it,' had accepted office on the noble understanding -that he was 'first to look unto God, and after God to the King,' and who -under the most difficult circumstances, and in times most perilous, -whatever may have been his faults and errors, still - - Reverenced his conscience as his King, - -and died at last upon the scaffold, a martyr to integrity! - - -IX. THE DEATH OF COLET (1519). - -Erasmus was working hard at his Paraphrases at Louvain, when the news -reached him that _Colet was dead_! On the 11th September Pace had written -to Wolsey that 'the Dean of Paul's had lain continually since Thursday _in -extremis_, but was not yet dead.'[782] He had died on the 16th of -September 1519. - -[Sidenote: The grief of Erasmus on hearing of it.] - -[Sidenote: His estimate of Colet's character.] - -When Erasmus heard of it, he could not refrain from weeping. 'For thirty -years I have not felt the death of a friend so bitterly,'[783] he wrote to -Lupset, a young disciple of Colet's. 'I seem,' he wrote to Pace, 'as -though only half of me were alive, Colet being dead. What a _man_ has -_England_ and what a _friend_ have _I_ lost!' To another Englishman he -wrote, 'What avail these sobs and lamentations? They cannot bring him back -again. In a little while we shall follow him. In the meantime we should -rejoice for Colet. He now is safely enjoying _Christ_, whom he always had -upon his lips and at his heart.'[784] To Tunstal, 'I should be -inconsolable for the death of Colet did I not know that my tears would -avail nothing for him and for me;'[785] and to Bishop Fisher, 'I have -written this weeping for Colet's death.... I know it is all right with him -who, escaped from this evil and wretched world, is in present enjoyment of -that Christ whom he so loved when alive. I cannot help mourning in the -public name the loss of so rare an example of Christian piety, so -remarkable a preacher of Christian truth!'[786] And, in again writing to -Lupset, a month or two afterwards, a long letter, pouring his troubles, on -account of a bitter controversy which Edward Lee had raised up against -him, into the ears of Lupset, instead of, as had hitherto been his wont, -into the ears of Colet, he exclaimed in conclusion, 'O true theologian! O -wonderful preacher of evangelical doctrine! With what earnest zeal did he -drink in the philosophy of Christ! How eagerly did he imbibe the spirit -and feelings of St. Paul! How did the purity of his whole life correspond -to his heavenly doctrine! How many years following the example of St. -Paul, did he teach the people without reward!'[787] 'You would not -hesitate,' finally wrote Erasmus to Justus Jonas, 'to inscribe the name of -this man in the roll of the saints although uncanonised by the Pope.' - -[Sidenote: More's estimate of Colet's character.] - -'For generations,' wrote More, 'we have not had amongst us any one man -more learned or holy!'[788] - -The inscription on the leaden plate laid on the coffin of Dean Colet[789] -bore witness that he died 'to the great grief of the whole people, by -whom, for his integrity of life and divine gift of preaching, he was the -most beloved of all his time;' and his remains were laid in the tomb -prepared by himself in St. Paul's Cathedral. - - -X. CONCLUSION. - -[Sidenote: The fellow-work of the Oxford Reformers accomplished.] - -With the death of Colet this history of the Oxford Reformers may fitly -end. Erasmus and More, it is true, lived on sixteen years after this, and -retained their love for one another to the last. But even _their_ future -history was no longer, to the same extent as it had been, a joint history. -Erasmus never again visited England, and if they did meet during those -long years, it was a chance meeting only, on some occasion when More was -sent on an embassy, and their intercourse could not be intimate. - -[Sidenote: The Protestant Reformation a new movement under which theirs -was submerged.] - -The fellow-work of the Oxford Reformers was to a great extent accomplished -when Colet died. From its small beginnings during their college -intercourse at Oxford it had risen into prominence and made its power felt -throughout Europe. But now for three hundred years it was to stop and, as -it were, to be submerged under a new wave of the great tide of human -progress. For, as has been said, the Protestant Reformation was in many -respects a new movement, and not altogether a continuation of that of the -Oxford Reformers. - -As yet the 'tragedy of Luther' had appeared only like the little cloud no -bigger than a man's hand rising above the horizon. But scarcely had a year -passed from Colet's death before the whole heavens were overcast by it, -and Christendom was suddenly involved, by the madness of her rulers, in -all the terrors of a religious convulsion, which threatened to shake -social and civil, as well as ecclesiastical, institutions to their -foundations. - -[Sidenote: The future course of the survivors could not alter the -fellow-work of the past.] - -How Erasmus and More met the storm--how far they stood their ground, or -were carried away by natural fears and disappointment from their former -standing-point--is well worthy of careful inquiry; but it must not be -attempted here. In the meantime, the subsequent course of the two -survivors could not alter the spirit and aim of the fellow-work to which -for so many years past the three friends had been devoting their lives. - -Their fellow-work had been to urge, at a critical period in the history of -Christendom, the necessity of that thorough and comprehensive reform which -the carrying out of Christianity into practice in the affairs of nations -and of men would involve. - -[Sidenote: Nature of the Reform urged by the Oxford Reformers.] - -[Sidenote: Religious Reform.] - -Believing Christianity to be true, they had faith that it would work. -Deeply imbued with the spirit of Christianity as the true religion of the -heart, they had demanded, not so much the reform of particular -ecclesiastical abuses, as that the whole Church and the lives of -Christians should be reanimated by the Christian spirit. Instead of -contenting themselves with urging the correction of particular theological -errors, and so tinkering the scholastic creed, they had sought to let in -the light, and to draw men's attention from dogmas to the facts which lay -at their root. Having faith in free inquiry, they had demanded freedom of -thought, tolerance, education. - -[Sidenote: Political Reform.] - -Believing that Christianity had to do with secular as well as with -religious affairs, they had urged the necessity, not only of religious but -also of political reform. And here again, instead of attacking particular -abuses, they had gone to the root of the matter, and laid down the _golden -rule_ as the true basis of political society. They not only had censured -the tyranny, vices, and selfishness of princes, but denied the divine -right of kings, assuming the principle that they reign by the consent and -for the good of the nations whom they govern. Instead of simply asserting -the rights of the people against their rulers in particular acts of -oppression, they had advocated, on Christian and natural grounds, the -equal rights of rich and poor, and insisted that the good of the _whole -people as one community_ should be the object of all legislation. - -[Sidenote: International Reform.] - -Believing lastly in the Christian as well as in the natural brotherhood of -nations, they had not only condemned the selfish wars of princes, but also -claimed that the golden rule, instead of the Machiavellian code, should be -regarded as the true basis of international politics. - -Such was the broad and distinctively _Christian_ Reform urged by the -Oxford Reformers during the years of their fellow-work. - - * * * * * - -[Sidenote: Their demand for Reform, though listened to, refused.] - -And if ever any reformers had a fair chance of a hearing in influential -quarters, surely it was they. They had direct access to the ears of Leo -X., of Henry VIII., of Charles V., of Francis I.; not to mention -multitudes of minor potentates, lay and ecclesiastical, as well as -ambassadors and statesmen, whose influence upon the politics of Europe was -scarcely less than that of princes. But though they were courted and -patronised by the potentates of Europe, _their reform was refused_. - -The destinies of Christendom, by a remarkable concurrence of -circumstances, were thrown very much into the hands of the young Emperor -Charles V.; and, unfortunately for Christendom, Charles V. turned out to -be the opposite of the 'Christian Prince' which Erasmus had done his best -to induce him to become. Leo X. also had bitterly disappointed the hopes -of Erasmus. When the time for final decision came, in the Diet of Worms -the Emperor and the Pope were found banded together in the determination -to refuse reform. - -[Sidenote: Reform of Luther.] - -In the meantime the leadership of the Reform movement had passed into -other and sterner hands. Luther, concentrating his energies upon a -narrower point, had already, in making his attack upon the abuse of -Indulgences, raised a definite quarrel with the Pope. Within fifteen -months of the death of Colet, he had astonished Europe by defiantly -burning the Bull issued against him from Rome. And summoned by the Emperor -to Worms, to answer for his life, he still more startled the world by -boldly demanding, in the name of the German nation from the Emperor and -Princes, that Germany should throw off the Papal yoke from her neck. For -this was practically what Luther did at Worms.[790] - -[Sidenote: Luther's battle-cry at the Diet of Worms.] - -The Emperor and Princes had to make up their minds, whether they would -side with the Pope or with the nation, and they decided to side with the -Pope. They thought they were siding with the stronger party, but they were -grievously mistaken. Their defiance of Luther was engrossed on parchment. -Luther's defiance of _them_, and assertion of the rights of conscience -against Pope and Emperor, rang through the ages. It stands out even now as -a watershed in history dividing the old era from the new. - -[Sidenote: The refusal of Reform followed by a period of Revolution.] - -In the history of the next three centuries, it is impossible not to trace -the onward swell, as it were, of a great revolutionary wave, which, -commencing with the Peasant War and the Sack of Rome, swept on through the -Revolt of the Netherlands, the Thirty Years' War, the Puritan Revolution -in England, and the foundation of the great American Republic, until it -culminated and broke in the French Revolution. It is impossible not to -see, in the whole course of the events of this remarkable period, an -onward movement as irresistible and certain in its ultimate progress as -that of the great geological changes which have passed over the physical -world. - -It is in vain to speculate upon what might have been the result of the -concession of broad measures of reform whilst yet there was time; but in -view of the bloodshed and misery, which, humanly speaking, might have been -spared, who can fail to be impressed with the terrible responsibility, in -the eye of History, resting upon those by whom, in the sixteenth century, -the reform was refused? They were utterly powerless, indeed, to stop the -ultimate flow of the tide, but they had the terrible power to turn, what -might otherwise have been a steady and peaceful stream, into a turbulent -and devastating flood. They had the terrible power, and they used it, of -involving their own and ten succeeding generations in the turmoils of -revolution. - - - - -APPENDIX A. - -EXTRACTS FROM MS. Gg. 4, 26, IN THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, -TRANSLATIONS OF WHICH ARE GIVEN AT PAGES 37, 38 OF THIS WORK. - - -_Fol. 4 b._ 'Quapropter concludit Paulus justificatos ex fide, et soli deo -confidentes per Jesum reconciliatos esse deo, restitutosque ad gratiam; ut -apud deum stent et maneant ipsi filii dei, et filiorum dei certam gloriam -expectent. Pro qua adipiscenda interim ferenda sunt omnia patienter: ut -firmitas spei declaretur. Quae quidem non falletur. Siquidem ex dei amore -et gratia erga nos ingenti reconciliati sumus, alioquin eius filius pro -nobis etiam impiis et contrariis deo non interiisset. Quod si alienatos a -se dilexit, quanto magis reconciliatos et diligit et dilectos conservabit. -Quamobrem firma et stabili spe ac letitia esse debemus, confidereque deo -indubitanter per Jesum Christum; per quem unum hominem est ad deum -reconciliatio. Nam ab illo ipso primo homine, et diffidentia, -impietateque, et scelere ejusdem, totum humanum genus deperiit. - -_f. 5 b._ 'Sed hic notandum est, quod hec gracia nichil est aliud, quam -dei amor erga homines; eos videlicet, quos vult amare, amandoque inspirare -spiritu suo sancto, qui ipse est amor, et dei amor, qui (ut apud Joannem -evangelistam ait salvator) ubi vult spirat. Amati autem et inspirati a deo -vocati sunt, ut, accepto amore, amantem deum redament et eundem amorem -desiderent et expectent. Hec exspectacio et spes, ex amore est. Amor vero -noster est, quia ille nos amat, non (ut scribit Joannes in secunda -epistola) quasi nos prius dilexerimus deum: sed quia ipse prior dilexit -nos, eciam nullo amore dignos, siquidem impios et iniquos, jure ad -sempiternum interitum destinatos. Sed quosdam, quos ille novit et voluit, -deus dilexit, diligendo vocavit, vocando justificavit, justificando -magnificavit. Hec in deo graciosa dileccio et caritas erga homines, ipsa -vocacio et justificacio et magnificacio est: nec quicquid aliud tot verbis -dicimus quam unum quiddam, scilicet amorem dei erga homines eos quos vult -amare. Item cum homines gracia attractos, vocatos, justificatos, et -magnificatos dicimus, nichil significamus aliud, quam homines amantem deum -redamare. - -_f. 18._ ... 'aperte videas providente et dirigente deo res duci, atque ut -ille velit in humanis fieri; non ex vi quidem aliqua illata, quum nichil -est remotius a vi quam divina actio: sed cum hominis natura voluntate et -arbitrio, divina providentia et voluntate latenter et suaviter et quasi -naturaliter comitante, atque una et simul cum eo incedente tam -mirabiliter, ut et quicquid velis egerisque agnoscatur a deo, et quod ille -agnoverit statuitque fore simul id necessario fiat. - -_ff. 79, 80._ 'Hominis anima constat intellectu et voluntate. Intellectu -sapimus. Voluntate possumus. Intellectus sapientia, fides est. Voluntatis -potentia, charitas. Christus autem dei virtus, i.e. potentia, est, et dei -sapientia. Per christum illuminantur mentes ad fidem: qui illuminat omnem -hominem venientem in hunc mundum, et dat potestatem filios dei fieri, iis -qui credunt in nomine ejus. Per christum etiam incenduntur voluntates in -charitatem: ut deum, homines, et proximum ament: in quibus est completio -legis. A deo ergo solo per christum et sapimus et possumus; eo quod in -christo sumus. Homines autem ex se intellectum habent caecum, et voluntatem -depravatam in tenebrisque ambulant et nesciunt quid faciunt.... - -'Christus autem (ut modo dixi) dei virtus, et dei sapientia est. Qui sunt -calidis radiis illius divinitatis acciti ut illi in societate adhereant, -hii quidem sunt _tercii_ [1. Jews; 2. Gentiles; 3. Christians], illi quos -Paulus vocatos et electos in illam gloriam, appellat: quorum mentes -presentia divinitatis illustrantur; voluntates corriguntur; qui fide -cernunt clare sapientiam christi, et amore ejusdem potentiam fortiter -apprehendunt.' - - - - -APPENDIX B. - -EXTRACTS FROM MS. ON I. CORINTHIANS. EMMANUEL COLLEGE MS. 3. 3. 12. - - -(_a_) 'Deus autem ipse animi instar totus in toto est, et totus in -qualibet parte: verumtamen non omnes partes similiter deificat (dei enim -animare deificare est), sed varie, videlicet, ut convenit ad -constructionem ejus, quod est in eo unum, ex pluribus. Hoc compositum -eciam ex deo et hominibus, modo templum dei, modo ecclesia, modo domus, -modo civitas, modo regnum, a _dei_ prophetis appellatur.... In quo quum -Corinthei erant, ut videri voluerunt et professi sunt: sapienter sane -Paulus animadvertens si quid laude dignum in illis erat, inde exorditur, -et gracias agit de eo quod prae se ferunt boni, quodque adhuc fidei et -ecclesiae fundamentum tenent; ut hoc leni et molli principio alliciat eos -in lectionem reliquae epistolae, faciatque quod reprehendit in moribus eorum -facilius audiant. Nam si statim in initio asperior fuisset graviusque -accusasset, profecto teneros adhuc animos et novellos in religione, -presertim in gente ilia Greca, arrogante et superba, ac prona in -dedignationem, a se et suis exhortationibus discussisset. Prudenter igitur -et caute agendum fuit pro racione personarum, locorum et temporum: in -quibus observandis fuit Paulus certe unus omnium consideratissimus, qui -proposito fini ita novit media accommodare: ut quum nihil aliud quesierat -nisi gloriam Jesu christi in terris, et amplificationem fidei ac -charitatis, homo divina usus solertia nihil nec egit nec omisit unquam -apud aliquos, quod ejusmodi propositum vel impediret vel retardaret. -Itaque jam necessario correcturus quamplurima per literas in Corinthiis, -qui, post ejus ab eis discessum, obliqua acciderant, acceptiore utitur -principio et quasi quendam aditum facit ad reliqua, quae non nihil amara -cogitur adhibere, ut salutaris medicinae poculum, modo ejus os saccharo -illiniatur, Corinthii libenter admittant et hauriant. Quanquam vero -Corinthii omnes qui fuerunt ex ecclesia christum professi sunt, in -illiusque doctrina et nomine gloriati sunt: tamen super hoc fundamento -nonnullorum erant malae et pravae edificationes partim ignorantia partim -malicia superintroductae. Fuerunt enim quidam parum modesti, idemque non -parum arrogantes, qui deo et christo et christi apostolis non nihil -posthabitis, ceperunt de lucro suo cogitare, ac freti sapientia seculari, -quae semper plurimum potuit apud Grecos, in plebe sibi authoritatem -quaerere, simulque opinionem apostolorum, maxime Pauli, derogare; cujus -tamen adhuc apud Corinthios (ut debuit) nomen plurimum valuit. At illi -nescio qui invidi et impatientes laudis Pauli, et suam laudem ac gloriam -amantes, attentaverunt aliquid institutionis in ecclesia, ut eis venerat -in mentem, utque sua sapientia et opibus probare potuerint, volueruntque -in populo videri multa scire et posse ac quid exposcit christiana religio -nihil ignorare, facileque quid venerat in dubium posse solvere et -sententiam ferre. Qua insolentia nimirum in molli adhuc et nascente -ecclesia molliti sunt multa, multa passi eciam sunt quae ab institutis -Pauli abhorruere. Item magna pars populi jamdudum et vix a mundo tracti in -eam religionem quae mundi contemptum edocet et imperat, facile retrospexit -ad mundanos mores: et oculos in opes, potentiam, et sapientiam secularem -conjecit. Unde nihil reluctati sunt, quin qui opibus valuerunt apud eos -iidem authoritate valeant. Immo ab illis illecti prompti illorum nomina -sectati sunt, quo factum fuit ut partes nascerentur et factiones ac -constitutiones sibi diversorum capitum: ut quaeque conventicula suum caput -sequeretur. Ex quo dissidio contentiosae altercationes proruperunt et omnia -simul misere corruerunt in deterius. Quam calamitatem Corinthiensis -ecclesiae quorundam improbitate inductam, illius primus parens Paulus -molestissime tulit, non tam quod conati sunt infringere suam authoritatem, -quam quod sub malis suasoribus qui bene ceperint navigare in christi archa -periclitarentur. Itaque quantum est ausus et licuit insectatur eos qui -volunt videri sapientes, quique in christiana republica plus suis ingeniis -quam ex deo moliuntur. Quod tamen facit ubique modestissime, homo -piissimus, magis querens reformationem malorum quam aliquorum -reprehensionem. Itaque docet omnem et sapientiam et potentiam a deo esse -hominibus per Jesum christum, qui dei sui patris eterni virtus et -sapientia est, cujus virtute sapiat oportet et possit quisque qui vere -sapiat aliquid et recte possit; hominum autem sapientiam inanem et falsam -affirmat: Item potentiam vel quanquumque quandam enervationem et -infirmitatem: atque hec utraque deo odiosa et detestabilis, ut nihil -possit fieri nec stultius nec impotentius, neque vero quod magis deo -displiceat, quam quempiam suis ipsius viribus conari aliquid in ecclesia -christiana: quam totam suum solius opus esse vult deus; atque quenquam in -eo ex se solo suoque spiritu sapere, ut nulla sit in hominibus prorsus -neque quod possunt bonitate, neque quod sapiunt fide, neque denique quod -sunt quidem spe, nisi ex deo in christo gloriatio, per quem sumus in ipso, -et in deo, a quo sane solo possumus et sapimus, et sumus denique quicquid -sumus. Hoc in tota hac epistola contendit Paulus asserere: verum maxime et -apertissime in prima parte: in qua nititur eradicare et funditus tollere -falsam illam opinionem, qua homines suis viribus se aliquid posse -arbitrantur, qua sibi confisi, tum deo diffidunt, turn deum negligunt. Quae -hominum arrogantia et opinio de seipsis, fons est malorum et pestis, ut -impossible sit eam societatem sanam et incolumem esse, in qua possunt -aliquid, qui suis se viribus aliquid posse arbitrantur. Secundum vero -Pauli doctrinam, quae est christi doctrina et evangeliis consona (siquidem -unus est author et idem spiritus) nihil quisquam ad se ipsum, sed duntaxat -ad deum spectare debet, ei se subjicere totum, illi soli servire, postremo -ab illo expectare omnia et ex illo solo pendere: ut quicquid in christiana -republica (quae dei est civitas) vel vere sentiat, vel recte agat ab illo -id totum credat proficisci, et acceptum deum referat.'--_Leaf_ a 4, _et -seq._ - -(_b_) 'Quod si quando voluerit quempiam preditum sapientia seculari, -cujusmodi Paulus et ejus discipulus Dionysius Areopagita ac nonnulli alii -veritates sapientiae suae, et accipere et ad alios deferre: profecto hi -nunciaturi aliis quod a deo didicerint, dedita opera nihil magis -curaverunt quam ut ex seculo nihil sapere viderentur; existimantes -indignum esse ut cum divinis revelatis humana racio commisceatur: nolentes -eciam id committere quo putetur veritati credi magis suasione hominum quam -virtute dei. - -'Hinc Paulus in docta et erudita Grecia nihil veritus est, ex se videri -stultus et impotens, ac profiteri se nihil scire nisi Jesum christum et -eundem crucifixum: nec posse quicquam nisi per eundem ut per stulticiam -predicationis salvos faciat credentes et ratiocinantes confundet.'--_Leaf_ -3, 4. - -(_c_) 'Idem etiam potentes non sua quidem potentia et virtute, sed solius -dei per Jesum christum dominum nostrum, in quo illud venerandum et -adorandum miraculum, quod deus ipse coierit cum humana natura; quod -quiddam compositum ex deo et homine (quod Greci vocant "Theantropon") hic -vixit in terris, et pro hominum salute versatus est cum hominibus, ut eos -deo patri suo revocatos reconciliaret: quod idem praestitit in probatione -et ostensione virtutis defensioneque justiciae usque ad mortem, mortem -autem crucis: quod deinde victa morte, fugato diabolo, redempto humano -genere, ut liberam habeat potestatem, omnino sine adversarii querela, -eligendi ad se quos velit, ut quos velit vocet, quos vocet justificet. -Quod (inquam) sic victa et prostrata morte, mortisque authore, ex morte -idem resurrexit vivens, ac vivum se multis ostendit, multisque argumentis -comprobavit. Quod tum postremo cernentibus discipulis sursum ut erat deus -et homo ascendit ad patrem, illic ex celo progressum sui inchoati operis -in terris, et perfectionem despecturus, ac quantum sibi videbitur continuo -adjuturus. Quod deinde post haec tandem opportuno tempore, rebus maturis, -contrariis deo rationibus discussis, longe et a creaturis suis -exterminatis injusticia videlicet et ignorantia, in quarum profligatione -nunc quotidie dei et sapientia et virtus in suis ministris operatur, -operabiturque usque in finem. Quod tum (inquam) post satis longum -conflictum et utrinque pugnam inter lucem et tenebras, deo et angelis -spectantibus, tandem ille idem dux et dominus exercituum, qui, hic primus, -bellum induxit adversariis et cum hostibus manum ipse conseruit, patientia -et morte vincens, in subsidium suorum prelucens et prepotens, rediet, ut -fugata malitia et stultitia, illustret et bona faciet omnia: utque -postremo, resuscitans mortuos, ipsam mortem superet sua immortalitate, et -absorbeat, ac victuros secum rapiat in celum, morituros a se longe in -sempiternam mortem discutiat in tenebras illas exteriores, ut per ipsum in -reformato mundo sola vita deinceps in perpetuum sapientia et justitia -regnet.'--_Leaf_ b. 5. - -(_d_) 'Quamobrem non ab re quidem videtur factum fuisse a deo, ut illo -vulgo hominum et quasi faece in fundo residente longe a claritate -posthabita, qui in tam altam obscuritatem non fuerint delapsi, prius et -facilius a divine lumine attingerentur, qui fuerunt qui minus in vallem -mundi miserique descenderunt, qui altius multo extantes quam alii, merito -priores exorto justiciae sole illuminati fuerunt; qui supra multitudinem -varietatem et pugnam hujus humilis mundi, simplices, sui similes, et -quieti, extiterunt, tanto propiores deo quanto remotius a deo distaverint. -Quod si deus ipse est ipsa nobilitas, sapientia, et potentia; quis non -videt Petrum, Joannem, Jacobum, et id genus reliquos, etiam antequam -veritas dei illuxerat in terras, tanto aliis sapientia et viribus -praestitisse, quanto magis abfuerint ab illorum stultitia et impotentia, ut -nihil sit mirum, si deus, cujus est bonis suis, meliores eligere et -accommodare, eos habitos stultos et impotentes delegerit, quando quidem -revera universi mundi nobiliores fuerunt, a vilitateque mundi magis -sejuncti, altiusque extantes: ut quemadmodum id terrae quod altius eminet, -exorto sole facilius et citius radiis tangitur; ita similiter fuit necesse -prodeunte luce quae illuminaret omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum, -prius irradiaret eos qui magis in hominibus eminuerint et quasi montes ad -hominum valles extiterint. Ad alios autem qui sunt in imo in regione -frigoris, nebulosa sapientia obducti, et tardius penetrant divini radii, -et illic difficilius illuminant et citius destituunt, nisi forte -vehementius incumbentes rarifecerint nubem et lenifecerint hominem ut -abjectis omnibus quae habet, evolet in christum. Quod si fecerit, tum -emergit in conditionem et statum Petri ac talium parvulorum quos dudum -contempserit, ut per eam viam ascendat ad veritatem qui ipse est christus -qui dixit, "Nisi conversi fueritis et efficiamini sicut parvuli non -intrabitis in regnum caelorum." Qui parvuli, sine dubio, sunt majores illis -qui magni in mundo reputantur, ac ideo jure a deo ad sua mysteria -antepositi.'--_Leaf_ b. 8. - -(_e_) 'Angustis sane et minutis sunt animis qui hoc non vident, quique -sentiunt de secularibus rebus contendendum esse, et in hisce jus quaerendum -suum; qui ignorant quae sit divina justitia, quae injustitia; quique etiam -homunciones, quorum stultitia haud scio ridenda ne sit magis quam -deflenda, sed certe deflenda; quoniam ex ea ecclesia calamitatem sentit, -ac paene eversionem. Sed illi homunciones perditi (quibus hoc nostrum -seculum plenum est) in quibusque sunt etiam qui minime debent esse -ecclesiastici viri, et qui habentur in ecclesia primarii. Illi (inquam) -ignari penitus evangelicae et apostolicae doctrinae, ignari divinae justitiae, -ignari christianae veritatis, soliti sunt dicere causam dei, jus ecclesiae, -patrimonium christi, bona sacerdotii, defendi a se oportere et sine -peccato non posse non defendi. O angustia! O caecitas! O miseria istorum, -qui quum ineunt rationem perdendi omnia, non solum haec secularia, sed illa -quoque etiam sempiterna; quumque ipsa perdunt, putant se tamen eadem -acquirere, defendere et conservare; qui ipso rerum exitu ubique in -ecclesia homines, ipsis piscibus oculis durioribus, non cernunt quae -contentionibus judiciisque dispendia religionis, diminutio auctoritatis, -negligentia christi, blasphemia dei, sequitur. Ea etiam ipsa denique, quae -ipsi vocant "bona ecclesiae," quaeque putant se suis litigationibus vel -tenere vel recuperare; quae quotidie paulatim et latenter tum amittunt, tum -aegre custodiunt, siquidem magis vi quam hominum liberalitate et charitate, -quo nihil ecclesia indignius esse potest. In qua procul dubio eadem debet -esse ratio conservandi quae data fuerint quondam, quae fuerit comparandi. -Amor dei et proximi, desiderium celestium, contemptus mundanorum, vera -pietas, religio, charitas, benignitas erga homines, simplicitas, -patientia, tolerantia malorum, studium semper bene faciendi vel omnibus -hominibus ut [in constanti] bono malum vincant, hominum animos conscitavit -ubique tandem ut de ecclesia christi bene opinarentur, ei faveant, eam -ament, in eam benefici et liberales sint, darentque incessanter, datisque -etiam data accumulent, quum viderant in ecclesiasticis viris nullam -avaritiam, nullum abusum liberalitatis suae. Quod si qui supremam partem -teneant in christiana ecclesia (id est sacerdotes) virtutem (quae -acquisivit omnia) perpetuo tenuissent adhucve tenerent; profecto si staret -causa, effectus sequeretur, vel auctus vel conservatus, hominesque -ecclesiastici non solum quieti possiderent sua; sed plura etiam acciperent -possidenda. Sed quum aquae (ut ait David) intraverant usque animos nostros, -quumque cupiditatis et avaritiae fluctibus obruimur, nec illud audimus, -Divitiae si affluant, nolite cor apponere, quumque neglecta illa virtute et -justitia et studio conservandi amplificandique regni dei in terris, quod -sacerdotio nec exposcenti nec expectanti ejusmodi acquisivit omnia, animos -suos (proh nephas!) in illos appendices et pendulas divitias converterint, -quod onus est potius ecclesiae quam ornamentum, tunc ita illo retrospectu -canes illi et sues ad vomitum, et ad volutabrum luti, infirmaverunt se -amissa pulchra et placida conservatrice rerum virtute; ut quum vident -recidere a se quotidie quod virtus comparavit, impotentes dimicant et -turpiter sane confligunt inter se et cum laicis cum sui nominis infamia et -ignominia religionis, et ejus rei etiam quam maxime quaerunt indies majore -dispendio ac perditione non videntes caeci, si qui [ ] acquisierit -aliquid necessario ejus contrarium idem auferre oportere. Contemptus mundi -mundanarumque rerum quem docuit christus comparavit omnia; contra earundem -amor amittet et perdet omnia. Quis non videt quum virtute praestitimus, nos -tunc bona mundi jure exigere non potuisse nisi quatenus tenuiter ad victum -vestitumque pertineat quo jubet Paulus contenti simus. Quis (inquam) non -videt multo minus nunc nos exigere debere, quum omnis virtutis expertes -sumus, quumque ab ipsis laicis nihil fere nisi tonsa coma, et corona, -capitio, et demissa toga, differimus, nisi hoc dicat quispiam (deridens -nos), quum nunc sumus relapsi in mundum, quae sunt mundi et partem nostram -in mundo nos expostulare posse; ut non amplius dicamus, Dominus pars -haereditatis nostrae; sed nobis dicatur, Mercedem vestram recepistis. O bone -deus, quam puderet nos hujus descensus in mundum, si essemus memores -amoris dei erga nos, exempli christi, dignitatis religionis christianae, -professionis et nominis nostri.'--_Leaf_ d. 3-5. - -(_f_) 'Hic obstupesco et exclamo illud Pauli mei, "O altitudo divitiarum -sapientiae et scientiae dei." O sapientia admirabiliter bona hominibus et -misericors, ut jure tua pia benignitas altitudo divitiarum potest -appellari, qui commendans charitatem tuam in nobis voluisti in nos tam -esse liberalis ut temetipsum dares pro nobis, ut tibe et deo nos -redderemur. O pia, O benigna, O benefica sapientia, O os, verbum, et -veritas dei in homine, verbum veridicum et verificans, qui voluisti nos -docere humanitus ut nos divinitus sapiamus, qui voluisti esse in homine ut -nos in deo essemus. Qui denique voluisti in homine humiliari usque ad -mortem, mortem autem crucis, ut nos exaltaremur usque ad vitam, vitam -autem dei.' - - - - -APPENDIX C. - - -ON THE DATE OF MORE'S BIRTH. - -The following correspondence in 'Notes and Queries' (Oct. 1868) may be -considered, I think, to set at rest the date of Sir Thomas More's birth. - - -No. 1 (Oct. 17, 1868). - -'Some months ago I found the following entries, relating to a family of -the name of More, on two blank leaves of a MS. in the Gale collection, in -the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. The class mark of the volume is -"O. 2. 21." Its contents are very miscellaneous. Among other things is a -copy of the poem of Walter de Biblesworth, printed by Mr. Thomas Wright in -his volume of _Vocabularies_ from the Arundel MS. The date of this is -early fourteenth century. The names of former possessors of the volume are -"Le: Fludd" and "G. Carew;" the latter being probably Sir George Carew, -afterwards Earl of Totness. The entries which I have copied are on the -last leaf and the last leaf but one of the volume. I have added the dates -in square brackets, and expanded the contractions: - -'"M{d} quod die dominica in vigilia Sancti Marce Evangeliste Anno Regni -Regis Edwardi quarti post conquestum Anglie quartodecimo Johannes More -Gent. maritatus fuit Agneti filie Thome Graunger in parochia sancti Egidij -extra Crepylgate london. [24 April, 1474.] - -'"M{ed} quod die sabbati in vigilia sancti gregorij pape inter horam -primam & horam secundam post Meridiem eiusdem diei Anno Regni Regis -Edwardi quarti post conquestum Anglie xv{o} nata fuit Johanna More filia -Johannis More Gent. [11 March, 1474-5.] - -'"M{d} quod die veneris proximo post Festum purificacionis beate Marie -virginis videlicet septimo die Februarij inter horam secundam et horam -terciam in Mane natus fuit Thomas More filius Johannis More Gent. Anno -Regni Regis Edwardi quarti post conquestum Anglie decimo septimo. [7 Feb. -1477-8.] - -'"M{d} quod die dominica videlicet vltimo die Januarij inter horam -septimam et horam octauam ante Meridiem Anno regni Regis Edwardi quarti -decimo octauo nata fuit Agatha filia Johannis More Gentilman. [31 Jan. -1478-9.] - -'"M{d} quod die Martis videlicet vj{to} die Junij inter horam decimam & -horam vndecimam ante Meridiem natus fuit Johannes More filius Johannis -More Gent. Anno regni Regis Edwardi quarti vicesimo. [6 June, 1480.] - -'"Me{d} quod die lune viz. tercio die Septembris inter horam secundam & -horam terciam in Mane natus fuit Edwardus Moore filius Johannis More Gent. -Anno regni regis Edwardi iiij{ti} post conquestum xxj{o}. [3 Sept. 1481.] - -'"M{d} quod die dominica videlicet xxij{o} die Septembris anno regni regis -Edwardi iiij{ti} xxij{o} inter horam quartam & quintam in Mane nata fuit -Elizabeth More filia Johannis More Gent." [22 Sept. 1482.] - -'It will be seen that these entries record the marriage of a John More, -gent., in the parish church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and the births of -his six children, Johanna, Thomas, Agatha, John, Edward, and Elizabeth. - -'Now it is known that Sir Thomas More was born, his biographers vaguely -say, _about_ 1480 in Milk Street, Cheapside, which is in the parish of St. -Giles, Cripplegate; that he was the son of Sir John More, afterwards Lord -Chief Justice, who, at the time of his son's birth, was a barrister, and -would be described as "John More, gent."; and that he had two sisters, -Jane or Joane (Wordsworth's _Eccl. Biog._ ii. 49), married to Richard -Stafferton, and Elizabeth, wife to John Rastall the printer, and mother of -Sir William Rastall (born 1508), afterwards Lord Chief Justice of the -Queen's Bench. - -'The third entry above given records the birth of Thomas, son of John -More, who had been married in the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and -may be presumed to have lived in the parish. The date of his birth is -Feb. 7, 1477-8; that is, according to modern reckoning, 1478, and -therefore "_about_ 1480." Oddly enough, the day of the week in this entry -is wrong. It is Friday, which in 1477-8 was Feb. 6. But Thomas was born -between two and three in the morning of Saturday, Feb. 7. The confusion is -obvious and natural. - -'The second and last entries record the births of his sisters Johanna and -Elizabeth. The former of these names appears to have been a favourite in -the family of Sir John More, and was the name of his grandmother, the -daughter of John Leycester. - -'I may add, that the entries are all in a contemporary hand, and their -formal character favours the supposition that they were made by some one -familiar with legal documents, and probably by a lawyer. - -'This remarkable series of coincidences led me at first to believe that I -had discovered the entry of the birth of Sir Thomas More. But, upon -investigation, I was met by a difficulty which at present I have been -unable to solve. In the life of the Chancellor by Cresacre More, his -great-grandson, the name of Sir Thomas More's mother is said to have been -"Handcombe of Holliwell in Bedfordshire." This fact is not mentioned by -Roper, who lived many years in his house, and married his favourite -daughter, or by any other of his biographers. The question, therefore, is -whether the authority of Cresacre More on this point is to be admitted as -absolute. He was not born till nearly forty years after Sir Thomas More's -death, and his book was not written till between eighty and ninety years -after it. We must take into consideration these facts in estimating the -amount of weight to be attached to his evidence as to the name of his -great-great-grandmother. - -'Were there then two John Mores of the rank of gentlemen, both apparently -lawyers, living at the same time, in the same parish, and both having -three children bearing the same names; or was John More, who married Agnes -Graunger, the future Chief Justice and father of the future Chancellor? To -these questions, in the absence of Cresacre More's statement, the -accumulation of coincidences would have made it easy to give a very -positive answer. Is his authority to be weighed against them? - -'Stapylton's assertion that Sir Thomas More had no brothers presents no -difficulty, as they may have died in infancy. The entries which I have -quoted would explain why he was called Thomas, after his maternal -grandfather. - -'If any heraldic readers of "Notes and Queries" could find what are the -arms quartered with those of More upon the Chancellor's tomb at Chelsea, -they would probably throw some light upon the question. Mr. Hunter -describes them as "three bezants on a chevron between three unicorns' -heads." - -'WILLIAM ALDIS WRIGHT. - -'Trinity College, Cambridge.' - - -No. 2 (Oct. 31, 1868). - -'There can, I think, be no reasonable doubt that Mr. Wright's discovery -has set at rest the perplexing question of the true date of Sir Thomas -More's birth. In the note in the Appendix to my "Oxford Reformers" I was -obliged to leave the question undecided, whilst inclined to believe that -the weight of evidence preponderated in favour of the received date--1480. -What appeared almost incontrovertible evidence in favour of 1480 was the -evidence of the pictures of Sir Thomas More's family by Holbein. The most -certainly authentic of these is the original pen-and-ink sketch in the -Basle Museum. Upon Mechel's engraving of this (dated 1787), Sir Thomas's -age is marked "50," and at the bottom of the picture is the inscription, -"Johannes Holbein ad Vivum delin.: Londini: 1530." This seemed to be -almost conclusive evidence that he was born in 1480. If Sir Thomas was -born in Feb. 1478, according to the newly discovered entries, and was -fifty when the picture was sketched by Holbein, the sketch obviously -cannot have been made in 1530, but two or three years earlier. - -'Now if it may be supposed that the sketch was made during the summer or -autumn of 1527, I think it will be found that all other chronological -difficulties will vanish before the newly discovered date. - -'1. More himself would be in his fiftieth year in 1527. - -'2. Ann Cresacre, marked on the sketch as "15," would have only recently -completed her fifteenth year, as, according to her tombstone, she was in -her sixty-sixth year in Dec. 1577; and according to the inscription on the -Burford picture she was born in 3 Henry VIII. - -'3. Margaret Roper, marked on the sketch "22," would be born in 1505 or -1506, and this would allow of More's marriage having taken place in 20 -Henry VII. 1505, as stated on the Burford picture. - -'4. Sir Thomas would be forty-one in July, 1519, and this accords with -Erasmus's statement in his letter to Hutten of that date (_Epist._ -ccccxlvii.)--"ipse novi hominem, non majorem annis _viginti tribus_, nam -_nunc non multum excessit quadragesimum_." He would be only one year past -forty. Erasmus first became acquainted with More probably in the course of -1498, when (being born in February) he was in his twentieth year. The -"viginti tribus" must in any case be an error. - -'5. John More, jun., marked "19" in the sketch, would be "more or less -than thirteen" as reported by Erasmus in 1521. (_Epist._ dcv.) - -'6. More's epigram, which speaks of "quinque lustra" (_i.e._ twenty-five -years), having passed since he was "quater quatuor" (sixteen), and thus -makes him forty-one when he wrote it, would (if he was born in 1478) give -1519 as the date of the epigram; and this corresponds with the fact, that -the Basle edition of 1518 (_Mori Epigrammata_, Froben) did not contain it, -while it was inserted in the second edition of 1520. - -'7. There is a passage in More's "History of Richard III.," in which the -writer speaks of having himself overheard a conversation which took place -in 1483. - -'Mr. Gairdner, in his "Letters, &c. of Richard III. and Henry VII." (vol. -ii. preface, p. xxi), rightly points out that, if born in 1480, More, -being then only three years old, could not have remembered overhearing a -conversation. But if born in Feb. 1478, he would be in his sixth year, and -could easily do so. - -'On the whole, therefore, the newly discovered date dispels all the -apparent difficulties with which the received date is beset, if only it -may be assumed that the true date of the Basle sketch was 1527, and not -(as inscribed upon Mechel's engraving and upon the English pictures of the -family of Sir Thomas More) 1530. - -'Since I published my "Oxford Reformers" I have obtained a photograph of -the Basle sketch itself, which dispels this difficulty also, as it bears -upon it _no date at all_. - -'The date, 1530, on the pictures appears to rest upon no good authority. -Holbein, in fact, had left England the year before. I therefore have -little doubt that the remarkable document discovered by Mr. Wright is -perfectly genuine. - -'Should the arms quartered with those of More upon the Chancellor's tomb -at Chelsea prove to be the arms of "Graunger," the evidence would indeed -be complete. - -'FREDERIC SEEBOHM. - -'Hitchin.' - - -No. 3 (Oct. 31, 1868). - -'Mr. Wright will find the lineage of Sir Thomas More and his father -discussed at some length in my "Judges of England," vol. v. pp. 190-206; -and I have very little doubt that the John More whose marriage is recorded -in the first entry was the person who afterwards became a Judge (not Chief -Justice, as Mr. Wright by mistake calls him), and that Thomas More, whose -birth is recorded in the third entry, was the illustrious Lord Chancellor. -The only difficulty arises from John More's wife being named "Agnes -daughter of Thomas Graunger;" but this difficulty is easily discarded, -since Cresacre More, who wrote between eighty and ninety years after the -Chancellor's death, is the only author who gives another name, and his -other biographer, who wrote immediately after his death, gives the lady no -name at all. - -'John More married three times; and he must have been a very young man on -his first marriage with Agnes Graunger (supposing that to be the name of -his first wife), by whom only he had children. - -'I have stated in my account that there were two John Mores who were -contemporaries at a period considerably earlier, one of Lincoln's Inn and -the other of the Middle Temple. Of the lineage of the latter there is no -account; but of the former I have stated my conviction that he was the -father of the John More whose marriage is here recorded, and consequently -the grandfather of Sir Thomas More; and thus, as both the John Mores had -originally filled dependent employment in Lincoln's Inn, the modest -description of his origin given by Sir Thomas in his epitaph, "familia non -celebri, sed honesta natus," is at once accounted for. - -'EDWARD FOSS.' - - -No. 4 (Oct. 31, 1868). - -'Permit me to set your correspondent right in a minor particular, which he -looks to as confirming his theory, though I trust he may be able to -substantiate it otherwise. Mr. Wright says--"Milk Street, Cheapside ... is -in the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate:" it is not so, as several -parishes intervene; Milk Street is _within_ the walls, whereas St. Giles's -is _without_. Mr. Wright might have seen this by the wording of his first -quotation:--"in parochia Egidij extra Crepylgate;" the word "extra" -implies beyond the walls. Milk Street is in the _ward_ of Cripplegate -Within, not in the _parish_ of St. Giles Without, Cripplegate--a -distinction not obvious to strangers. - -'A great part of the district now called Cripplegate _Without_ was -originally moor or fen: we have a Moorfields, now fields no more; and a -"More" or Moor Lane. I cannot suppose the latter to have been named after -the author of "Utopia;" but as he really emanated from this locality, -possibly his family was named from the neighbouring moor. The Chancellor -bore for his crest "a Moor's head affrontee sable." I would not wish to -affront his memory by adding more, but your readers will find something on -this subject _ante_, 3rd S. xii. 199, 238. - -'A. H.' - - -No. 5 (Nov. 5, 1868). - -'I am indebted to your correspondents, Mr. Foss and A. H., for their -corrections of two inaccuracies in my paper on Sir Thomas More. -Fortunately, neither of these affects the strength of my case. It is -sufficient that Milk Street and the church of St. Giles', Cripplegate, are -so near as to render it probable that a resident in the one might be -married at the other. If, therefore, for "the same parish" I substitute -"the same ward," my case remains substantially as strong as before. My -mistake arose from not observing that the map in Strype's edition of -Stow's _Survey_, which I consulted, was a map of Cripplegate Ward, and not -of the parish of St. Giles'. - -'Before writing to you, I had, of course, consulted Mr. Foss's _Judges of -England_, but found nothing there bearing upon the point on which I wanted -assistance, viz., the name and arms of Sir Thomas More's mother. - -'WILLIAM ALDIS WRIGHT. - -'Trinity College, Cambridge.' - - - - -APPENDIX D. - - -ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES AND PREFERMENTS OF DEAN COLET, IN ORDER OF -TIME.[791] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Date of| Description of | Authority | Date of - Appointment Preferment, &c. | | Avoidance - ---------|-----------------------|------------------------|-------------- - Aug. 6, |Rectory of St. Mary, |Reg. Norw. xii. f. 116, |Sept. 16, 1519 - 1485 | Denington, Suffolk | quoted by Kennett | per mortem - | | | - (?) |Prebend of Goodeaster, |Wharton, _de Decanis_, |Jan. 26, 1503 - | in Collegiate Church | p. 234 | per resign. - | of St. | | - | Martin-le-Grand | | - | | | - (?) |Vicarage of St. Dunstan|Reg. Hill, Lond., quoted|Sept, 21, 1505 - | and All Saints, | by Kennett | per resign. - | Stepney | | - | | | - Sept. 30,|Rectory of St. |Reg. Episcop. apud aedes |End of 1493 - 1490 | Nicholas, Thyrning, | Bucdenae, quoted by | - | Hunts and Northampton| Kennett | - | | | - March 5, |Prebend of Botevant, in|Le Neve's _Fasti_ | - 1493-4 | Cathedral Church of | (1854), vol. iii. p. | - | York | 176 | - | | | - |[During this interval, | | - | Colet was apparently | | - | on the Continent] | | - | | | - Dec. 17, |Deacon |Reg. Savage, Lond., | - 1497 | | quoted by Kennett | - | | | - March 25,|Priest (by Knight said |Memorand. a Willi. | - 1497-8 | to be on Feast of | Smyth, Lincoln, quoted| - | '_St. Ann_,' i.e. | by Kennett | - | July 26, in error | | - | probably for | | - | '_Ann_unciation,' | | - | i.e. March 25) | | - | | | - 1501(?) |S.T.B. (Bachelor of |Anthony a Wood (sub anno| - | Divinity) | 1501, on mere | - | | conjecture, apparently| - | | dating back from the | - | | assumed date of the | - | | D.D.), quoted by | - | | Kennett | - | | | - 1502 |Prebend of Durnesford, |Wharton, _de Decanis_, | - | in Cathedral Church | p. 234. | - | of Salisbury | | - | | | - 1504 |S.T.P. (Doctor of |Ant. a Wood, sub anno | - | Divinity) | 1504 (probably only | - | | conjectured by Wood, | - | | as there appears to be| - | | no record at Oxford), | - | | quoted by Kennett | - | | | - May 5, |Prebend of Mora, in |Reg. Hill. f. 51, quoted|Sept. 16, 1519 - 1505 | Cathedral Church of | by Le Neve, _Fasti_, | per mortem - | St. Paul, London | ii. 411 | - | | | - 1505 (?) |Deanery of St. Paul's, |Le Neve, ib. p. 411. |Ditto ditto - | London | | - | | | - 1516 |Treasurership of |Reg. Cicestrense, quoted| - | Chichester Cathedral | by Le Neve, i. 268 | - | (Dean Colet?) | | - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - -APPENDIX E. - -CATALOGUE OF EARLY EDITIONS OF THE WORKS OF ERASMUS IN MY POSSESSION. - - -A.D. - -1506. D. Erasmi &c. Adagiorum Collectanea, Rursus ab eodem recognita atque -aucta ... [also] Erasmi varia epigrammata. - - In aedibus Joannis Barbier xviii. Martij M.DVI. - -1506. D. Erasmi &c. Adagiorum Collectanea, Rursus ab eodem recognita atque -aucta ... [but without the epigrams]. - - Ex aedibus Ascensianis pridie natalis dominici M.DVI. - -1508. Erasmi Rot. Adagiorum chiliades tres, ac centuriae fere todidem. - - Venetiis in aedibus Aldi, mense Sept. MDVIII. - -1511. Moriae Encomium Erasmi Roterodami Declamatio. - - Argentorati in aedibus M. Schurerii, mense augusto anno M.D.XI. - -1512. Collectanea Adagiorum &c. Erasmi. Ex Tertia Recognitione. (With -prefatory letter of Schurerius dated xiiii. Calendas Julii MDIX.) - - Argentorati [Strasburg] stanneis calamis denuo exscripta in officina - Matthiae Schurerii, mense Junio anno M.D.XII. - -1512. De ratione studii, &c. - -Officium discipulorum ex Quintiliano. - -Concio de puero Jesu, &c. - -Expostulatio Jesu ad mortales. - -Carmina scholaria. - - Argentorati, Ex aedibus Schurerianis mense Julio M.D.XII. - -1513. De Duplici Copia rerum ac verborum Commentarii duo. [A reprint of -the first edition of Paris.] - - Argentorat. M. Schurerius exscripsit, mense Januario M.D.XIII. - -1514. De ratione studii, &c. - -Officium discipulorum ex Quintiliano. - -Concio de puero Jesu ad mortales. - -Carmina scholaria. - - Argentorati ex aedibus M. Schurerii, mense Augusto, anno M.D.XIIII. - -1514. Parabolarum sive Similium liber. (Prefatory letter of Erasmus to -AEgidius dated MDXIIII. Idibus Octobreis.) - - Argentorati ex aedibus Schurerianis, mense Decembri MD.XIIII. (First - edition?) - -1514. Opuscula aliquot, Erasmo Rot. castigatore et interprete. Cato ... -amplectens praecepta Mimi Publiani, Septem Sapientum celebria dicta, -Institutum Christiani hominis, &c. - - Colonie in edibus Martini Werdenensis, XII. Kalendas Decembres. - -1514(?). De duplici Copia Verborum ac rerum commentarii duo. Ab Authore -ipso diligentissime recogniti et emaculati atque in plerisque locis aucti. - -Item Epistola Erasmi ad Jacobum Vuymphelingium Selestatinum. - -Item Parabolae, &c. - - Argentorat. Schurerius. - -1515. Enchiridion Militis Christiani. (Without the letter to Volzius.) - - Lypsi in aedibus Valentini Schumans.. Sexto Calendae Septembris, - M.D.XV. - -1515. Enchiridion Militis Christiani. (Without the letter to Volzius.) - -Disputatio de Tedio et Pavore Christi. - -Exhortatio ad virtutem, &c. - -Precatio ad Virginis filium Jesum. - -Paean virgini Matri, &c. - -Obsecratio ad Mariam ... - -Oratio in laudem pueri Jesu. - -Enarratio allegorica in Primum Psalmum. - -Carmen de casa natalitia pueri Jesu. - -Carmina complura de puero Jesu. - -Carmina de angelis. - -Carmen Graecanicum Virgini sacrum Mariae. - - Argentorati apud M. Schurerium, mense Septembri, M.D.XV. - -1515. Erasmi Roterodami Ennarratio in Primum Psalmum Davidicum. - -Martini Dorpii ad eundem Epistola, de Moriae Encomio, &c. - -Erasmi ad Dorpium Apologia. - - Louanii Theodoricus Martinus excudebat, Mense Octobr, MDXV. - -1515. Cato Erasmi. Opuscula aliquot: Precepta Mimi Publiani; Septem -sapientum celebria dicta; Institutum christiani hominis, &c. - - Colonie in edibus Quentell. M.CCCCC.XV. - -1516. Novum Instrumentum. - - Basileae in aedibus Joannis Frobenii Hammelburgensis, Mense Februario - Anno M.D.XVI. - -1516. Collectanea Adagiorum, &c. - - Argentorati M. Schurerius ... exscripsit, Mense Maio M.D.XVI. - -1516. Enchiridion, &c. (containing the same matter as the Strasburg -edition of 1515). - - Argentorati apud M. Schurerium, Mense Junio, M.D.XVI. - -1516. Institutio Principis Christiani ... cum aliis nonnullis, -viz.:--Precepta Isocratis, &c.; Panegyricum gratulatorium, &c. ad -Principem Philippum; Libellus Plutarchi de discrimine adulatoris et amici. - - Louanii apud Theodoricum Martinum Alustensem, Mense Augusto, MDXVI. - -1516. Erasmi Roterodami Epistolae; ad Leonem X, ad Cardinalem Grimannum, ad -Cardinalem S. Georgii, ad Martinum Dorpium. Ejusdem in laudem urbis -Selestadii Panegyricum Carmen. - - Lypsiae impressit Valentinus Schuman. A.D. M.CCCCC.XVI. - -1517. Aliquot Epistole saneque elegantes Erasmi Roterodami, et ad hunc -aliorum eruditissimorum hominum, antehac nunquam excusae praeter unam et -alteram. (Containing 39 letters.) - - Lovanii apud Theodoricum Martinum, anno M.D.XVII. mense Aprili. - -1517. Scarabeus, cum scholiis. - - Basileae apud Joannem Frobenium, Mense Maio, M.D.XVII. - -1517. Bellum. - - Basileae apud Joannem Frobenium, Mense Aprili, M.D.XVII. - -1517. De Octo Orationis Partium constructione Libellus ... Erasmo autore. - - Basileae; In officina Adae Petri, mense Augusto, M.D.XVII. - -1517. Enchiridion, etc. (containing the same matter as the Strasburg -edition of 1515). - - Argentorati apud M. Schurerium mense Novembri, M.D.XVII. - -1517. In epistolam Pauli ad Romanos Paraphrasis. (First edition.) - - Louanii Ex officina Theodo. Martin. Mense Novembri, M.D.XVII. - -1518. Aliquot Epistolae saneque elegantes Erasmi Roterodami, et ad hunc -aliorum eruditissimorum hominum. (Containing 56 letters.) - - In Aedibus Frobenianis apud inclytam Germaniae Basiliam; mense - Januario, Anno M.D.XVIII. - -1518. De Optimo Reip. Statu deque nova insula Vtopia libellus vere aureus -... Thomae Mori. - -Epigrammata ... Thomae Mori. - -Epigrammata Des. Erasmi Rot. - - Basiliae apud Joannem Frobenium, mense Martio M.D.XVIII. - -1518. Enchiridion militis Christiani. (With prefatory letter to Volzius.) - -Disputatiuncula de Pavore, &c. Jesu. - -Jo: Coleti Responsio. - -Basilius in Esaiam e Graeco versus. - -Epistola exhortatoria, &c. - -Precatio ... ad Jesum. - -Paean ... virgini matri, &c. - -Concio de puero Jesu. - -Enarratio primi Psalmi. - -Ode de casa natalitia pueri Jesu. - -Expostulatio Jesu. - -Hymni de Michaele, &c. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frobenium, M.D.XVIII. Quintili mense. - -1518. Auctarium selectarum aliquot Epistolarum Erasmi Roterodami ad -Eruditos, et horum ad illum. - - Apud inclytam Basileam (Prefatory letter of Beatus Rhenanus dated XI. - Calendas Septembreis M.D.XVIII.) - -1518. Institutio boni et Christiani principis, &c. - -Praecepta Isocratis, &c. - -Panegyricus &c. ad Principem Philippum. - -Libellus Plutarchi, &c. - - Basileae apud J. Frobenium, mense Julio MDXVIII. - -Also, Plutarchi opuscula quaedam D. Erasmo Rot. ... Philippo Melanchthone -&c. interpretibus. - - Basileae apud J. Frobenium, mense Septembri M.D.XVIII. - -1518. Querela Pacis undique gentium ejectae ... also:-- - -In genere Consolatorio de Morte declamatio. - - Lipsiae ex aedibus Valentini Schumann, 1518. - -1519. Ratio seu Compendium verae Theologiae. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frobenium, mense Januario M.D.XIX. - -1519. Paraclesis. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frobenium, mense Februario M.D.XIX. - -1519. Novum Testamentum omne, multo quam antehac diligentius ab Erasmo -Rot. recognitum, &c. (Second edition.) - - Basileae in aedibus Joannis Frebenii, M.D.XIX. mense Martio. - -1519. D. Erasmi Rot. in Novum Testamentum ab eodem denuo recognitum -Annotationes. - - Basileae apud Joannem Frobenium, mense Martio M.D.XIX. - -1519. Collectanea Adagiorum, &c. - - Argentorati M. Schurerius ... exscripsit mense Martio 1519. - -1519. In Hymnum Aviae Christi Annae dictum ab Erasmo Roteradamo Scholia -Jacobi Spiegel Selestadiensis. - - In officina excusoria Segismundi Grim. Medici et Marci Vuyrsung, - Augustae Vindelicorum [Augsburg] M.D.XIX. quarto Non. Mar. - -1519. D. Erasmi Rot. Apologia pro declamatione de laude matrimonii. - - Apud Joannem Frobenium, mense Maio M.D.XIX. - -1519. De ratione studii, &c. (Containing the same pieces as the edition of -1512.) - - Argentorati Ex aedibus M. Schurerii, mense Junio M.D.XIX. - -1519. In Epistolam Pauli ad Galatas Paraphrasis per Erasmum Rot. recens ab -illo conscripta et nunc primum typis excusa.... - - Basileae apud Jo. Frobenium, mense Augusto M.D.XIX. - -1519. Ex Novo Testamento Quatuor Evangelia jam denuo ab Erasmo Roter. -recognita, emendata ac liberius versa, &c. - - Lipsi ex officina industrii Valentini Schumanni. 1519. 15 Kalendas - Novembris. - -1519. Moriae encomium iterum, pro castigatissimo castigatius, una cum -Listrii commentariis, &c. - - Basileae in aedibus Jo. Frobenii, mense Novembri, M.D.IX. - -1519(?). Erasmi Rot. Apologia, refellens suspiciones quorundam -dictitantium dialogum D. Jacobi Latomi.... (To which is added, but in -different type, the 'Dialogus' of Latomus.) - - Basle. Froben. (The woodcut on the title-page has the inscription, - HANS HOLB.) - -1519. Enchiridion, &c. (Containing the same matter as the Basle edition of -1518.) - - Coloniae, apud Eucharium Cervicornum, MDXIX. - -1519. D. Erasmi Rot. Opuscula, containing Paraclesis, Ratio seu Compendium -verae theologiae, and Argumenta in omneis Apostolorum epistolas. - - Lipsiae apud Melchiorem Lottheaum. 1519. - -1519. In Epistolam Pauli ad Galatas Paraphrasis per Erasmum Roterodamum, -recens ab illo conscripta, et nunc primum typis excusa. - - Lypsiae ex officina Schumanniana. 1519. - -1520. Enchiridion Militis Christiani (with letter to Volzius). (At the end -is added the Letter of Erasmus to John Colet, from Oxford, Eras. _Op._ v. -p. 1263, and referred to supra, p. 133.) - - Moguntiae, apud Joannem Schoeffer, M.D.XX. mense Januario. - -1520. Paraphrases D. Erasmi in Epistolas Pauli Apostoli ad Rhomanos, -Corinthios, et Galatas.... - - Basileae, in aed. Frob. per Hieronymum Frob. Joan. Filium. Mense - Januario MDXX. - -1520. Paraphrases in Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Philippenses et -Colossenses et in duas ad Thessalonicenses.... - - Basileae in aedibus Joannis Frobenii, mense Martio MDXX. - -1520. Paraphrases in Epistolas Pauli ad Timotheum duas, ad Titum unam et -ad Philemonem unam. - - Basileae in aedibus Joannis Frobenii, mense Martio MDXX. - -1520. Annotationes Edovardi Leei in Annotationes Novi Testamenti D. -Erasmi. (With the replies of Erasmus.) - - Basileae ex aedibus Joannis Frobenii, mense Maio M.D.XX. - -1520. Annotationes Edovardi Leei in Annotationes Novi Testamenti D. -Erasmi. - - Basileae ex aedibus Joannis Frob. xii. Calendas Augustas M.D.XX. - -1520. De Ratione Studii, &c. - -Officium Discipulorum ex Quintiliano. - -Concio de puero Jesu, &c. - -Expostulatio Jesu ad Mortales. - -Carmina Scholaria. - - Selestadii in aedibus Lazari Schurerii, mense Augusto, anno M.D.XX. - -1520. Apologia Erasmi ... de 'In principio erat Sermo.' - - Basileae apud Jo. Frobenium, M.D.XX. - -And also, with continuous paging, - -Epistolae aliquot eruditorum virorum ex quibus perspicuum quanti sit -Eduardi Leei virulentia - - Basileae ex aedibus Joannis Frobenii, MDXX. mense Augusto. - -1520. Parabolarum sive Similium Liber. Ex secunda recognitione. - - Selestadii in aedibus Lazari Schurerii, mense Augusto M.D.XX. - -1520. Adagia. Ex quarta Autoris recognitione. - - Basileae in aedibus Joannis Frobenii, mense Octobri M.D.XX. - -1520. Antibarbarorum D. Erasmi Rot. Liber unus. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frobenium, M.D.XX. - -1520. D. Erasmi Rot. Epistola ad Cardinalem Moguntinum, qua commonefacit -illius celsitudinem de causa Doctoris Martini Lutheri. - - Selestadii in officina Schueriana, sumptu Nicolai Cuferii bibliopolae - Selestadiensis, M.D.XX. - -1521. De duplici copia verborum ac rerum Commentarii duo. - -De ratione studii. - -De laudibus literariae societatis, reipublicae ac magistratuum urbis -Argentinae. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frobenium, mense Februario, M.D.XXI. - -1521. Parabolae sive similia. - - Basileae apud Joannem Frobenium, mense Julio M.D.XXI. - -1521. De duplici Copia verborum ac rerum commentarii duo. - -De laudibus literariae societatis, &c. - -Epistola ad Wimphelingum. - - Moguntiae ex aedibus Joannis Schoeffer, mense Augusto MD.XXI. - -1521. Epistolae D. Erasmi Roterodami ad diversos, et aliquot aliorum ad -illum per amicos eruditos, ex ingentibus fasciculis schedarum collectae. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frobenium, M.D.XXI. Pridie Cal. Septembris. - -1522. Collectanea Adagiorum, &c. - - Moguntiae in aedibus Joannis Schoeffer, Anno supra sesquimillesimum - XXII. mense Februario. - -1522. Enchiridion militis Christiani. - - Argentinae apud Joannem Knoblochium mense Februario MDXXII. - -1522. Novum testamentum omne tertio jam recognitum. - - Anno MDXXII. (Basle). - -1522. D. Erasmi Rot. in novum testamentum ab eodem tertio recognitum -Annotationes. - - Basileae M.D.XXII. mense Februario. - -1522. Paraphrasis in Evangelium Matthaei, nunc primum nata et aedita, &c. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frob. mense Martio MDXXII. - -1522. Querela Pacis. - - Argentinae apud Joannem Knoblouchum, mense Martio M.D.XXII. - -1522. Ratio seu Methodus Compendio perveniendi ad veram Theologiam, -postremum ab ipso autore castigata et locupletata. Paraclesis. (Also -Letter from Hutten to Erasmus.) - - Basileae in aedibus Joannis Frobenii, MDXXII. mense Junio. - -1522. Moriae Encomium, &c. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frob. mense Julio MDXXII. - -1522. De Conscribendis Epistolis, recognitum ab autore et locupletatum. - -Parabolarum sive similium liber ab autore recognitus. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frob. M.D.XXII. mense Augusto. - -1522. Familiarium Colloquiorum Formulae. (The Prefatory Letter to Froben's -Son is dated 'pridie Calendas Martias, MDXXII.') - - (A reprint of the first edition of Basle.) - - Argentorati expensis Joannis Knoblouchii et Pauli Getz. MDXXII. mense - Octobri. - -1522. De Conscribendis Epistolis Opus ... recognitum ab autore et -locupletatum. - - Argentorati ex aedibus Joannis Knoblouchii, MDXXII. mense Octobri. - -1522. Ad Christophorum Episc. Basil. Epistola Apologetica de interdicto -esu carnium, &c. cum aliis nonnullis novis, &c. (Containing Apologia -contra Stunicam.) - - Argentorati aedibus Joannis Knoblouchii MDXXII. octavo calendas decemb. - -1522. Ad R. Christophorum Episcopum Basiliensem, epistola apologetica de -interdicto esu carnium, &c. - - In officina excusoria Sigismundi, Augustae Vindelicorum [Augsburg], - M.D.XXII. - -1522. Paraclesis. - - Augustae Vindelicorum, MDXXII. - -1522. Enchiridion Militis Christiani, which may be called in Englische the -Hansom Weapon of a Christen Knight replenished with many Goodly and Godly -Preceptes: made by the famous Clerke Erasmus of Roterdame, and newly -corrected and imprinted. - - Imprinted at London by Johan Byddell, dwellynge at the sygne of the - Sonne, against the Cundyte in Fletestrete, where they be for to sell. - Newly corrected in the yere of our Lorde god, M.CCCCC[X]*XII. - - * This letter has evidently dropped out of its place in the printing. - -1523. Enchiridion Militis Christiani. - - Apud Sanctam Ubiorum Agrippinam, M.D.XXIII. In aedibus Eucharii - Cervicorni, impensa et aere integerrimi bibliopolae Godefridi Hittorpii - civis Coloniensis, mense Martio. - -1523. Paraphrasis in Evangelium Joannis Apostoli. (First edition.) - - Basileae apud Jo. Frobenium, mense Martio MDXXIII. - -1523. Catalogus omnium Erasmi Lucubrationum, ipso autore, cum aliis -nonnullis. (Containing Letters of Erasmus to Botzhem, and to Marcus -Laurinus.) - - Basileae in aedibus Joannis Frobenii, mense Aprili M.D.XXIII. - -1523. Enchiridion Militis Christiani. - - Parisiis in aedibus Simonis Colinaei, Pridie Calendas Maii MD.XXIII. - -1523. Enchiridion Militis Christiani. (With Letter to Volzius.) - - Argentorati excudebat Joan. Knob. mense Octobri M.D.XXIII. - -1523. Querela Pacis, &c. - - Argent. J. Cnoblochus excudebat apud Turturem, mense Novembri - MD.XXIII. - -1523. Virginis Matris apud Lauretum Cultae Liturgia, per Erasmum -Roterodamum. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frobenium, Anno M.D.XXIII. mense Novembri. - -1523. Ratio seu methodus compendio perveniendi ad veram Theologiam, -postremum ab ipso autore castigata et locupletata. - -Paraclesis, and letter from Hutten to Erasmus. - - Basle. Froben. MDXXIII. - -1523. Ad Christophorum episcopum Basiliensem epistola apologetica Erasmi -Roterodami de interdicto esu carnium, &c. - - Apud Sanctam Coloniam MD.XX.III. - -1523(?). Spongia Erasmi adversus aspergines Hutteni. - - Without date or printer's name. - -1523 or 4. Precatio dominica ... opus recens ac modo natum et mox excusum. -(Prefatory letter dated nono calend. Novemb. MDXXIII.) - - Froben. Basle. - -1524. De Octo orationis partium constructione libellus. - - Parisiis in aedibus Simonis Colinaei, mense Januario MDXXIV. - -1524. De libero Arbitrio [Greek: DIATRIBE]. (Bound with this copy is the -De servo Arbitrio Mar. Lutheri, ad D. Erasmum Roterodamum. Wittembergae, -1526.) - - Basileae apud Joan. Frob. mense Septemb. M.D.XXIIII. - -1524. De Libero Arbitrio [Greek: DIATRIBE], sive Collatio, D. Erasmi -Roterod. - - Antwerpiae apud Michaelem Hillenium Hoochstratanum, mense Septemb. - MD.XX.IIII. - -1524. De immensa dei misericordia D. Erasmi Rot. Concio. - -Virginis et Martyris comparatio per eundem. Nunc primum et condita et -edita. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frob. mense Septemb. MD.XXIV. - -1524. Tomus Primus Paraphraseon D. Erasmi Rot. in novum testamentum. -(Containing the Paraphrases on the Four Gospels and the 'Acts.') - - Basileae apud Joannem Frobenium MDXXIV. - -1524. 1. Exomologesis sive modus Confitendi, opus nunc primum et natum et -excusum. - -2. Paraphrasis in tertium Psalmum. - -3. Duo diplomata Papae Adriani sexti cum responsionibus. - -4. Epistola de morte. - -5. Apologia ad Stunicae conclusiones. - - Basileae apud Joannem Frob. MD.XXIIII. - -1524. D. Eras. Rot. Breviores aliquot Epistolae, studiosis juvenibus -admodum utiles. (Apparently a selection of Letters from the Basle -collection of 1521.) - - Parisiis. Apud Simonem Colinaeum. - -1526. Familiarium Colloquiorum opus ... recognitum, magnaque accessione -auctum. (From p. 246 to p. 750 is all additional matter not included in -the first edition. This edition is the first which contained the -Vindication of the Colloquies, 'D. Erasmus Roterodamus De utilitate -colloquiorum, ad lectorem.') - - Basileae apud Joan. Frob. mense Junio, M.D.XXVI. - -1526. Erasmi Rot. Detectio praestigiarum cujusdam libelli germanice -scripti, ficto authoris titulo, cum hac inscriptione, Erasmi et Lutheri -opiniones de Coena domini. - - Norembergae apud Joan. Petreium M.D.XXVI. mense Junio. - -1526. Hyperaspistes Diatribae ad versus servum Arbitrium Martini Lutheri. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frob. M.D.XXVI. - -1526. Moriae encomium, nunc postremum ab ipso religiose recognitum, -doctissimique Gerardi Listrii commentariis illustratum. - - Eucharius Cervicornus excudebat M.D.XXVI. - -1526. Lingua, opus novum et hisce temporibus aptissimum. (Prefatory Letter -of Erasmus dated Postridie Idus Augusti 1525.) - - [Cologne.] Anno M.D.XXVI. - -1527. Novum Testamentum. (Fourth edition.) - - Basileae in aedibus Jo. Frobenii. M.D.XXVII. mense martio. - -1527. Hyperaspistae liber secundus. - - Anno M.D.XXVII. mense Novembri. (No name of printer or place where - printed.) - -1527. Hyperaspistae liber secundus, opus nunc primum excusum. - - Basileae apud Joannem Frobenium, MD.XXVII. - -1530. Utilissima consultatio de bello Turcis inferendo et obiter enarratus -Psalmum XXVIII. per Des. Erasmum Roterodamum. Opus recens et natum et -aeditum. - - Lutetiae Parisiorum, mense Junio MDXXX. - -1530. De Civilitate morum Puerilium per Des. Erasmum Rot. Libellus nunc -primum et conditus et aeditus. - - Parisiis Expensis Christiani Wechel, MDXXX. mense Octobri. - -1530. Lingua. - - Apud sanctam Coloniam quarto Idus Novembris M.D.XXX. - -1532. D. Erasmi Rot. Dilutio eorum quae Judocus Clithoveus scripsit -adversus declamationem suasoriam matrimonii. - -Epistola de delectu ciborum, &c. In elenchum Alberti Pii brevissima -scholia. - - Froben, MDXXXII. - -1533. De sarcienda Ecclesiae concordia, &c. (nunc primum typis excusa). - - Basileae ex officina Frobeniana, M.D.XXXIII. - -1534. De preparatione ad mortem, nunc primum et conscriptus et aeditus. - -Accedunt aliquot epistolae seriis de rebus, in quibus item nihil est non -novum ac recens. (Containing, inter alia, Sir Thos. More's Letter to -Erasmus on resigning the chancellorship, and appended thereto his -epitaph.) - - Basileae in officina Frobeniana per Hieronymum Frobenium et Nicolaum - Episcopium, MDXXXIIII. - -1536. Ecclesiastae sive de ratione concionandi libri quatuor, opus recens, -denuo ab autore recognitum. - - Basileae in officina Frobeniana per Hieronymum Frobenium et Nicolaum - Episcopium, mense Augusto MDXXXVI. - -1542. D. Erasmi Rot. in Novum Testamentum Annotationes ab ipso autore jam -postremum sic recognitae ac locupietatae ut propemodum novum opus videri -possit. (Reprint of the fifth and last edition.) - - Basileae in officina Frobeniana M.D.XLII. - - - - -APPENDIX F. - -EDITIONS OF WORKS OF SIR THOMAS MORE IN MY POSSESSION. - - -A.D. - -1516. (Dec.) Utopia (First edition).--'Libellus vere aureus nec minus -salutaris quam festivus de optimo reip. statu, deque nova Insula Vtopia -authore clarissimo viro Thoma Moro inclytae Civitatis Londinensis cive et -Vicecomite, cura M. Petri Aegidii Antuerpiensis, et arte Theodorici -Martini Alustensis, Typographi almae Louaniensium Academiae, nunc primum -accuratissime editus.' - - Without date, but containing a Prefatory Letter from Petrus Aegidius - to Hier. Buslidius, dated MDXVI. cal. Novembris; and a Letter from - Joannes Paludanus to Petrus Aegidius, dated calen. Decemb. - -1518. Utopia (Second edition).--'De Optimo Reip. statu deque nova Insula -Vtopia, libellus vere aureus,' &c. Also, - -Epigrammata clarissimi disertissimique viri Thomae Mori. Also, - -Epigrammata Des. Erasmi Rot. - - Basileae apud Jo. Frobenium, mense Martio MDXVIII. - -1518. Ditto ditto. - - Basileae apud Joannem Frobenium, mense Novembri MDXVIII. (HANS HOLB. - inscribed in the woodcut on the title-page). - -1520. Epigrammata clarissimi disertissimique viri Thomae Mori, Britanni, ad -emendatum exemplar ipsius autoris excusa. (With some additional Epigrams, -including More's Letter to his Children.) - - Basileae apud Joannem Frobenium, mense Decembri M.D.XX. - -1557. The Workes of Sir Thomas More, Knyght, sometime Lorde Chauncellorr -of England, wrytten by him in the Englysh tongve. - - Printed at London, at the costes and charges of John Cawod, John Waly, - and Richarde Tottell. Anno 1557. - -1563. Thomae Mori Angliae ornamenti eximii Lucubrationes, ab innumeris -mendis repurgatae. - - Basil, apud Episcopium F. 1563. - -1566. Thomae Mori Angli ... Omnia, quae hucusque ad manus nostras -peruenerunt, Latina opera.... - - Lovanii, apud Joannem Bogardum sub Bibliis Aureis. Anno 1566. - -1568. Doctissima D. Thomae Mori clarissimi ac disertiss. viri Epistola, in -qua non minus facete quam pie, respondet Literis Joannis Pomerani, hominis -inter Protestantes nominis non obscuri. - -Opusculum ... ex Authoris quidem autographo emendato, dum viveret, -exemplari desumptum, nunquam vero ante hac in lucem editum. - - Lovanii, ex officina Joannis Fouleri. MD.LXVIII. (Not included in any - of the above collections of More's works.) - -1588. Tres Thomae ... D. Thomae Mori ... Vita, authore Thoma Stapletono -Anglo. - - Dvaci, Ex officina Joannis Bogardi. M.D.LXXXVIII. - -1612. Ditto ditto. - - Coloniae Agrippinae, Sumptibus Bernardi Gualteri. MDC.XII. - - (Stapleton had access to a collection of More's papers, made by - Harris, his private secretary, and has preserved Latin translations of - his letters to his children, &c., not in the collected works.) - - - - -INDEX. - - - _Alcor, Alfonso Fernandez_, Archdeacon of, on the circulation of the - 'Enchiridion' in Spain, 174 - - _Amerbach_, printer at Basle, 302. - His sons, _id._ - - _Ammonius_, 223, 256, 270, 283, 284. - Death of, 458. - Describes More's family, 256 - - _Aquinas_, the 'Summa' of, 108-110, 440. - On Scripture inspiration, 33, 123. - Erasmus and Colet on, 107 _et seq._ - - _Augustine_, Colet prefers Origen and Jerome to, 16, 41. - Colet differs from, 36, 82. - Luther's adherence to, 404, 472. - Eck charges Erasmus with not having read his works, 435 _et seq._ - The power of his dogmatic theology, 494. - Difference between the Augustinian standpoint and that of the Oxford - Reformers, 494-497 - - - _Baptista, Dr._, Erasmus takes his sons to Italy, 186 - - _Battus_, tutor to the Marchioness de Vere. - Kindness to Erasmus, 164-167 - - _Bembo_, secretary to Leo X., 322 - - _Bishops_, promotion of, 226-230. - Ignorance of some, 227 - - _Boville_, at Cambridge, Erasmus writes to, 399 - - - _Cain_, conversation on sacrifice of, 97 _et seq._ - Erasmus tells a story about, 99 - - _Chalcondyles_, 14 - - _Charles, Prince_ (Charles V.), invites Erasmus to Flanders, 279. - Henry VIII. breaks faith with, 308. - 'Institutio Principis Christiani' written for, 368. - Connives at Indulgences, 422. - Erasmus loses his faith in, 430. - Election to the Empire, 482 - - _Charnock_, the Prior, head of the College of St. Mary the Virgin at - Oxford, 94. - His reception of Erasmus, 96. - Dines with Colet, Erasmus, &c., 97. - Mention of, 102, 118, 165, 171 - - _Colet, Sir Henry_, 14, 113 - - _Colet, John_, ordained deacon, 2, _n._ - His father, 14. - His family, 15. - His mother, 15, _n._, 251, 397. - Graduates at Oxford in Arts, 15. - Enters the Church, _id._ - His preferments, _id._ - Visits France and Italy, and what he studies there, _id._ - At Florence (?), 17. - Whether influenced by Savonarola, 18, 37, _n._, 158. - Studies Pico and Ficino's works, 21, 22. - Returns to Oxford, 22. - Lectures on St. Paul's Epistles, 1, 32. - His mode of interpretation not textarian, 33. - Acknowledges human element in Scriptures, 34. - Differs from St. Augustine, 36, 82. - MS. on the 'Romans,' 33-42. - Rejects theory of uniform inspiration of Scripture, _id._ - Acquaintance with Thomas More, 24. - First hears of Erasmus, 27. - Conversation with a priest on St. Paul's writings, 42. - Letter to Abbot of Winchcombe, 45. - On the Mosaic account of the Creation--theory of accommodation-- - letters to Radulphus on, 43-58. - Pico's 'Heptaplus,' 59. - Abstracts of the Dionysian writings, 60-77. - On the object of Christ's death, 67. - On priests, 68. - On the sacraments, 70. - On sponsors, 71. - On self-sacrifice, 74. - On the Pope and ecclesiastical scandals, 75. - Lectures on I. Corinthians, 78-89. - Whether convinced that the Pseudo-Dionysian writings were spurious, 91. - His warm reception of Erasmus, 95. - His view of Cain and Abel's sacrifices, 98. - Erasmus's admiration of his earnestness, 98. - His position at Oxford, 101. - His appreciation of Erasmus, _id._ - Conversation with Erasmus on the Schoolmen, 102-112. - Advice to theological students, 106. - Discussion with Erasmus on Christ's agony in the garden, 116-118. - His love of truth, 121. - On the theory of 'manifold senses' of Scripture, 122. - On Scripture inspiration, _id._ - Disappointed at Erasmus leaving Oxford, 126. - Urges him to expound Moses or Isaiah, 128, 131. - Left alone at Oxford, 133. - Dean of St. Paul's, 137, 138. - His work in London, habits, preaching, &c., 139-142. - More on his preaching, 148. - He advises More to marry, 160. - Preaches and practises self-sacrifice, 206-207. - Succeeds to his father's property, 206. - Resigns living of Stepney, 208. - Founds St. Paul's School, 208-210. - Colet's gentleness and love of children, 211-215. - Preface to his Grammar, 213. - Advice to his masters, 214. - Rejects Linacre's Grammar, 216. - Writes a Grammar, _id._ - On the true method of education, 216-219. - Letter to Erasmus, 218. - Wants an under-schoolmaster, 220. - Sermons liked by the Lollards, 222. - Colet's preaching, 225. - Sermon to Convocation of 1512, 230 _et seq._ - Completes his school, 250. - Letter to Erasmus, 251. - Erasmus in praise of Colet's preaching and school, 253. - Persecuted by Fitzjames, 254. - Defended by Warham, _id._ - Returns to his preaching, 255. - Preaches against Henry VIII.'s wars, 261. - Defended against Fitzjames by the King, 262. - Ditto, ditto, again, Good Friday sermon, 264. - His troubles about property--quarrel with his uncle, &c., 285. - Visits St. Thomas's shrine with Erasmus, 287 _et seq._ - Letter to Erasmus--harassed by Fitzjames, 305. - Sermon on installation of Cardinal Wolsey, 343. - Procures release of a prisoner, 393. - Letter to Erasmus on 'Novum Instrumentum,' &c., 394; ditto on - Reuchlin's speculations, 412. - Attacked by sweating sickness, 461. - Fixes statutes of his school, 462. - His views on marriage, 464. - Makes his will and prepares his tomb, 466. - Interest in passing events, _id._ - Letter from Marquard von Hatstein, 468. - Colet's retirement from public life, 482. - Death of Colet, 503. - Character of, 504. - Colet's MS. on Romans, extracts from, App. A; MS. on I. Corinthians, - extracts from, App. B. - Colet's preferments, App. D. - - _Colt, Jane_, More's first wife, 160, 180, 193, 256, 498. - Dies, 256. - Epitaph, 498 - - _Convocation_ of 1512, 223 _et seq._ - Colet's sermon to, 230 _et seq._ - - _Coventry_, description of, 414. - Mariolatry there, 416 - - _Croke, Richard_, at Paris gets first edition of the 'Praise of Folly' - printed there, 204, _n._ - - - _Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagit_, his writings, Colet studies, 16. - Translated by Ficino, 21. - Abstracts of his 'Hierarchies' made by Colet, 60-73. - Influence of, on Colet, 41, 58, _n._, 82, 84, 91, 345. - Grocyn rejects as spurious, 91 - - _Dorpius, Martin_, attacks Erasmus, 313. - Reply of Erasmus, 316. - Mention of, by Colet, 395 - - - _Eck, Dr._, controversy with Erasmus, 434-437. - Ditto with Luther, 484 - - _Education_, satire on prevalent modes of, 194, 211 _et seq._ - Colet's views on, 208, 214. - Erasmus on the true method of, 217. - Schoolmasters looked down upon, 220. - In Utopia, universal, 353. - Four-tenths of English people cannot read, 353 - - _Eobanus_, 480 - - '_Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum_,' 407-411 - - _Erasmus_ at Paris, 28. - Comes to Oxford, 94. - Character and previous history, 94-96. - Object in coming to Oxford, 96. - His reception by Charnock and Colet, _id._ - Converses on sacrifices of Cain and Abel, and tells a story about - Cain, 99. - Admires Colet, 101, 102. - Delight with Oxford circle, 102. - Conversation with Colet on the Schoolmen, 106-108. - Studies Aquinas, 108. - Falls in love with Thomas More, 113. - Letter to More, 114. - Delighted with England, 115. - Conversation with Colet on the agony of Christ, 117-120. - Theory of 'manifold senses' of Scripture, 121-125. - Correspondence with Colet on leaving Oxford, 126-133. - At Court, 126. - Promises to join Colet someday, 133. - Leaves Oxford, 133. - With More visits the royal nursery, 134. - Leaves England for Italy, 135. - Robbed at Dover by the Custom House officers, 161. - Cannot go to Italy on account of his poverty, 162. - His troubles from poverty and ill-health, 163-165. - Friendship with Battus and Marchioness de Vere, 164-166. - 'Adagia,' 163. - 'Enchiridion,' 165. - Remembers his promise to Colet, 167-172. - Letter to Colet, his works, poverty, study of Greek, admiration for - Origen, 168. - His 'Enchiridion,' 173. - Its popularity, 174. - Views expressed in it on free-will Anti-Augustinian, 175. - Report of discussion on the 'agony of Christ,' 176. - His 'Adagia,' 177. - Preface to Valla's 'Annotations,' 177-179. - In England, a second time visits More, 180. - Again starts for Italy, 183. - Is to instruct the sons of Dr. Baptista, &c., 184. - Letter to Colet and Linacre from Paris, 185. - Visits Italy, 186-188. - Description of German inns, 186. - Quarrel with the tutor of his pupils, 187. - Disappointed with Italy, 187. - Returns to England to More's home on the accession of Henry VIII., 188. - The 'Praise of Folly,' 193-204. - When first edition published, 204, _n._ - Goes to Cambridge, 205. - His views on schools, 210-212. - His 'De Copia Verborum,' 216, 251. - 'On the true method of education,' 217. - Skirmishes with the Scotists, 219. - Defends Colet's school, 251. - Epigram on battle of Spurs, 271. - At Walsingham, 273. - Work at Cambridge, 276. - Leaves Cambridge, 279. - Invited to the court of Prince Charles, 279. - Letter to Abbot of St. Bertin against war, 280. - Brush with Cardinal Canossa, 282. - Intercourse with Colet, 284 _et seq._ - Letter to Colet, 286. - With Colet visits St. Thomas's shrine, 288 _et seq._ - Goes to Basle, 294. - Letter to Servatius, 296 _et seq._ - Accident at Ghent, 300. - Reaches Maintz, 301. - Strasburg, _id._ - Reaches Basle, _incog._, 302. - At Froben's office, 234. - Writes to England, 305. - Returns to England, 306. - Letters to Rome, 307. - Supports Reuchlin, _id._ - Satire upon kings, 309. - Edition of 1,800 of 'Praise of Folly' sold, 312. - On his way to Basle again, 312. - Replies to attack from Dorpius, 316. - Reaches Basle, 318. - The 'Novum Instrumentum' and its prefaces--the 'Paraclesis,' &c., - 321-335. - St. Jerome, 335. - 'Institutio Principis Christiani,' 365-377. - 'Paraphrases' and other works, 392. - Colet reads the 'Novum Instrumentum' and encourages him to go on, - 394-397. - Reception of the 'Novum Instrumentum' in other quarters, 398. - By Luther, 402. - Erasmus mentioned in 'Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum,' 408. - Denounces international scandals and Indulgences, 420 and 425-426 and - 433. - Journey to Basle, 433. - Arrival, 434. - Attack from the plague, _id._ - Correspondence with Eck, _id._ - His labours at Basle, 438. - Letter to Volzius, 438-440. - Second edition of 'New Testament' and 'Ratio Verae Theologiae,' 442-454. - His health gives way--ill at Louvain, 455. - Does not die--letter to Rhenanus, 457. - His opinion of Luther and Melanchthon, 477-481. - Correspondence on the Hussites of Bohemia, 484 _et seq._ - On 'The Church' and Toleration, 488-491. - Grieves on the death of Colet, 503-504. - His opinion of Colet's character, _id._ - Early editions of works of, App. E - - - _Ferdinand of Spain_, 260, 308, 361 - - _Ficino, Marsilio_, 9, 11-14, 19, 20, _n._, 39. - His 'De Religione Christiana,' 11-12 - - _Fisher, Bishop_, Erasmus visits, 399. - Erasmus writes to, 412, 431, 503 - - _Fisher, Christopher_, More's host at Paris, 171, 177 - - _Fisher, Robert_, 116 - - _Fitzjames, Bishop of London_, zeal against heresy, 222-223, 230, 247. - Promotions, 228. - Mention of, 179. - Hatred of Colet and his school, 241, 253. - Tries to convict Colet of heresy, 254. - Never ceases to harass him, 249, 306, 467 - - _Flodden_, Battle of, 272 - - _Florence_, Grocyn and Linacre at, 14. - _See_ 'Platonic Academy' - - _Fox, Bishop of Winchester_, 147. - Praises the 'Novum Instrumentum,' 398 - - _Froben, John_, his printing-press and circle of learned men at Basle, - 302. - Reception of Erasmus, 303, 304, 318, _n._ - Mention of, in 'Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum,' 410 - - - _Gerson_, ends the schism, 6. - Persecutes Huss, &c. - - _Giles', Peter_, connection with the 'Utopia,' 381-382, 389 - - _Grocyn_, at Florence, 14. - At Oxford, _id._ - More studies under, 25. - Opinion of Erasmus of, 115. - Rejects Pseudo-Dionysian writings as spurious, 90, 91. - Writes preface to Linacre's translation of Proclus, 85. - In London, 142, 149, 170. - Patronises More's lectures, 143. - Goes with Erasmus to Lambeth, 183 - - _Grotius, Hugo_, rejects the Machiavellian theory of politics, 369 - - - _Hatstein's, Marquard von_, letter to Colet, 468 - - _Henry VII._, zeal for reform, and against dissent, 8. - Presents Colet to the deanery of St. Paul's, 138. - Avaricious, 144, 161, 189, 190. - More offends him by opposing a subsidy, 145, 147 - - _Henry VIII._, More and Erasmus visit, when a boy, 134. - Accession of, 190. - More's verses on, _id._ - His continental wars, 223. - His ambition, 259. - His first campaign, 223, 260. - Colet preaches against it, but without offending Henry VIII., 261. - Ditto, ditto, against second campaign, 262-272. - Invades France, 270. - Peace with France, 308. - Evil results of his wars, 338. - Connives at the Pope's Indulgences, 422. - Change in policy, 428. - Draws More into his service, 429 - - _Heresy_, on the increase, 222, 223. - Convocation for extirpation of, 223 _et seq._ - Colet on, 238. - Discussion on burning of heretics, 248. - Colet accused of, 254 - - _Holbein, Hans_, woodcut by, in 'Utopia,' 389. - Picture of More's family, 500, and Appendix C - - _Howard, Admiral_, 263. - Death of, 269 - - _Hussites_ of Bohemia. - Luther discovers that he is one, 485. - Their opinions and sects, and Erasmus's views on the same, 485-491 - - _Hutten, Ulrich_, 480, 497 - - - _Indulgences_, sale of, 419. - Erasmus denounces, 420, 426, 441. - Luther denounces, 421. - Princes bribed to allow of, 422 - - _Isabella_ of Spain, zeal for reform, 8. - Persecutes, _id._ - - - _Jerome_, Colet prefers to Augustine, 16, 41. - Erasmus also, 435, 437. - Follows his opinion on the cause of the agony of Christ, 118. - Erasmus opposes it, 120. - Colet adheres to it, 120. - Erasmus quotes, against inspiration of the Vulgate translation, 317. - Erasmus edits works of, 317, 319. - Erasmus in praise of, 437 - - _Jonas, Justus_, Erasmus writes to, 504 - - _Julius II._, satire on, by Erasmus, 202, 203. - His ambition, 258. - Holy Alliance, 263. - _Julius de coelo exclusus_, 426, 427 - - - _Kings_, satire of Erasmus on, 200, 309-311 - - - _Latimer, William_, on the 'Novum Instrumentum,' 398 - - _Lee, Edward_, 470, 504 - - _Leo X._, a friend of Erasmus, and inclined to peace, 268. - His intellectual sensualism, 321. - Patronises the 'Novum Instrumentum,' 336. - His Indulgences, &c., 418 _et seq._ - Censure of Erasmus on, 433 - - _Lilly, William_, in companionship with More, 146, 149, 152, 181. - His grammar, 148. - Master of St. Paul's School, 215, 250, 466. - Had travelled in the East, 150, 250. - Had a large family, 464, _n._ - - _Linacre_ at Florence, 14. - At Oxford, _id._ - Erasmus admires him, 116. - Translation of Proclus' 'De Sphera,' 85. - His Latin Grammar, 216. - Letter of Erasmus to, 185 - - _Lollards_ attend Colet's sermons, 222. - Many abjure, _id._ - Some burned, 223 - - _Lorenzo de' Medici_, 9, 11, 14, 17, 18, 20, _n._, 59 - - _Louis XII._ of France, 259. - At war with Henry VIII.; loses Tournay, &c., 272. - Alliance with England. - Dies, 308 - - _Lupset_, disciple of Colet's, 504 - - _Luther_ reads the 'Novum Instrumentum,' 402, 407. - His early history and rigid Augustinian standpoint, 404, 472. - Erasmus's opinion of, 478, 479. - Finds out he is a Hussite, 484, 485. - The Reform of, contrasted with that of the Oxford Reformers, 492, 497 - - _Lystrius, Gerard_, 303. - Adds notes to the 'Praise of Folly,' 312, 313, 420 - - - _Machiavelli_, his School of Politics. - 'The Prince' and its maxims, 323, 324, 368, 369 - - _Mahometanism._ - _See_ Turks - - _Macrobius_, quoted by Colet, 57. - Mentioned, 10, 58, 59 - - _Martins, Thierry_, printer at Antwerp, 167, _n._ - At Louvain, 366, 379, 389, 419, _n._, 455, 458, 481 - - _Maximilian_, 259, 482 - - _Melanchthon_, Ode on Erasmus, 401, 402. - Erasmus's appreciation of, 476-478 - - _More, Thomas_, his early history, 23. - Fascinating character, 25. - Comes to Oxford, 25. - His father's strictness, 26. - Erasmus meets him in London, 113. - Erasmus falls in love with him, 114, 116. - Visits royal nursery with Erasmus and Arnold, 134. - His legal studies, 27, 142. - Oxford friends join him in London, _id._ - Lectures on St. Augustine's 'De Civitate Dei,' 143. - Reader at Furnival's Inn--enters Parliament, 143, 144. - Procures the rejection of part of a subsidy, 145. - Offends Henry VII., 145, 146. - Seeks retirement, _id._ - In lodgings near the Charterhouse, 147. - Colet's influence on him, 148. - He studies Pico's Life and Works, 151-158. - Erasmus visits him, 181. - His satire upon monks and confession, _id._ - Unrelenting hatred of the King's avarice and tyranny--his epigrams, - 182. - Leaves the Charterhouse--marries, 159, 160. - His home in Bucklersbury and three daughters, 193. - Connection with Henry VIII., 190-192. - His practice at the bar, and appointment as undersheriff, _id._ - Erasmus visits him and writes the 'Praise of Folly' at his house, 193. - More on Colet's school, 251. - Epigrams against French criticisms on the war, 260. - Public duties, 256, 338. - Writes History of Richard III., _id._ - His first wife dies, _id._ - His practice at the bar--second marriage, 337. - Sent on an embassy, 343. - Second book of 'Utopia,' 346-365. - Introductory book to, 378-390. - Attempt of Henry VIII. to make him a courtier, 380. - Visit to Coventry--strange frenzy there, 414-418. - Second embassy, 427. - Enters Henry VIII.'s service, 429. - At the court of Henry VIII., 458. - Letter to the University of Oxford, 459. - A monk attempts his conversion--More's reply, 470-475. - His character and domestic life, 497-502. - Opinion of character of Colet, 504. - Date of More's birth, note on, Appendix C. - Works of, App. F - - _Morton, Cardinal_, zeal for reform, and against heretics, 8. - More's connection with, 24, 256, 386 - - _Moses_, Colet's views on; his account of the Creation, 46 _et seq._ - Colet urges Erasmus to lecture on Moses or Isaiah, 128, 131 - - _Mountjoy, Lord_, 94, 115, 134, 165, 170, 205, 295, 469, 471 - - - _Neo-platonists_, 9-13, 39, 41, 61, 77, 158, 159 - - - _Origen_, the works of, Colet studies, and prefers to those of - Augustine, 16. - Erasmus studies, 169. - His method of allegorical interpretation, 174, 445 - - _Original sin_, allusion to, 403, 492 - - _Oxford Reformers of 1498._ - (_See_ 'Colet,' 'Erasmus,' and 'More.') - Difference between their standpoint and that of Luther and all - Augustinian Reformers, 492-497. - Nature of the Reform urged by, 506. - Result of its rejection, 507-509 - - - _Parliament_ of 1503-4. - Subsidy opposed by More in, 145. - Of 1514, 279. - Of 1515, complaints of results of Henry VIII.'s extravagance and the - wars, 338. - Levy taxes on labourers, 268; and interfere with wages, 340-341. - Statute on pasture-farming, 341. - Rigid punishment of crimes, _id._ - Eight years without a Parliament, 346 - - _Pico della Mirandola_, influenced by Savonarola, 19. - Death of, 18-20. - His 'Heptaplus,' 19, _n._, 59. - More translates his life and works, 152-158. - His faith in Christianity, and in the laws of nature, 154. - On prayer, 154. - On the Scriptures, 155. - Study of Eastern languages, 156. - His verses, 157. - On the love of Christ, 152-157 - - _Platonic Academy_, 9, 13, 17, 19 - - _Plotinus_, 10, 14, 16, 41 - - _Pole, De la_, 133 - - _Politian_, 14, 18 - - _Pomponatius_, sceptical tendencies of, 323 - - _Popes_, satire of Erasmus on, 201, 426. - Colet on, 74, 75 - - _Proclus_, 10 - - _Pyghards_, of Bohemia. - _See_ Hussites - - - _Radulphus_ (who?), Colet's letters to, 41-57 - - _Reuchlin_, mention of, 301. - Erasmus supports, 307. - His 'Pythagorica,' &c. Colet's opinion of, 411, 413 - - _Rhenanus, Beatus_, 303, 304, 311, 312, 392, 432, 457 - - - _Sacrifice_, Colet's views on, 39, 206. - Of Cain and Abel, conversation on, 97 _et seq._ - - _Sadolet_, secretary to Leo X., 321 - - _Sapidus, John_, escorts Erasmus to Basle, 302 - - _Savonarola_, influence of, 17-22. - Do. on Colet (?) _id._ and 37, _n._ - Whether any connection between his views and Colet's, _id._ - Indirect connection with the Oxford Reformers through More's - translation of Pico's life and works, 158, 159 - - _Saxony, Frederic_, Elector of, protects Luther, 477-483. - His noble conduct on election of Charles V., _id._ - - _Schlechta's, Johannes_, of Bohemia, correspondence with Erasmus, 485-491 - - _Scriptures_, position of study of, at Oxford, 2. - Do. plenary inspiration, 29. - Interpretation textarian, _id._ - Theory of 'manifold senses,' 31, 121-124. - Aquinas on do., 30, 122. - Tyndale's account of, 30, 31. - Scriptures practically ignored, 14. - Colet's mode of interpretation (_see_ Colet). - The theory of accommodation, 52-57. - 'Manifold senses,' Colet on inspiration, 124. - Valla's 'Annotations,' preface of Erasmus, 177. - Pico on the Scriptures, 155. - Colet translates portions of, 155. - Dorpius maintains verbal inspiration of Vulgate version, 315. - Eck also, 435. - Erasmus rejects it, 317, 331, 436, 443. - Advocates translation of, into all languages, 327. - Method of study of, 329, 445. - Difference between the Oxford and the Wittemberg Reformers on the - inspiration of, 492-497 - - _Servatius_, prior of Stein monastery, Holland, correspondence with - Erasmus, 295, 299 - - _Sherborn, Robert_, Bishop of St. David's, 138 - - _Spalatin, George_, writes to Erasmus, 402 - - _St. Andrews_, Archbishop of, under Erasmus's tuition, 184. - Killed in battle of Flodden, 272 - - _St. Bertin_, Abbot of, 165. - Letters of Erasmus to, 280. - Erasmus visits, 299 - - _St. Paul's School_, founded by Colet, 209. - Salaries of masters, 209. - Cost of, to Colet, 210. - Completion of, 250. - Jealousy against, 251. - Statutes of, 463-466 - - _Sweating sickness_, 458, 461 - - - _Taxation_, of clergy, for Henry VIII.'s wars, 247. - Amount of a 'tenth,' _id._ _n._ - Of labourers, 340. - War taxes, 339. - Erasmus on, 374-376. - Amount of a 'fifteenth,' 145 - - _Tunstal_, More on an embassy with, 343. - Erasmus writes to, 503 - - _Turks_, five times as numerous as Christians, 6, _n._ - Threaten to overwhelm Christianity, 6. - Defeat of the Moors in Spain, 7 - - _Tyndale_, describes position of Scripture study at Oxford, 3, _n._ - Estimate of number of Mahometans and Christians, 6, _n._ - On the scholastic modes of Scripture interpretation and the theory of - 'manifold senses,' 31. - At Oxford before Colet leaves, 136. - Studies Scriptures there, _id._ - Translates the 'Enchiridion,' 174 - - - _United brethren_, of Bohemia. - _See_ Hussites - - _Utopia_, contents of second book of, 347-365. - Introductory book of, 378-390 - - - _Valla, Laurentius_, Erasmus studies the works of, and writes the - preface to his Annotations of, 177 - - _Vere_, Marchioness de, aids Erasmus, 164-167 - - _Volzius_, abbot of monastery at Schelestadt, Erasmus's letter to, 439 - - - _Walsingham_, pilgrimage to, 269-272. - Erasmus visits, 273-275 - - _Warham_, Erasmus visits, 184, 205. - Gives Erasmus a pension, 205. - Defends Erasmus against Fitzjames, 254 - - _Wars_, Colet's sermons against Henry VIII.'s, 261, 264, 468. - Erasmus against, 203, 280, 311. - More's 'Utopian' opinions on, 351 - - _Winchcombe_, Kidderminster, Abbot of, Colet's letter to, 45 - - _Wolsey_, begins continental wars, 223. - His rapid promotion, 229. - Archbishop of York, 306. - Installed Cardinal, 343. - Lord Chancellor, 346 - - - _Ximenes_, zeal for reform, and against dissent, 7 - - - _Zisca, John_, 486 - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Mr. Lupton's volume (_Bell and Daldy_, 1869) has a double interest. -Apart from the interest it derives from its connection with Colet, it is -also interesting as placing, I believe, for the first time, before the -English reader, a full abstract of two of the Pseudo-Dionysian writings, -to which attention has recently been called by Mr. Westcott's valuable -article in the _Contemporary Review_. - -[2] To avoid any charge of plagiarism I may also state, that a portion of -the materials comprised in this volume has been made use of in articles -contributed by me to the North British Review, in the years 1859 and 1860. - -[3] Where not otherwise stated, all references to these letters and to the -collected works of Erasmus (Eras. _Op._), refer to the Leyden edition. - -[4] See note on the date of More's birth in Appendix C. - -[5] Of the First Edition. This has since been published by Mr. Lupton. - -[6] In a letter written in the winter of 1499-1500, Colet is spoken of as -'_Jam triennium enarranti_,' &c. See _Erasmus to Colet_, prefixed to -_Disputatio de Taedio et Pavore Christi_, Eras. _Op._ v. p. 1264, A. Colet -was in Paris, apparently on his way home from his continental tour, soon -after the publication of the work of the French historian Gaguinus, _De -Orig. et Gest. Francorum_. (See Eras. Epist. xi.) The first edition, -according to Panzer and Brunet, of this work, was that of _Paris_. Prid. -Kal. Oct. 1495. Colet may thus have returned home in the spring of 1496, -and proceeded to Oxford after the long vacation. Erasmus states, 'Reversus -ex Italia, mox relictis parentum aedibus, Oxoniae maluit agere. Illic -publice et gratis Paulinas Epistolas omnes enarravit.'--_Op._ iii. p. 456, -B. - -[7] He was ordained deacon December 17, 1497. Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. -22 (Lond. 1724), on the authority, doubtless, of Kennett, who refers to -_Reg. Savage, Lond._ - -[8] Erasmus Jodoco Jonae: Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, C. 'In theologica -professione nullum omnino gradum nec assequutus erat, nec ambierat.' - -[9] 'The degree of Master in Arts conferred also, and this was practically -its chief value, the right of lecturing, and therefore of receiving money -for lectures, at Oxford.'--_Monumenta Academica_; Rev. II. Anstey's -_Introduction_, p. lxxxix. - -[10] One of the statutes decreed as follows:--'Item statutum est, quod non -liceat alicui praeterquam Bachilaris Theologiae, legere bibliam -biblice.'--_Ibid._ p. 394. That the word 'legere,' in these statutes, -means practically to 'lecture,' see Mr. Anstey's _Introduction_, p. -lxxxix. - -[11] It is possible also that Colet's mode of lecturing did not come -within the meaning of the technical phrase, 'legere bibliam _biblice_,' -which is said to have meant 'reading chapter by chapter, with the -accustomed glosses, and such explanations as the reader could -add.'--_Observations on the Statutes of the University of Cambridge_: by -George Peacock, D.D., Dean of Ely. Lond. 1841, p. xlvi. n. See also Mr. -Anstey's _Introduction_, p. lxxi, on the doubtful meaning of 'legere -_cursorie_.' - -[12] See the remarkable letter of Bishop Grosseteste to the 'Regents in -Theology' at Oxford--date 1240 or 1246--_Roberti Grosseteste Epistolae_, -pp. 346-7, of which the following is Mr. Luard's summary:--'Skilful -builders are always careful that foundation stones should be really -capable of supporting the building. The best time is the morning. Their -lectures, therefore, especially in the morning, should be from the Old and -New Testaments, _in accordance with their ancient custom_ and the example -of Paris. Other lectures are more suitable at other times.'--P. cxxix. - -[13] It would not be likely that statutes, framed in some points specially -to guard against Lollard views, and probably early in the fifteenth -century, should ignore the Scriptures altogether. Thus, before inception -in theology, by Masters in Theology (see Mr. Anstey's _Introduction_, p. -xciv), three years' attendance on biblical lectures was required, and the -inceptor must have lectured on some canonical book of the Bible -(_Monumenta Academica_, p. 391), according to the statutes. They also -contained the following provision:--'Ne autem lecturae variae confundantur, -_et ut expeditius_ in lectura bibliae procedatur, statutum est, ut bibliam -biblice seu cursorie legentes quaestiones non dicant nisi tantummodo -literales.'--_Ibid._ p. 392. The regular course of theological training at -Oxford may be further illustrated by the following passage from Tindale's -'Practice of Prelates.' Tindale, when a youth, was at Oxford during a -portion of the time that Colet was lecturing on St. Paul's Epistles. - -'In the universities they have ordained that no man shall look on the -Scripture until he be noselled in heathen learning eight or nine years, -and armed with false principles with which he is clean shut out of the -understanding of the Scripture.... And when he taketh his first degree, he -is sworn that he shall hold none opinion condemned by the Church.... And -then when they be admitted to study divinity, because the Scripture is -locked up with such false expositions and with false principles of natural -philosophy that they cannot enter in, they go about the outside and -dispute all their lives about words and vain opinions, pertaining as much -unto the healing of a man's heel as health of his soul. Provided yet ... -that none may preach except he be admitted of the Bishops.'--_Practice of -Prelates_, p. 291. Parker Society. - -What the biblical lectures were it is difficult to understand, for Erasmus -wrote (Eras. Epist. cxlviii.): 'Compertum est hactenus quosdam fuisse -theologos, qui adeo nunquam legerant divinas literas, ut nec ipsos -Sententiarum libros evolverent, neque quicquam omnino attingerent praeter -quaestionum gryphos.'--P. 130, C. - -[14] Ellis's _Letters_, 2nd series, vol. ii. pp. 61, 62. Letter of Richard -Layton and his Associates to Lord Cromwell, upon his Visitation of the -University of Oxford, Sept. 12, 1535. - -[15] 'Provinciam sumsisti ... (ne quid mentiar) et negotii et invidiae -plenam.'--Eras. Coleto: Eras. _Op._ v. p. 1264, A. - -[16] 'The Turks being in number five times more than we Christians.' And -again, 'Which multitude is not the fifth part so many as they that consent -to the law of Mahomet.'--_Works of Tyndale and Frith_, ii. pp. 55 and 74. - -[17] See British Museum Library, under the head 'Garcilaso,' No. 1445, _g_ -23, being the draft of private instructions from Ferdinand and Isabella to -the special English Ambassador, and headed, 'Year 1498. The King and Queen -concerning the correction of Alexander VI.' The original Spanish MS. was -in the hands of the late B. B. Wiffen, Esq., of Mount Pleasant, near -Woburn, and an English translation of this important document was -reprinted by him in the Life of Valdes, prefixed to a translation of his -_CX Considerations_. Lond. Quaritch, 1865, p. 24. - -[18] Chap. v. - -[19] Chap. vi. - -[20] Chap. vii. - -[21] Chap. viii. - -[22] Chap. ix. - -[23] Chap. x. - -[24] Chap. xix. - -[25] Chap. xx. - -[26] Chap. xxii. - -[27] Chap. xxiii. - -[28] Chaps. xxiv. and xxv. - -[29] Chaps. xxvi.-xxxiv. - -[30] Chap. xxxvi. - -[31] Chap. xxxvii. - -[32] _Villari_, in his 'Life and Times of Savonarola,' book i. chap. iv., -does not seem to me to give, by any means, a fair abstract of the '_De -Religione Christiana_,' though his chapter on Ficino is valuable in other -respects. I have used the edition of Paris, 1510. - -[33] 'Chartism,' chap. x. 'Impossible.' - -[34] _Pauli Jovii Elogia Doctorum Virorum_: Basileae, 1556, p. 145. The -period of the stay of Grocyn and Linacre in Italy was probably between -1485 and 1491. They therefore probably returned to England before the -notorious Alexander VI. succeeded, in 1492, to Innocent VIII. See -Johnson's _Life of Linacre_, pp. 103-150. And Wood's _Athen. Oxon._ vol. -i. p. 30. Also _Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon._ ii. 134. - -[35] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 455, F. - -[36] Erasmus Jodoco Jonae: _Op._ iii. p. 455, F. Also Sir Henry Colet's -Epitaph, quoted in Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 7. - -[37] 'Et libros Ciceronis avidissime devorarat et Platonis Plotinique -libros non oscitanter excusserat.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, A. - -[38] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 455, F. 'Mater, quae adhuc superest [in 1520], -insigni probitate mulier, marito suo undecim filios peperit, ac totidem -filias ..., sed ex omnibus ille [Colet] superfuit solus, cum illum nosse -coepissem' [in 1498]. - -[39] See list of Colet's preferments in the Appendix. - -[40] 'Adiit Galliam, mox Italiam.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, A. - -[41] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 459, A. - -[42] _Ibid._ p. 456, B. The words of Erasmus are the following:--'Ibi se -totum evolvendis sacris auctoribus dedit, sed prius per omnium literarum -genera magno studio peregrinatus, priscis illis potissimum delectabatur -Dionysio, Origene, Cypriano, Ambrosio, Hieronymo. Atque inter veteres -nulli erat iniquior quam Augustino. Neque tamen non legit Scotum, ac -Thomam aliosque hujus farinae, si quando locus postulabat. In utriusque -juris libris erat non indiligenter versatus. Denique nullus erat liber -historiam aut constitutiones continens majorum, quem ille non evolverat. -Habet gens Britannica qui hoc praestiterunt apud suos, quod Dantes ac -Petrarcha apud Italos. Et horum evolvendis scriptis linguam expolivit, jam -tum se praeparans ad praeconium sermones Evangelici.' - -[43] Savonarola's first sermon in the Duomo at Florence was preached in -1491.--Villari, i. p. 122. - -[44] See Villari, i. 232. Anno 1494. - -[45] Lorenzo de' Medici died in 1492; Pico and Politian in 1494. Colet -left England early in 1494 probably, but as he visited France on his way -to Italy, the exact time of his reaching Italy cannot be determined. - -[46] The influence of Savonarola on the religious history of Pico was very -remarkable. - -In a sermon preached after Pico's death, Savonarola said of Pico, 'He was -wont to be conversant with me, and to break with me the secrets of his -heart, in which I perceived that he was by privy inspiration called of God -unto religion:' i.e. to become a monk. And he goes on to say that, for -_two years_, he had threatened him with Divine judgment 'if he -fore-sloathed that purpose which our Lord had put in his mind.'--More's -_English Works_, p. 9. - -Pico died in November, 1494. The intimacy of which Savonarola speaks dated -back therefore to 1492 or earlier. - -According to the statement of his nephew, J. F. Pico, the change in Pico's -life was the result of the disappointment and the troubles consequent upon -his 'vainglorious disputations' at Rome in 1486 (when Pico was -twenty-three). By this he was 'wakened,' so that he 'drew back his mind -flowing in riot, and turned it to Christ!' Pico waited a whole year in -Rome after giving his challenge, and the disappointment and troubles were -not of short duration. They may be said to have commenced perhaps after -the year of waiting, i.e. in 1487, when he left Rome. He was present at -the disputations at Reggio in 1487, and this does not look as though as -yet he had altogether lost his love of fame and distinction. There he met -Savonarola; and there that intimacy commenced which resulted in -Savonarola's return, _at the suggestion of Pico_, to Florence. (J. F. -Pico's _Vita Savonarolae_, chap. vi.; Harford's _Life of Michael Angelo_, -i. p. 128; and Villari, i. pp. 82, 83.) In 1490, as the result of his -first studies of Holy Scripture, according to J. F. Pico (being -twenty-eight), he published his _Heptaplus_, which is full of his -cabalistic and mystic lore, and betokens a mind still entangled in -intellectual speculations rather than imbued with practical piety. He had, -however, already burnt his early love songs, &c.; and it is evident the -change had for some time been going on. - -About the time when Savonarola commenced preaching in Florence, in 1491 -(three years before his death, according to J. F. Pico), Pico disposed of -his patrimony and dominions to his nephew, and distributed a large part of -the produce amongst the poor, consulting Savonarola about its disposal (J. -F. Pico's _Life of Savonarola_, chap. xi. '_De mira Hieronymi lenitate et -amore paupertatis_'), and appointing as his almoner _Girolamo Benivieni_, -a devout and avowed believer in Savonarola's prophetic gifts. This was -doubtless the time when Pico was wont to break to Savonarola 'the secrets -of his heart;' the time also to which J. F. Pico alludes when he speaks of -him as 'talking of the love of Christ;' and adding, 'the substance I have -left, after certain books of mine finished, I intend to give out to poor -folk, and fencing myself with the crucifix, barefoot, walking about the -world, in every town and castle, I purpose to preach of Christ.'--Vide -infra, p. 153. In 1492, a few weeks after Lorenzo's death, he wrote three -beautiful letters to his nephew (Pici _Op._ pp. 231-236. Vide infra, pp. -153-156)--letters as glowing with earnest Christian piety as the -_Heptaplus_ was overflowing with cabalistic subtleties. His religion now, -at all events, had the true ring about it. It belonged to his heart, not -his head only. Then follow the remaining two years of his life when -Savonarola exerted his influence (but without success) to induce him to -enter a religious order. On Sept. 21, 1494, he was present at Savonarola's -famous sermon, in which he predicted the calamities which were coming upon -Italy and the approach of the French army, listening to which Pico himself -said that he 'was filled with horror, and that his hair stood on end' -(narrated by Savonarola in his _Compendium Revelationum_); and lastly in -November, as Charles entered Florence, Pico was peacefully dying. He was -buried in the robes of Savonarola's order and within the precincts of -Savonarola's church of St. Mark. In the light of Savonarola's sermon, and -the facts above stated, it can hardly be doubted that whilst, in one -sense, brought about by the disappointment of his worldly ambitions, the -change of life in Pico was at least, _in measure_, the result of his -contact with the great Florentine reformer. - -With regard to the history of Savonarola's influence on _Ficino's_ -religious character, the facts are not so easily traced. In early years he -is said to have been more of a Pagan than a Christian. Before writing his -_De Religione Christiana_, he seems to have become fully persuaded of the -truth of Christianity. The book itself shows this. And there is a letter -of his (Ficini Op. i. p. 640, Basle ed.), written while he was composing -it, during an illness, in which he says that the words of Christ give him -more comfort than philosophy, and his vows paid to the Virgin more bodily -good than medicine. He also says that his father, a doctor, was once -warned in a dream, while sleeping under an oak tree, to go to a patient -who was praying to the Virgin for aid. - -But the religion of a man resting on dreams, and visions, and vows made to -the Virgin, was not necessarily of a very deep and practical character. -Superstition and philosophy were easily united without the heart taking -fire. Schelhorn (in his _Amoenitates Literariae_, i. p. 73) quotes from -Wharton's appendix to Cave, the following statement, 'Rei philosophicae -nimium deditus, religionis et pietatis curam posthabuisse dicitur, donec -Savonarolae Florentiam advenientis eloquentiam admiratus, concionibus ejus -audiendis animum adjecit, dumque flosculis Rhetorices inhiavit, pietatis -igniculos recepit: reliquamque dein vitam religionis officiis impendit.' -Wharton does not give his authority. Fleury (vol. xxiv. p. 363) makes a -similar statement; also Brucker (_Historia critica Philosophiae_, iv. p. -52); also Du Pin; also Harford in his _Life of Michael Angelo_ (i. p. 72) -on the authority of Spondanus, who himself gives no contemporary -authority. See also Mr. Lupton's _Introduction_ to Colet's _Celestial and -Ecclesiastical Hierarchies of Dionysius_, where the subject is discussed. -I am informed, through the kindness of Count P. Guicciardini, of Florence, -that in Ficino's _Apologia_, which exists in the MSS. _Stroziani_ of -_Libr. Magliabecchiana_, class viii. cod. 315, he says of himself that -'for five years he was one of the many who were deceived by the Hypocrite -of Ferrara,' whom he calls 'Antichrist.' The truth therefore seems to be -that he was profoundly influenced by Savonarola's enthusiasm, but only for -a time. - -[47] Ficino's editions of his translations of the Dionysian treatises on -the 'Divine Names' and the 'Mystic Theology' seem to have been published -at Florence in 1492 and 1496.--Fabricii _Bibliotheca Graeca_, vii. pp. 10, -11. - -[48] Herzog's _Encyclopaedia_, article on 'Marsilius Ficinus.' - -[49] Mr. Harford, in his _Life of Michael Angelo_, vol. i. p. 57, mentions -Colet, among others, as studying at Florence, and cites '_Tiraboschi_, vi. -pt. 2, p. 382, edit. Roma, 4to. 1784.' But I cannot find any mention of -Colet in Tiraboschi, after careful search. - -In opposition to the likelihood of his having been at Florence it may be -asked, why Colet never alludes to it in his letters or elsewhere? In -reply, it may be said that we have nothing of Colet's own writing relating -to his early life. All we know of it is derived from Erasmus, and the only -allusion by Colet to his Italian journey which Erasmus has preserved is -the passing remark that he (Colet) had there become acquainted with -certain _monks_ of true wisdom and piety.--Eras. _Op._ iii. 459, A. -'Narrans sese apud Italos comperisse quosdam monachos vere prudentes ac -pios.' Whether Savonarola's monks were amongst these is a matter of mere -speculation. - -[50] See marginal note on his 'Romans,' in the Cambridge University -Library, MS. Gg. 4, 26, leaf 3_a_, in which he refers to him--'_Hec -Mirandula_,' and cites a passage from Pico's _Apologia_, Basle edition of -_Pici Opera_, p. 117. There is also a long and almost literal extract from -Pico in the MS. on the 'Ecclesiastical Hierarchy,' in the St. Paul's -School Library. See Mr. Lupton's translation, p. 161. - -[51] See an extract from Ficino in Colet's MS. on 'Romans,' leaf 13_b_. -Another is pointed out by Mr. Lupton, p. 36, _n._ - -[52] 'Quem ego sermonem ab eo memini, qui colloquentes audiverat, jam tum -patri meo renunciatum, cum adhuc nulla proditionis ejus suspicio -haberetur.'--Thomae Mori '_Latina Opera_,' Lovanii, 1566, fol. 46. As to -the authorship of the history of Richard III. see Mr. Gairdner's preface -to _Letters of Richard III. and Henry VII._ vol. ii. p. xxi. As More was -born in February, 1478, there is no difficulty in accepting the -authenticity of this incident, which, when 1480 was assumed as the date of -More's birth, seemed quite impossible, as More would only have been three -years old when it occurred, and could not have remembered the -conversation. - -[53] Roper, Singer's ed. p. 3. Morton was not made a cardinal till 1493. - -[54] Roper, p. 4. - -[55] Ibid. - -[56] Colet probably left Oxford for the Continent about 1494. The most -probable date of More's stay at Oxford was 1492 and 1493. This leaves 1494 -and 1495 for his studies at New Inn, previous to his entry at Lincoln's -Inn, in February, 1496. - -[57] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 477, A. Speaking of More, Erasmus writes: -'Joannes Coletus, vir acris exactique judicii, in familiaribus colloquiis -subinde dicere solet, Britanniae non nisi unicum esse ingenium.' - -[58] Stapleton's _Tres Thomae_, Colon. 1612 ed. chap. i. pp. 155-6. 'Hanc -ob causam sic ei necessaria subministravit ut ne quidem teruncium in sua -potestate eum habere permitteret, praeter id quod ipsa necessitas -postulabat. Quod adeo stricte observavit, ut nec ad reficiendos attritos -calceos, nisi a patre peteret, pecuniam haberet.' See also Eras. _Op._ -iii. p. 475, A, respecting his father's motive. - -[59] Stapleton's _Tres Thomae_, Colon. 1612, p. 156. - -[60] 'Juvenis ad Graecas literas ac philosophiae studium sese applicuit adeo -non opitulante patre ... ut ea conantem omni subsidio destitueret ac pene -pro abdicato haberet, quod a patriis studiis desciscere videretur, nam is -Britannicarum legum peritiam profitetur.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 475, A. - -[61] 'Sic voluit pater qui eum ad Graecarum literarum et philosophiae -studium omni subsidio destituit, ut ad istud (i.e. English Law) -induceret.'--Stapleton's _Tres Thomae_, p. 168. - -[62] XII. February,--11 Henry VII. Foss's _Judges of England_, v. p. 207. - -[63] Vide supra, p. 1, _n._ - -[64] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, B. 'Nullus erat liber, _historiam_ aut -constitutiones continens majorum, quod non evolverat.' - -[65] Eras. Epist. App. ccccxxxvii. - -[66] Eras. Epist. xi. - -[67] 'Ut tribuatur lapsui memoriae in evangelista gravatim audio. Qui si -spiritu sancto inspiratus scripsit, memoria falli non potuit, nisi et ille -etiam falli potuerit, quo ductore scripsit. Dicit mihi Ezechiel: Quocunque -ibat spiritus, illuc pariter et rotae elevabantur sequentes -eum.'--_Annotationes Ed. Leei in annotationes Novi Testamenti Desiderii -Erasmi._ Basil. 1520, pp. 25, 26. Lee studied at Oxford during a portion -of the time of Colet's residence there. Knight states that he was sent to -St. Mary Magd. College (the college where Colet is supposed to have taken -his degree of M.A.) in 1499.--_Knight's Erasmus_, p. 286. - -[68] 'Quod dicis (non est nostrum definire, quomodo spiritus ille suum -temperarit organum) verum quidem est, sed spiritus ipse in Ezechiele -definivit: Rotae non elevabantur nisi sequentes spiritum.'--_Annotationes -Edvardi Leei_, p. 26. - -[69] Aquinas, _Summa_, pt. 1, quest. i. article x. - -[70] Tyndale's _Obedience of a Christian Man_, chap. 'On the Four Senses -of the Scriptures.' - -[71] Preface to the Five Books of Moses. - -[72] Tyndale's _Obedience of a Christian Man_, chap. 'On the Four Senses -of Scripture.' That Tyndale was at Oxford during Colet's stay there (i.e. -before 1506), see the evidence given by his biographers. It appears that -he was born about 1484. Fox says '_he was brought up from a child in the -University of Oxford_,' and there is no reason to suppose that he removed -to Cambridge before 1509. See Tyndale's _Doctrinal Treatises_, xiv. xv. -and authorities there cited. - -[73] Sir Thomas More in a letter to the University of Oxford (Jortin's -_Erasmus_, ii. App. p. 664, 4to ed.) complains of a Scotist preacher -because '_neque integrum ullum Scripturae caput tractavit, quae res in usu -fuit veteribus_ [this was the old method revived by Colet]; neque dictum -aliquod brevius e Sacris literis, qui mos apud nuperos inolevit [the -scholastic method]; sed thematum loco delegit Britannica quaedam anilia -proverbia.' [The practical result of the textarian method when pushed to -its ultimate results.] - -[74] Eras. Jodoco Jonae: Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, C. 'Nullus erat illic -doctor vel theologiae vel juris, nullus abbas, aut alioqui dignitate -praeditus, quin illum audiret, etiam allatis codicibus.' - -[75] Eras. Coleto: Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 40, F. Epist. xli. - -[76] 'Tamen certe multum ac diu rogatus a quibusdam amicis, et eisdem -interpretantibus nobis Paulum fidis auditoribus, quibuscum pro amicicia -quod in superiorem epistolae partem scriptum est a nobis communicavi, -adductus fui tandem ut promitterem, quod est ceptum modo me perrecturum, -et in reliquam epistolam quod reliquum est enarrationis -adhibiturum.'--Cambridge University Library MS. Gg. 4, 26, fol. 27_b_. - -[77] A copy of Colet's exposition of 'Romans,' with corrections apparently -in Colet's handwriting, is in the Cambridge University Library; MS. Gg. 4, -26. A fair copy, apparently by Peter Meghen, is in the Library of Corpus -Christi College Cambridge, MS. No. 355. - -Amongst the 'Gale MSS.' in Trinity Library, Cambridge, is a MS. (O. 4, 44) -said to be Colet's, containing short notes or abstracts of the Apostolic -Epistles. Through the kindness of Mr. Wright I had a copy taken of this -MS., but on close comparison of passages with the _Annotationes_ of -Erasmus, I was obliged to conclude that the writer had before him an -edition of the latter not earlier than that of 1522. This MS. cannot, -therefore, have been written by Colet. Possibly it may have been written -by Lupset, Colet's disciple. The copy in the Trinity Library is in a later -hand. - -[78] This appears to have been the character also of the Expositions of -Marsilio Ficino. See Fragment on 'Romans.'--Ficini _Opera_, ed. 1696, pp. -426-472. - -[79] The _names_ of Origen, Jerome, Chrysostom, and Augustine are -mentioned, but incidentally, and without any quotations of any length -being given from them. - -[80] '--est ex vehementia loquendi imperfecta et suspensa -sententia.'--MSS. Gg. 4, 26, fol. 23, _in loco_. Rom. ix. 22. - -[81] 'Ita Paulus mira prudentia et arte temperat orationem suam in hac -epistola, et eam quasi librat tam pari lance, et Judeos et Gentes simul, -etc.'--Ibid. fol. 26. - -[82] MSS. Gg. 4, 26, fols. 59_b_, 61_a_. - -[83] Ibid. fol. 60. 'Sed ille homo magno animo, fide, et amore Christi, -fuit paratus non solum ligari,' &c. - -[84] Ibid. fols. 42-45 (_in loco_, Rom. xiii.). In these pages Colet -compares with great care the information to be collected from passages in -the Epistle to the Romans and in the Acts of the Apostles with what is -recorded by Suetonius, and admires St. Paul's 'sapientissima admonitio -opportune sane adhibita.'--Ibid. fols. 42_b_ and 43_a_. Again, at fol. -44_a_, Colet says, 'Haec autem refero ut magna Pauli consideratio et -prudentia animadvertatur; qui cum non ignoravit Claudium Cesarem tenuisse -rempublicam, qui fuit homo vario ingenio et improbis moribus, &c.'... - -[85] In his exposition of Romans (chap. iv.) he says:--'Sed caute -circumspicienda sunt omnia Pauli, antequam de ejus mente aliqua feratur -sentencia. Nunquam enim censuisset revocandum ad ecclesiam fornicatorem -illum, quem tradidit Sathanae in prima Epistola ad Corinthios, si -peccatoribus post baptismum nullum penitendi locum reliquisset.'--Ibid. -fol. 6_b_. - -[86] It would be difficult in short quotations to give a correct -impression of the doctrinal standpoint assumed by Colet in his exposition -of the Epistle to the Romans. But it may be interesting to enquire, -whether any connection can be traced between his views and those of -Savonarola, on this point. - -Now _Villari_ states that a 'fundamental point' in Savonarola's doctrine -was his '_conception of love_, which he sometimes says is the _same as -grace_,' and that it was through this conception of love that Savonarola, -'to a certain extent,' explained the 'mystery of human liberty and Divine -omnipotence.'--Villari's _Savonarola and his Times_, bk. i. c. vii. p. -110. - -Whether there be any real connection between Savonarola's teaching and the -following passages from Colet's exposition, I leave the reader to judge. - -'Wherefore St. Paul concludes, men are justified by faith, and trusting in -God alone by Jesus Christ, are reconciled to God and restored into grace; -so that with God they stand, and remain themselves sons of God.... If He -loved us when alienated from Him, how much more will He love us when we -are reconciled; and preserve those whom He loves. Wherefore we ought to be -firm and stable in our hope and joy, and, nothing doubting, trust in God -through Jesus Christ, by whom alone men are reconciled to God.'--MS. fol. -5. After speaking of that _grace_ which where sin had abounded did much -more abound unto eternal life, Colet proceeds:--'But here it is to be -noted that this _grace_ is nothing else than the _love_ of God towards -men--towards those, i.e. whom He wills to love, and, in loving, to inspire -with His Holy Spirit; which itself is love and the love of God; which (as -the Saviour said, according to St. John's Gospel) _blows where it lists_. -But, loved and inspired by God, they are also _called_; so that accepting -this love, they may love in return their loving God, and long for and wait -for the same love. This waiting and hope springs from _love_. _This love -truly is ours because He loves us_: not (as St. John writes in his 2nd -Epistle) as though we had first loved God, but because He first loved us, -even when we were worthy of no love at all; but indeed impious and wicked, -destined by right to eternal death. But some, i.e. those whom He knew and -chose, He also loved, and in loving called them, and in calling them -justified them, and in justifying them glorified them. This gracious love -and charity in God towards men is _in itself_ the calling and -justification and glorification.... And when we speak of men as drawn, -called, justified, and glorified by _grace_, we mean nothing else than -that men _love in return God who loves them_.'--MS. Gg. 4, 26, fol. 6. - -Again: 'Thus you see that things are brought about by a providing and -directing God, and that they happen as He wills in the affairs of men, not -from any force from without (_illata_)--since nothing is more remote from -force than the Divine action--but by the natural desire and will of man, -the Divine will and providence secretly and silently, and, as it were, -naturally accompanying (_comitante_) it, and going along with it so -wonderfully, that whatever you do and choose was known by God, and what -God knew and decreed to be, of necessity comes to pass.'--MS. fol. 18. - -The following passage is from Colet's exposition of the Epistle to the -Corinthians (MS. 4, 26, p. 80). 'The mind of man consists of _intellect_ -and _will_. By the _intellect_ we know: by the _will_ we have power to act -(_possumus_). From the knowledge of the intellect comes faith: from the -power of the will charity. But Christ, the power of God, is also the -wisdom of God. Our minds are illuminated to faith by Christ, "_who -illumines every man coming into this world_, and He gives power to become -the sons of God to those who believe in His name." By Christ also our -wills are kindled in charity to love God and our neighbour; in which is -the fulfilment of the law. From God alone therefore, through Christ, we -have both knowledge and power; for by Him we are in Christ. Men, however, -have in themselves a blind intellect, and a depraved will, and walk in -darkness, not knowing what they do.... Those who by the warm rays of his -divinity are so drawn that they keep close in communion with Him, are -indeed they whom Paul speaks of as called and elected to His glory,' &c. - -For the Latin of these extracts see Appendix (A). - -In further proof that Colet's views (like Savonarola's) were not -Augustinian upon the question of the 'freedom of the will,' may be cited -the following words of Colet (see _infra_, chap, iv.): 'But in especial is -it necessary for thee to know that God of his great grace hath made thee -his image, having regard to thy memory, understanding, and _free-will_.' -Probably both Colet and Savonarola, in common with other mystic -theologians, had imbibed their views directly or indirectly from the works -of the Pseudo-Dionysius and the Neo-Platonists. - -[87] 'Ex quodam nostro studio et pietate in homines ... non tam verentes -legentium fastidium, quam cupientes confirmacionem infirmorum et -vacillantium.'--Fol. 22_b_. - -[88] MS. Gg. 4, 26, fols. 13_b_ to 15_a_. - -[89] Ibid. fol. 3_b_. - -[90] Ibid. fols. 28_b_ and 29. - -[91] Ibid. fol. 29. - -[92] MS. Gg. 4, 26, fol. 30_b_. - -[93] Ibid. fol. 59_b_. 'Elicienda est dulci doctrina prompta voluntas non -acerba exaccione extorquenda pecunia nomine decimarum et oblacionum.' - -[94] Ibid. fol. 60_a_. - -[95] See particularly fol. 27 and 61_b_. - -[96] MS. Gg. 4, 26, fol. 3_a_. - -[97] Ibid. fol. 7_b_. - -[98] Ibid. fol. 15_b_. _Ioannes Baptista Mantuanus_, general of the -Carmelites, an admirer of Pico.--See Pici _Opera_, p. 262. - -[99] 'Ibi se totum evolvendis sacris auctoribus dedit.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. -p. 456 B. - -[100] '... conatique sumus quoad potuimus divina gratia adjuti veros -illius sensus exprimere. Quod quam fecimus haud scimus sane, voluntatem -tamen habuimus maximam faciendi.'--_ffinis argumenti in Epistolam Pauli ad -Romanos._ Oxonie. - -[101] Cambridge University Library, MSS. Gg. 4, 26, p. 62, _et seq._, and -printed in Knight's _Life of Colet_, App. p. 311. - -[102] In the volume of manuscripts marked 355. - -[103] 'In quibus mihi videtur tanta caligo ut totus ille sermo contentus -in ipsis tribus capitulis appareat esse ille abyssus super cujus faciem -dicit Moises tenebras fuisse.' - -[104] 'Non me latet plures esse sensus, sed unum persequar cursim.' - -[105] '... universa simul creasse sua eternitate.' - -[106] 'In principio (i.e. eternitate) creavit Deus coelum (formam) et -terram (materiam).' - -[107] '... inanis et vacua.' - -[108] 'Terra (materia) erat inanis et vacua (hoc est sine solida et -substantiali entitate) et tenebrae, &c. (i.e. tenebrosa fuit materia, -&c.).' - -[109] 'Vide quam belle pergit ordine, significans summariam creacionem -copulationemque formae cum materia.' - -[110] '... forma et terminacio rerum.' - -[111] 'Quae sequuntur in Moyse est repetitio et latior explicacio -superiorum, ac _speciatim_ distinctio earum rerum quas primum _generatim_ -complexus est. Tu aliud si sentis fac nos te queso participes. Vale.' - -[112] ... 'Particulatim res aggreditur, et mundi digestionem ante oculos -ponit, quod sic facit _meo judicio_, ut sensus vulgi et rudis multitudinis -quam docuit racionem habuisse videatur.' - -[113] See quotation from Chrysostom to a similar effect: _Summa_, prima -pars, lxvii. art. iv. conclusio. After speaking of the views of Augustine -and Basil, Aquinas says:-- - -'Chrysostomus (Homil. 2 in Gen. circa medium illius tom. i.) autem -assignat aliam rationem quia Moyses loquebatur rudi populo qui nihil nisi -corporalia poterat capere, quem etiam ab idololatria revocare volebat,' -&c. - -[114] '... Et hoc more poetae alicujus popularis, quo magis consulat -spiritui simplicis rusticitatis, fingens successionem rerum operum et -temporum cujusmodi apud tantum Opificem certe nulla esse potest.' - -[115] 'Crassiter et pingue docenda fuit stulta illa et macra multitudo.' - -[116] '(1) Moysen digna Deo loqui voluisse. (2) In rebus vulgo cognitis -vulgo satisfacere. (3) Ordinem rerum servare. In primis populum ad -religionem et cultum unius Dei traducere.' - -[117] 'Partim quia sex numero facile in rebus homini in mentem venire -possunt.' - -[118] 'Maxime ... ut imitacio divina (quem, more poetae, finxit sex dies -operatum esse, septimo quievisse) populum septimo quoque die ad quietem et -contemplacionem Dei et cultum adduceret.' - -[119] 'Nunquam dierum numerum statuisset, nisi ut illo utilissimo et -sapientissimo figmento, quasi quodam proposito exemplari populum ad -imitandum provocaret, ut sexto quoque die diurnis actibus fine imposito, -septimo in summa Dei contemplatione persisterent.' - -[120] 'Salve Radulphe, ac cum salute puto te rediisse quod tibi opto. -Quatuor ut arbitror dies transiisti: ego interea vix unum Moysaicum diem -transii. Immo tu elaborasti in die sub sole; ego hoc tempore in nocte et -tenebris vagatus sum, nec vidi quo eundum esset: nec quo perveni -intelligo. Sed incepto pergendum erat, ac tandem inveni exitum ut poteram. -In quo difficili errore, videor mihi apud Moysen magnum errorem -deprehendisse. Nam quum cujusque diei opus concluserat hiis verbis, _Et -factum est vespere et mane dies unus, secundus, tercius_, non addidisset -dies sed _nox_ pocius _una_, _secunda_, et _tercia_, propterea quod -inchoante vespere deinde mane sequente, est necesse quod intercedat inter -antecedens vesper et subsequens mane nox sit. Dies enim incipit mane, -vesperi terminatur. Sed maxime profecto quae Moyses scribens in dies -distinxerat, noctes appellasset magis, propterea quod offuse sint tantis -tenebris ut nihil possit nocti videri similius quam dies Moysaicus. Quas -nocturnas tenebras cum opinione aliqua lucis conati sumus discutere, -fortasse nos quoque tenebrosi tenebras auximus, noctesque produximus. -Attamen prestat nos recte facere voluisse, ac quicquid est quod egimus, si -tibi obscurum videatur infunde tum aliquid luminis tui, ut et nos videas, -utque nos eciam simul tecum Moysen videre possimus.' - -[121] 'More boni piique poetae.' - -[122] 'Homunculorum cordi consuleret.' - -[123] ... 'A sua sublimitate degenerent.' - -[124] 'Honestissimo et piissimo figmento simul inescare et trahere eos ut -Deo inserviant.' - -[125] For the above abstracts of these interesting letters I am mainly -indebted to the kind assistance of my friend Henry Bradshaw, Esq., of -King's College, Cambridge, who has also furnished me with the following -description of the manuscript. - - _Letters to Radulphus._ - - 1. Beginning (p. 195): 'Miror sane te optime Radulphe quum voluisti - ...;' ending (p. 199): '... fac nos te queso participes. Vale.' - - 2. Beginning (p. 199): 'Parumper de reliquis diebus uti petis in calce - Epistole. Facta mentione de materia et forma ...;' ending (p. 207); - '... scribendi paululum levaverim. Vale.' - - 3. Beginning (p. 207): 'Tercium nunc deinceps diem aggrediamur, - memores semper ...;' ending (p. 222): '... leviter nos in hiis rebus - lucubrasse. Vale.' - - 4. Beginning (p. 222): 'Salve Radulphe, ac cum salute puto te rediisse - quod tibi opto ...' breaking off at the end of the quire (p. 226): - '... id licere facere docet Macrobius in Comen[tario edito]....' - -These letters follow Colet's Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, in -the volume marked 355, in Corpus Christi College Library. - -The _Exposition_ is written in the handwriting of Colet's scribe, Peter -Meghen, the 'monoculus Brabantinus,' and there are corrections and -alterations throughout, evidently by Colet himself. - -The _letters to Radulphus_ are merely _bound with_ the other. Only two -quires are now remaining: the handwriting is not the same, but similar. - -[126] The following appears to be the passage Colet was about to quote: -'Aut sacrarum rerum notio, sub _figmentorum_ velamine, _honestis_ et tecta -rebus et vestita nominibus enuntiatur; et hoc est solum figmenti genus, -quod cautio de divinis rebus admittit.'--_In Somnium Scipionis_, lib. i. -c. 2. The 'aut' with which the sentence begins refers to its being an -alternative of two kinds of mythical writing, about which Macrobius has -been speaking. I am indebted to Mr. Lupton for this reference. - -[127] The following passage from Mr. Lupton's translation of Colet's -abstract of Dionysius's _De celesti Hierarchia_ (pp. 12, 13) will show -that he may have derived some of his thoughts from that source. 'Thus led -he forth those uninstructed Hebrews, like boys, to school; in order that -like children, playing with dolls and toys, they might represent in shadow -what they were one day to do in reality as men: herein imitating little -girls, who in early age play with dolls, the images of sons, being -destined afterwards in riper years to bring forth real sons: ... "When I -was a child," says St. Paul, "I understood as a child; but when I became a -man, I put away childish things." From childishness and images and -imitations Christ has drawn us, who has shone upon our darkness, and has -taught us the truth, and has made us that believe to be men, in order that -we, "with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, may be -changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of -the Lord."'... - -'In these foreshadowings and signs, metaphors are borrowed from all -quarters by Moses--a theologian and observer of nature of the deepest -insight--inasmuch as there are not words proper to express the Divine -attributes. For nothing is fitted to denote God Himself, who is not only -unutterable but even inconceivable. Wherefore he is most truly expressed -by negations; since you may state what He is not, but not what He is; for -whatever positive statement you make concerning Him, you err, seeing that -He is none of those things which you can say. Still because a hidden -principle of the Deity resides in all things, on account of that faint -resemblance, the sacred writers have endeavoured to indicate Him by the -names of all objects, not only of the better but of the worse kind, lest -the duller sort of people, attracted by the beauty of the fairer objects, -should think God to be that very thing which He is called.' - -The above is _Colet's amplification_ of the passage in Dionysius (chap. -ii.). The latter part of it is a pretty close rendering of the original. - -[128] 'Heptaplus Johannis Pici Mirandulae de Septiformi sex dierum Geneseos -Enarratione.' - -[129] The first edition is without date, but the publisher's letter at the -commencement, to Lorenzo de' Medici, shows that it was published during -the lifetime of the latter, i.e. before 1492--probably in 1490. - -[130] The letter preceding the abstract of the 'Celestial Hierarchy,' in -the Cambridge MS. Gg. 4, 26, is evidently a copy by the same hand as the -letter to the Abbot of Winchcombe. Possibly the Abbot may be the person to -whom it was addressed. - -[131] These treatises were:--1. 'De Compositione Sancti Corporis Christi -mistici.'--Camb. MS. Gg. 4, 26. - -2. 'On the Sacraments of the Church,' printed with a very valuable -introduction and notes, by the Rev. J. H. Lupton, M.A., from the MS. in -the St. Paul's School Library. (Bell and Daldy, 1867.) - -3. A short essay in the Camb. MS. Gg. 4, 26, commencing 'Deus immensum -bonum,' &c. - -Mr. Lupton is publishing Colet's abstracts of the 'Celestial' and -'Ecclesiastical' Hierarchy of Dionysius, from the MSS. at St. Paul's -School; and it will be seen how much use I have made in this chapter of -his admirable translation. I have expressed in the preface to this edition -the obligations I am under to Mr. Lupton for bringing to light these -interesting MSS., and thus materially assisting in restoring some lost -links in the history of Colet's inner life and opinions. - -[132] Balthasar Corderius, in his prefatory observations to his edition of -the works of St. Dionysius (Paris 1644), speaks of Dionysius as being the -originator of the Scholastic Theology, and proves it by giving four folio -pages of references to passages in the 'Summa' of Aquinas, where the -authority of Dionysius is quoted. - -[133] Mr. Lupton's translation, pp. 135, 136. - -[134] 'God, who is one, beautiful and good--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: -the Trinity which created all things--is at once the purification of -things to unity, their illumination to what is beautiful, and their -perfection to what is good.'--Mr. Lupton's translation, pp. 15, 24. - -[135] 'God created all things because He is good (p. 16); and because He -is good, He also recalls to himself all things according to their -capacity, that He may bountifully communicate himself to them.' - -[136] All after this is Colet's own addition to what is said in Dionysius. - -[137] Mr. Lupton's translation of Colet's Abstract of the _Eccl. Hier._ p. -92. In a short essay contained in the MSS. Gg. 4, 26, of the Cambridge -University Library, entitled 'De compositione sancti corporis Christi -mistici, quae est ecclesia, quae sine anima ejus, Spiritu scilicet, -dispergitur et dissipatur.' Colet, after showing how men, if left to -themselves, would wander apart and become scattered; and that the purpose -of God is, that they should be united in one body the church by the -Spirit, as by a magnet, goes on to say, 'Predestinatum fuit hominem qui -decidit a Deo retrahi ad Deum non posse quidem nisi per Deum factum -hominem.... Mortuus est ut liberos faceret homines ad talem vitam, ut -debita cujusque hominum in illius morte soluta, nunc desinentes peccare -deinceps liberi sint justiciae, ut non amplius maneamus in peccato,' -&c.--Ff. 70_b_, 71_a_. - -[138] Wilberforce, in his _Doctrine of the Incarnation_, third edition, -1850, thus expressed the modern sacerdotal theory. In the word _Priest_, -in primitive languages, 'the notion of the setting apart those who should -act _on man's behalf towards God_ is everywhere visible.'--P. 229. - -'Now if Christ is still maintaining a real intercession (if He still -pleads that sacrifice) then is there ample place for that sacerdotal -system, by which some actual _thing_ is still to be effected, and in which -some agents must still be employed.'--P. 381. 'We put the Priestly office -under the law in a line with the ministerial office under the Gospel; we -assert, that if the title of Priest could be given fitly to the first, it -belongs also to the second.'--P. 383. 'Any persons who discharge an office -which has reference to God, and who present to Him what is offered by men, -may be called Priests.'--P. 384. - -[139] See the same views expressed by Colet in his exposition of -'Corinthians.'--Emmanuel Col. MS. 3, 3, 12, leaf g, 2. - -[140] Colet's Abstract of the _Ecc. Hier._ ch. ii. s. 2. Mr. Lupton's -translation, pp. 61, 62. Colet writes a little further on:--'The office of -the bishop is, like Christ, to preach constantly and diligently the truth -he has received. For he is, as it were, a messenger midway between God and -men, to announce to men heavenly things, as Christ did.'--Pp. 63, 64. - -[141] 'Through this bread and this cup, that which is offered as a true -sacrifice in heaven is present as a real though immaterial agent in the -church's ministrations. So that what is done by Christ's ministers below -is a constituent part of that general work which the one great High Priest -performs in heaven: through the intervention of his heavenly Head, the -earthly sacrificer truly exhibits to the Father that body of Christ which -is the one only sacrifice for sins; each visible act has its efficacy -through those invisible acts of which it is the earthly expression, and -things done on earth are one with those done in heaven.'--Wilberforce's -_Doctrine of the Incarnation_, pp. 372, 373. - -[142] Colet's abstract of the _Eccl. Hier._ ch. iii. Mr. Lupton's -translation, pp. 78-94. Whilst not disapproving in _others_ daily -attendance 'ad mensam Dominicam,' Erasmus tells us that Colet did not make -a _daily_ habit of it _himself_.--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 459, E. - -[143] _Eccl. Hier._ ch. ii. Colet speaks in his abstract (Mr. Lupton's -translation, p. 65) of the Christian being 'brought to the captain of the -army, the bishop,' that by the soldier's oath, &c. '_he may own himself a -soldier of Christ_.' He concludes this section as follows:-- - -'Such was the custom and ceremony of baptism and the washing of -regeneration in the primitive church, instituted by the holy apostles, -_whereby the more excellent baptism of the inner man is signified_. And -this form differs very greatly from the one we make use of in this age. -And herein I own that I marvel!... The apostles being fully taught by -Jesus Christ, knew well what are convenient symbols and appropriate signs -for the mysteries. So that one may suspect either rashness or neglect on -the part of their successors in what has been added to or taken from their -ordinances.' - -Then follows a section on the 'spiritual contemplation of baptism,' in -which occurs the passage beginning 'Gracious God!' &c.--_Infra_, p. 73. -_Eccl. Hier._ ch. ii. s. 3, pp. 76, 77 of Mr. Lupton's translation. - -[144] 'Meanwhile the foster father who has undertaken the rearing of the -child in Christ, gives a pledge and sacred promise, on behalf of the -infant, of all things that true Christianity demands, viz. a renouncing of -all sin, &c.... And this he says, _not in the child's stead_, since it -would be a fond thing for another to speak in place of one that was in -ignorance; but when, in his own person, he speaks of renouncing, he -professes that _he will bring it to pass, so far as he can_, that the -little infant, as soon as ever it is capable of instruction, shall in -reality and in his life utterly renounce, &c.... - -'When the bishop, I say, hears him saying, "I renounce," _which means, as -Dionysius explains it_, "_I will take care that the infant_ renounce," -&c.... Thus we see how in the primitive church, by the ordinance of the -apostles, infants were not admitted unreservedly to the sacred rights, but -on condition only that some one would be surety for them, that when they -came to years of discretion they should thenceforward set before them in -reality the pattern of Christ. - -'Mark thus how great a burden he takes upon himself who promises to be a -godfather,' &c.--Mr. Lupton's translation of Colet's abstract of the -_Eccl. Hier._ ch. viii. pp. 158, 159. - -[145] 'Men execute the previous decisions of God, and by the ministry of -men that is at length disclosed on earth,' &c.--Mr. Lupton's translation, -p. 149. 'It must be heedfully marked, lest bishops should be presumptuous, -that it is not the part of men to loose the bonds of sins: nor does the -power pertain to them of loosing or binding anything.'... 'And if they do -not proceed according to revelation, moved by the Spirit of God ... they -abuse the power given to them, both to the blaspheming of God and the -destruction of the Church.'--_Ibid._ 150. - -[146] See Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 459, C and D. - -[147] Mr. Lupton's translation of Colet's abstract of the _Eccl. Hier._ p. -83. This was a strictly Dionysian thought and one shared also by Pico. -'The little affection of an old man or an old woman to Godward (were it -never so small), he set more by than all his own knowledge as well of -natural things as godly.'... He writeth thiswise [to Politian], 'Love God -(while we be in this body), we rather may than either know Him, or by -speech utter Him.'--Life of Picus, E. of Mirandula, _Sir Thomas More's -Works_, p. 7. - -To the same purport is the passage from Ficino, quoted by Colet in his MS. -on the 'Romans.'--Vide supra, p. 37. - -[148] Mr. Lupton's translation, pp. 76, 77. - -[149] Ibid. p. 73. - -[150] Mr. Lupton's translation, pp. 150, 151. - -[151] Mr. Lupton's translation, pp. 90, 91. See also pp. 123-126, where -Colet inveighs warmly against the nomination by secular princes of worldly -bishops. - -[152] Camb. University Library, MS. Gg. 4, 26. There is a beautiful copy -embodying these corrections in the hand of Peter Meghen, in the Library of -Emmanuel College, Cambridge, MS. 3, 3, 12. - -[153] Emmanuel Col. MS. leaf e, 5: 'Homo unus omnium divinissimus et -consideratissimus.' See also leaf k, 6. - -[154] Leaf a, 5. 'Quod tamen facit ubique modestissime homo piissimus.' - -[155] 'Velit ergo prudentissimus Paulus.'--Leaf k, 3. - -[156] Leaf k, 6, and p. 8. - -[157] In another place Colet writes, 'Fuit illa graeca natio illis argutiis -versatilibus humani ingenii semper prompta ad arguendum et -redarguendum.'--Leaf c, 2. - -[158] Emmanuel Col. MS. 3, 3, 12, leaf a, 4, and Appendix (B, a). - -[159] Abridged quotation. Leaf a, 5, and Appendix (B, a). - -[160] Emmanuel Col. MS. leaf a, 5, 6, and Appendix (B, a). - -[161] Leaf b, 4, and Appendix (B, b). See a very similar remark with -reference to St. Paul and Dionysius in _Joan. Fran. Pici Mirand. De Studio -Div. et Hum. Philosophiae_ lib. i. ch. iii. J. F. Pico was living when -Colet was in Italy. - -[162] Appendix (B, c). - -[163] Appendix (B, d). Emmanuel Coll. MS. leaf b, 6, and b, 8. - -[164] 'In these matters regard must be had to condition and strength.... -It was thus that Moses taught the truth and justice of God, as it was -brought down to the level of sensible things, and diluted for the ancient -Hebrews. It was thus that Christ taught to the disciples what they were -able to bear. It was thus, lastly, that Paul, both gently and sparingly -gave to the Corinthians, as it were, milk instead of meat.... He spoke -wisdom to the perfect, to the imperfect he accommodated as it were -foolish, more humble and more homely things. With this design, also, he -tolerated indulgently less perfect and less absolute morals for a time, -dealing gently with them as far as was lawful, not thinking how much was -lawful to himself, but what was expedient to others; not how much he -himself could bear, but what was adapted to the Corinthians.'...--Leaf c, -7. See also leaf e, 6. - -[165] 1 See Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 1263, and Ibid. p. 184, E. '1499 was the -date of the 1st edition, which is comprised in eight pages, and forms the -last treatise in a volume of ancient writers on astronomy, edited by -Aldus. It is intituled, "Procli Diadochi Sphaera, Astronomiam discere -Incipientibus Vtilissima, Thoma Linacro Britanno Interprete."'--Johnson's -_Life of Linacre_, p. 152. - -[166] In a letter from Politian to Franciscus Casa, there is a description -of an 'orrery' made at Florence. The letter was written 1484.--_Illustrium -Virorum Epistolae ab Angelo Politiano_, n. 1523, fol. lxxxiii. - -[167] Luther's _Table Talk_, 'Of Astronomy and Astrology.' - -[168] So also in Pico's _Heptaplus_ the same kind of speculation is much -indulged in. - -[169] Emmanuel Col. MS. 3, 3, 12, leaves d, 3 to d, 5, and Appendix (B, -e). See also leaf n, 2. - -[170] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 459, A. - -[171] Leaf g, 4. - -[172] Emmanuel Col. MS. Leaf i, 1 to leaf i, 3. - -[173] Leaf k, 7 and 8. - -[174] Leaves g, 5 to g, 7. - -[175] Emmanuel MS. Leaf f, 6, and Appendix (B, f). - -[176] 'Plurimum tribuebat Epistolis Apostolicis, sed ita suspiciebat -admirabilem illam Christi majestatem ut ad hanc quodammodo sordescerent -Apostolorum scripta.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 459, F. See also this view -supported by Erasmus in his _Ratio Verae Theologiae_. 'Nec fortassis -absurdum fuerit, in sacris quoque voluminibus ordinem auctoritatis aliquem -constituere,' &c.--Eras. _Op._ v. p. 92, C; and _Ibid._ p. 132, C. - -[177] Eras. _Op._ vi. p. 503, F; _Annotationes in loco_, Acts xvii. v. 34. -The edition of 1516 does not mention the anecdote at all. Those of 1519 -and 1522 mention it as having occurred 'ante complures annos.' Also see -'Declamatio adversus Censuram Facultatis Theol. Parisien.' Eras. _Op._ ix. -p. 917 and Epist. mccv. The former was written in 1530 or 1531, and in it -he says:--'Is ante annos triginta, Londini in aede Divi Pauli,' &c.: which -gives the date of Grocyn's lectures as some time before 1500 or 1501. The -publication of the Paris edition of Dionysius, in 1498, may have called -forth these lectures. - -[178] Jewell, however, mentions John Colet as believing that the -Areopagite was not the author of these ancient writings.--_Of Private -Masse_, ed. 1611, p. 8. - -[179] Vide supra, p. 82. - -[180] 'Apostoli sermo ... (qui in hoc loco _artificiosissimus_ -est)....'--MS. on _1 Corinthians_, Emmanuel Coll. leaf a, 6. - -[181] The date of Erasmus's coming to England may be approximately fixed -as follows. Epist. xxix. dated 12th April, and evidently written in 1500, -after his visit to England, mentions a fever which nearly killed Erasmus -_two years before_. Comparing this with what is said in the 'Life' -prefixed to vol i. of Eras. _Op._, Epist. vi. vii. and viii., dated 3 -Feb., 4 Feb., and 12 Feb., seem to belong to Feb. 1498. Epist. vi. ix. and -v. seem to place his studies with Mountjoy, at Paris, in the spring of -that year. Epist. xxii. seems to mention the projected visit to England. -Epist. xiv. 'Londini tumultuarie,' 5 Dec., is evidently written after he -had been to Oxford and seen Colet, Grocyn, and Linacre, and yet, -comparatively soon after his arrival in England. It alludes to his coming -to England, but gives no hint that he is going to leave England. In the -winter of 1499-1500 he was at Oxford, intending to leave, but delayed by -political reasons. He really did leave England 27 Jan. 1500. Whilst, -therefore, it is just possible that Epist. xiv. may have been written in -Dec. 1499, it is more probable that it was written in Dec. 1498, and that -the first experience of Erasmus at Oxford had been during the previous -summer and autumn. This seems to comport best both with Epist. vi. ix. v. -and xxii., and also with the circumstances connected with his stay in -England, mentioned in this chapter. See also the next note. The years -attached to the early letters of Erasmus are not in the least to be relied -on. - -[182] Coletus Erasmo: Eras. Epist. xi. - -[183] 'Hic (at Oxford) hominem nosse coepi, nam eodem tum me Deus nescio -quis adegerat; natus tum erat annos ferme triginta, me minor duobus aut -tribus mensibus.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, B. Erasmus, according to his -monument at Rotterdam (Eras. _Op._ i. (7)) was born 28 Oct. 1467. Colet -would be born, say, Jan. 1467-8, if three months younger, and would be -'annos ferme triginta, in the spring of 1498.' According to Colet's -monument he would be 31 at that date, as he died 16 Sept. 1519, and the -inscription states 'vixit annos 53.'--Knight's _Colet_, p. 261. - -[184] Epist. xii. Sixtinus Erasmo. - -[185] Else how could Erasmus describe Colet's style of speaking so clearly -in his first letter to him?--Epist. xli. - -[186] 'Virum optimum et bonitate praeditum singulari.'--Eras. Epist. xi. - -[187] Coletus Erasmo: Epist. xi. - -[188] Eras. Epist. xli. _Op._ iii. p. 40, D. - -[189] 'Dicebat Coletus, Caym ea primum culpa Deum offendisse, quod tanquam -conditoris benignitate diffisus, suaeque nimium confisus industriae, terram -primus prosciderit, quum Abel, sponte nascentibus contentus, oves -paverit.'--Eras. Epist. xliv. _Op._ iii. p. 42, F. Compare MS. G. g. 4, -26, fols. 4-6 and 29, 30, and Erasmus's Paraphrases, _in loco_, Hebrews -xi. 4. - -[190] 'At ille unus vincebat omnes; visus est sacro quodam furore -debacchari, ac nescio quid homine sublimius augustiusque praeferre. Aliud -sonabat vox, aliud tuebantur oculi, alius vultus, alius adspectus, -majorque videri, afflatus est numine quando.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. 42, F. - -[191] Eras. Epist. xliv. - -[192] Erasmus Sixtino, Epist. xliv. _Op._ iii. p. 42, C. - -[193] See his colloquy, _Ichthyophagia_, in which he describes his college -experience at Paris, especially his physical hardships. The latter are -probably caricatured, and perhaps too much magnified for the description -to be taken literally. - -[194] Erasmus to Lord Mountjoy: Epist. xlii. Oxoniae, 1498. - -[195] 'Beatus Rhenanus Caesari Carolo.'--Eras. _Op._ i. leaf * * * 1. - -[196] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 458, D and E. - -[197] Eras. _Op._ iii. pt. 1, p. 459, F. - -[198] 'Siquidem magnum erat, Coletum, in ea fortuna, constanter sequutum -esse, non quo vocabat natura, sed quo Christus,' &c.--_Ibid._ p. 461, E. - -[199] See the following extract from the colloquy of Erasmus, '_Pietas -puerilis_,' edition Argent. 1522, leaf e, 4, and Basileae, 1526, p. 92, and -Eras. _Op._ i. p. 653. - -'_Erasmus._ Many abstain from divinity because they are afraid lest they -should waver in the catholic faith, when they see there is nothing which -is not called in question. - -'_Gaspar._ I believe firmly what I read in the Holy Scriptures, and the -creed called the Apostles', and I don't trouble my head any further. I -leave the rest to be disputed and defined by the clergy, if they please. - -'_Erasmus._ What _Thales_ taught you that philosophy? - -'_Gaspar._ I was for some time in domestic service' [as More was in the -house of Cardinal Morton before he was sent to Oxford], 'with that -honestest of men, _John Colet_. _He imbued me with these precepts._' See -Argent. 1522, leaf c, 4. - -[200] 'Illic in collegio Montis Acuti ex putribus ovis et cubiculo infecto -concepit morbum, h.e. malam corporis, antea purissimi, affectionem.'-- -_Vita_, prefixed to Eras. _Op._ i. written by himself. See the letter to -Conrad Goclenius. - -[201] 'A studio theologiae abhorrebat, quod sentiret animum non propensum, -ut omnia illorum fundamenta subverteret; deinde futurum, ut haeretici nomen -inureretur.'--_Vita_, prefixed to Eras. _Op._ i. - -[202] See for this anecdote, Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 458, E and F. - -[203] 'Tanquam afflatus spiritu quodam, "Quid tu, inquit, mihi praedicas -istum, qui nisi habuisset multum arrogantiae, non tanta temeritate tantoque -supercilio definisset omnia; et nisi habuisset aliquid spiritus mundani, -non ita totam Christi doctrinam sua profana philosophia -contaminasset."'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 458, F. - -[204] _Summa_, i. quest. 52, 53. - -[205] 'Omnino decessit aliquid meae de illo existimationi.'--Eras. _Op._ -iii. pt. 1, 458, F. - -[206] See _The Praise of Folly_, Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 462, where the -dogmatic science of the age is as severely satirised by Erasmus as the -dogmatic theology of the Schoolmen. Thus Folly is made to say:--'With what -ease, truly, do they indulge in day-dreams (_delirant_), when they invent -innumerable worlds, and measure the sun, moon, and stars, and the earth, -as though by thumb and thread; and render a reason for thunder, winds, -eclipses, and other inexplicable things, without the least hesitation, as -though they had been the secret architects of all the works of nature, or -as though they had come down to us from the council of the gods. _At whom -and whose conjectures nature is mightily amused!_' - -[207] Cresacre More's _Life of Sir Thomas More_, p. 93. - -[208] Erasmi aliquot Epistolae: Paris, 1524, p. 33. Eras. _Op._ iii. Epist. -lxiii. 1521 ed. p. 291. Whether written in 1498 or 1499 is doubtful. - -[209] Erasmus Roberto Piscatori: Epist. xiv. - -[210] The incidents related in this section are taken from -_Disputatiuncula de Taedio, Pavore, Tristitia Jesu, instante Supplicio -Crucis, deque Verbis, quibus visus est Mortem deprecari, 'Pater, si fieri -potest, transeat a me calix iste.'_--Eras. _Op._ v, pp. 1265-1294. - -[211] Eras. _Op._ v. pp. 1291 and 1292. - -[212] 'From this order, any one may perceive the reason of the _four -senses_ in the old law which are customary in the church. The _literal_ -is, when the actions of the men of old time are related. When you think of -the image, even of the Christian church which the law foreshadows, then -you catch the _allegorical_ sense. When you are raised aloft, so as from -the shadow to conceive of the reality which both represent, then there -dawns upon you the _anagogic_ sense. And when from signs you observe the -instruction of individual man, then all has a _moral_ tone for you.... In -the writings of the New Testament, saving when it pleased the Lord Jesus -and his Apostles to speak in parables, as Christ often does in the -Gospels, and St. John throughout in the Revelation, all the rest of the -discourse, in which either the Saviour teaches his disciples more plainly, -or the disciples instruct the churches, has the sense that appears on the -surface. Nor is one thing said and another meant, but the very thing is -meant which is said, and the sense is wholly literal. Still, inasmuch as -the church of God is figurative, conceive always an _anagoge_ in what you -hear in the doctrines of the church, the meaning of which will not cease -till the figure has become the truth. From this moreover conclude, that -where the literal sense is, then the allegorical sense is _not_ always -along with it; but, on the other hand, that where there is the allegorical -sense, the literal sense is always underlying it.'--Colet's abstract of -the _Eccl. Hier._, Mr. Lupton's translation, pp. 105-107; and see Mr. -Lupton's note on this passage. - -[213] Summa, pt. i. quest. 1, article x. Conclusio. - -[214] Eras. _Op._ v. pp. 1291 to 1294. This reply of Colet to the long -letter of Erasmus does not seem to have been published in the early -editions of the latter. Thus I do not find it in the editions of -Schurerius, Argent. 1516, and again 1517. The earliest print of it that I -have seen is that appended to the _Enchiridion_, &c. Basle, 1518. - -[215] Eras. _Op._ iii. Epist. lxv. Erasmus Fausto Andrelino, 1521 ed. p. -260. - -[216] 'Torquatis istis aulicis.'--Eras. _Op._ v. p. 126, E. - -[217] Colet's letter to Erasmus has been lost, but the above may be -gathered from the reply of Erasmus. - -[218] Eras. _Op._ v. p. 1263. - -[219] It is possible that Colet himself had, at one time, thought of -expounding the book of Genesis, but the manuscript letters to Radulphus -appended to the copy of the MS. on the 'Romans,' in the library of Corpus -Christi College, Cambridge, contain no allusion to any such intention. - -[220] Probably De la Pole. See Mr. Gairdner's _Letters and Papers, &c. of -Richard III. and Henry VII._ vol. i. p. 129, and vol. ii. preface, p. xl; -and appendix, p. 377; where Mr. Gairdner mentions under date, 20th Aug. 14 -Henry VII. (1499) a 'Proclamation, against leaving the kingdom without -license,' and adds 'N.B. clearly in consequence of the flight of Edmund De -la Pole.' If this prohibition extended through December, it fixes the date -of this letter as written in the winter of 1499-1500. - -[221] Eras. _Op._ v. p. 1263. This letter is generally found prefixed to -the various editions of the _Disputatiuncula de Taedio Christi_. And this -is often appended to editions of the _Enchiridion_. - -[222] Epist. lxiv. Erasmus to Mountjoy, and also see Epist. xlii. - -[223] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 26, E. Epist. xxix. - -[224] The fact that Erasmus saw Prince _Edmund_ fixes the date of his -departure from England to 1500, instead of 1499. He left England 27th -Jan., and it could not be in 1499, for Prince Edmund was not born till -Feb. 21, 1499. - -[225] See the mention of this incident in Erasmus's letter to Botzhem, -printed as _Catalogus Omnium Erasmi Roterdami Lucubrationum, ipso Autore_, -1523, Basil, fol. a. 6, and reprinted by Jortin, app. 418, 419. - -[226] For the verses see Eras. _Op._ i. p. 1215. - -[227] See Ep. xcii. and lxxxi. - -[228] 'He [Tyndale] was born (about 1484) about the borders of Wales, and -brought up from a child in the University of Oxford, where he, by long -continuance, grew and increased as well in the knowledge of tongues and -other liberal arts, as specially in the knowledge of the Scriptures, -whereunto his mind was singularly addicted; insomuch that he, lying there -in Magdalen Hall, read privily to certain students and fellows of Magdalen -College, some parcel of divinity, instructing them in the knowledge and -truth of the Scriptures.'--Quoted from Foxe in the biographical notice of -William Tyndale, prefixed to his Doctrinal Treatises, p. xiv, Parker -Society, 1848. Magdalen College is supposed to have been the college in -which Colet resided at Oxford; as, according to Wood, some of the name of -Colet are mentioned in the records, though not John Colet himself. - -[229] 'How many years did he (Colet) following the example of St. Paul, -teach the people _without reward_!'--Eras. Epist. cccclxxxi. Eras. _Op._ -iii. p. 532, E. - -[230] In Colet's epitaph it is stated 'administravit 16;' as he died in -1519, this will bring the commencement of his administration to 1504, at -latest. See also the note in the Appendix on Colet's preferments. - -[231] Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, p. 184. - -[232] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, C. - -[233] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, D. - -[234] Ibid. E. and F. - -[235] Walter Stone, LL.D., was admitted to the vicarage of Stepney, void -by the resignation of D. Colet, Sept. 21, 1505.--Kennett's MSS. vol. xliv. -f. 234 b (Lansdowne, 978). He seems to have retained his rectory of -Denyngton. - -[236] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 465, E. - -[237] Ibid. E. and F. - -[238] Grocyn and Linacre had also removed to London. More was already -there. - -[239] 'Impense delectabatur amicorum colloquiis quae saepe differebat in -multam noctem. Sed omnisillius sermo, aut de literis erat, aut de -Christo.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 457. A. - -[240] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 459, F. - -[241] Ibid. p. 457, A. - -[242] Ibid. p. 459, F. - -[243] Ibid. p. 456, E. - -[244] 'Porro in suo templo non sumebat sibi carptim argumentum ex -Evangelio aut ex epistolis Apostolicis sed unum aliquod argumentum -proponebat, quod diversis concionibus ad finem usque prosequebatur: puta -Evangelium Matthaei, Symbolum Fidei, Precationem Dominicam.'--Eras. _Op._ -iii. p. 456, D, E. - -[245] Grocyn was apparently rector of this parish up to 1517, when he -vacated it.--Wood's _Ath. Oxon._ p. 32. - -[246] Stapleton, p. 160. - -[247] Roper, Singer's ed. 1822, p. 5. - -[248] Rot. Parl. vi. 521, B. - -[249] 12 Henry VII. c. 12, also Rot. Parl. vi. p. 514. - -[250] 12 Henry VII. c. 13. - -[251] See 3 Edward I. c. 36, and 25 Edward III. s. 5, c. 11. - -[252] Roper, p. 7. - -[253] Possibly, '_our trusty and right well-beloved knight and -counseller_,' _Sir William Tyler_, who had so often partaken of the royal -bounty, being made 'Controller of Works,' 'Messenger of Exchequer,' -'Receiver of certain Lordships,' &c. &c. (see Rot. Parl. vi. 341, 378 b, -404 b, 497 b), and who was remembered for good in chap. 35 of this very -Parliament. - -[254] A fifteenth of the three estates was estimated by the Venetian -ambassador, in 1500, to produce 37,930_l._--See _Italian Relation of -England_, Camden Soc. p. 52. The amount of a 'fifteenth' was fixed in -1334, by 8 Ed. III. Blackstone (vol. i. p. 310) states that the amount was -fixed at about 29,000_l._ This was probably the amount, exclusive of the -quota derived from the estates of the clergy, which latter was estimated -at 12,000_l._ by the Venetian ambassador in 1500. This being added would -raise Blackstone's estimate to 41,000_l._ in all. From this, however, -about 4,000_l._ was always excused to 'poor towns, cities, &c.,' so that -the nett actual amount would be about 37,000_l._ according to Blackstone, -which agrees well with the Venetian estimate. - -[255] 19 Henry VII. c. 32, Jan. 25, 1503, Rot. Parl. vi. 532-542. In lieu -of two reasonable aids, one for making a knight of Prince Arthur deceased, -and the other of marriage of Princess Margaret to the King of Scots, and -also great expenses in wars, the Commons grant 40,000_l._ less 10,000_l._ -remitted, '_of his more ample grace and pity, for that the poraill of his -comens should not in anywise be contributory or chargeable to any part of -the said sum of 40,000l._' The 30,000_l._ to be paid by the shires in the -sums stated, and to the payment every person to be liable having lands, -&c. to the yearly value of 20_s._ of free charter lands, or of 26_s._ -8_d._ of lands held at will, or any person having goods or cattalls to the -value of x marks or above, not accounting their cattle for their plough -nor stuff or implement of household. - -[256] John More was one of the commissioners for Herts. - -[257] This story is told in substantially the same form in the manuscript -life of More by Harpsfield, written in the time of Queen Mary, and -dedicated to William Roper.--_Harleian MSS._ No. 6253, fol. 4. - -[258] 'Meditabatur adolescens sacerdotium cum suo Lilio.'--Stapleton, -_Tres Thomae_, ed. 1588, p. 18, ed. 1612, p. 161. See also Roper, pp. 5, 6. - -[259] Stapleton and Roper, _ubi supra_. - -[260] Richard Whitford himself, retiring soon after from public life, -entered the monastery called 'Sion,' near Brentford in Middlesex, and -wrote books, in which he styled himself '_the_ wretch of Sion.' See Roper, -p. 8, and Knight's _Life of Erasmus_, p. 64. - -[261] Stapleton, ed. 1588, p. 20, ed. 1612, p. 163. - -[262] That this letter was written in 1504 is evident. First, it cannot -well have been written before Colet had commenced his labours at St. -Paul's; secondly, it cannot have been written in Oct. 1505, because it -speaks of Colet as still holding the living of Stepney, which he resigned -Sept. 21, 1505. Also the whole drift of it leads to the conclusion that -More was unmarried when he wrote it. And he married in 1505, according to -the register on the Burford picture, which, the correct date of More's -birth having been found and from it the true date of Holbein's sketch, -seems to be amply confirmed by the age there given of More's eldest -daughter, Margaret Roper. She is stated to be twenty-two on the sketch -made in 1528, and so was probably born in 1506. - -[263] _Mori Epigrammata_: Basle, 1518, p. 6. See the prefatory letter by -Beatus Rhenanus. - -[264] Ibid. - -[265] See Epigram entitled '_Gratulatur quod eam repererit Incolumem quam -olim ferme Puer amaverat_.'--_Epigrammata_: Basle, 1520, p. 108, and -_Philomorus_, pp. 37-39. - -[266] 'From whence [the Tower], the day before he suffered, he sent his -shirt of hair, not willing to have it seen, to my wife, his dearly beloved -daughter.'--Roper, p. 91. - -[267] Walter's _Life of More_, London, 1840, pp. 7, 8. Cresacre More's -_Life of More_, pp. 24-26. - -[268] 'Maluit igitur maritus esse castus quam sacerdos impurus.'--_Erasmus -to Hutten_: Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 75, c. Stapelton, 1612 ed. pp. 161, 162. -Cresacre More's _Life of More_, pp. 25, 26. Even Walter allows that his -'finding that at that time religious orders in England had somewhat -degenerated from their ancient strictness and fervour of spirit,' was the -cause of his 'altering his mind.'--Walter's _Life of More_, p. 8. - -[269] Sir Thomas More's _Works_, pp. 1-34; and see the note on Pico's -religious history, and his connection with Savonarola, above, p. 19. - -[270] Compare this with the line of argument pursued by Marsilio Ficino in -his _De Religione Christiana_. Vide supra, p. 11. - -[271] This remarkable letter was written, 'Ferrariae, 15 May, 1492' (Pici -_Op._ p. 233), scarcely six weeks after Pico's visit to the deathbed of -Lorenzo de Medici. - -[272] This letter is dated in More's translation M.cccclxxxxii. from -_Paris_, in mistake for M.cccclxxxvi. from _Perugia_. See Pici _Op._ p. -257. - -[273] See More's _Works_, p. 19, _in loco_, v. 6. - -[274] Stapleton, ed. 1612, p. 162. Cresacre More's _Life of Sir T. More_, -p. 27. - -[275] Sir T. More's _Works_, p. 9. - -[276] There is a copy of this translation of More's in the British Museum -Library. '276, c. 27, _Pico, &c._, 4{o}, _London_, 1510.' This is probably -the original edition. More may have waited till Henry VIII.'s accession -before daring to publish it. - -[277] This date of More's marriage is the date given in the register -contained on the Burford family picture; and as it is in no way dependent -on the other dates, probably it rested upon some family tradition or -record. It is confirmed by the age of Margaret Roper on the Basle -sketch--22 in 1528. Vide supra, p. 149, n. 1. - -[278] Cresacre More's _Life of Sir T. More_, p. 39. - -[279] Erasmus Botzhemo: _Catalogus Omnium Erasmi Lucubrationum_: Basle, -1523. - -[280] Epist. lxxxi. He arrived at Paris 'postridie Calend, Februarias' (p. -73, E.), i.e. Feb. 2, 1500. - -[281] Epist. iii. This letter is dated in the Leyden edition, 1490, and in -the edition of 1521, p. 264, M.LXXXIX. (_sic_), but it evidently was -written shortly after the illness of Erasmus at Paris in the spring of -1500. See also the mention of 'Arnold' in Epist. xxix. (Paris, 12 April) -and a repetition in it of much that is said in this letter respecting -Erasmus's illness and intention of visiting Italy. See also Epist. dii. -App. - -[282] 'In Britannico littore pecuniola mea, studiorum meorum alimonia, -naufragium fecit.'--Epist. xcii. p. 84 C. - -[283] '_Tenuiter._'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 73, F. Epist. lxxxi. and see also -lxxx. - -[284] Erasmus to Battus: Epist. xxix. Paris, 12 April, probably in 1500. -See also Epist. lxxx. 'Graescae literae animum meum propemodum enecant: verum -neque precium datur, neque suppetit, quo libros, aut praeceptoris operam -redimam. Et dum haec omnia tumultuor, vix est unde vitam sustineam.' - -[285] Epist. xciv. - -[286] Epistolae xxxvi. lxxvi. lxxi. (20 Nov.), lxxii. (9 Dec.), xciv. xcix. -(11 Dec.), lxxiii. (11 Dec.), and lxxiv. seem to belong to this period of -flight to Orleans. Epist. xv. and lxxvii. (14 Dec.), lxxviii. (18 Dec.), -and xci. (14 Jan.), seem to mark the date of his return to Paris. - -[287] Epist. xcii. Paris, 27 Jan. 1500 (should be 1501). - -[288] Epist. xxxix. - -[289] Epist. ccccvii. App. - -[290] 'Nec est in ullo mortalium aliquid solidae spei, nisi in uno -Batto.'--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 48, C. Epist. liii. - -[291] Epist. xxx. 2 July [1501] seems to be the first letter written from -St. Omer, where Erasmus was then staying with the Abbot. See also Epist. -xxxix., where he speaks of having been terrified at Paris with the numbers -of funerals. On 12 July and 18 July he writes Epist. liv.-lviii. -('Tornaco' evidently meaning the castle of Tornahens). Epist. lix. also -was written about the same time. Epist. xcviii. 30 July, if written by -Erasmus, shows he was still at St. Omer. All these letters seem to belong -to the year 1501. - -[292] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 52, E. Epist. lix. - -[293] Epist. lxii. - -[294] Erasmus to Botzhem: _Catalogus Omnium Erasmi Lucubrationum_: Basle, -1523, leaf b, 4. - -[295] Erasmus to Justus Jonas: Epist. ccccxxxv. - -[296] 'Ea quum placerent etiam eruditis, praesertim Ioanni Viterio -Franciscano cujus erat in illis regionibus autoritas summa.'--_Letter to -Botzhem_, leaf b, 4. There can be no doubt that the John Viterius -mentioned in this letter is the same person as the Vitrarius of the letter -to Justus Jonas. See also Mr. Lupton's introduction to his translation of -Colet on Dionysius. - -[297] Eras. Epist. clxxiii. - -[298] Ibid. xciv. - -[299] _Lucubratiunculae aliquot Erasmi_: Antwerp, 1503. _Biogr. de Thierry -Martins_: par A. F. Van Iseghem: Alost, 1852, 8vo. See also Letter to -Botzhem (_Catalogus, &c._), fol. b, 4. - -[300] It is very difficult to fix the true dates of these letters, and to -ascertain to what year they belong. Epist. ccccxlvi. App., from Louvain, -mentions the death of Battus, and that the Marchioness of Vere had married -below her. He speaks of himself as buried in Greek studies. - -[301] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 94. Epist. cii. Dated 1504, but should be -probably 1505. - -[302] See Erasmus Edmundo: Epist xcvi. 'ex arce Courtemburnensi.' - -[303] The Panegyric upon Philip, King of Spain, on his return to the -Netherlands. See Epist. ccccxlv. App. Erasmus Gulielmo Goudano. - -[304] More literally 'The _Pocket Dagger_ of the Christian Soldier.' But -Erasmus himself regarded it as a 'Handybook.' See _Enchiridion_, ch. viii. -English ed. 1522. 'We must haste to that which remaineth lest it should -not be an "Enchiridion," that is to say "a lytell treatyse hansome to be -caryed in a man's hande," but rather a great volume.' - -[305] See especially chap. ii. _Allegoria de Manna_, Eras. _Op._ v. fol. -6-10, &c. - -[306] It is evident that Erasmus had not yet appreciated as fully as he -did afterwards the _historical_ method which Colet had applied to St. -Paul's Epistles to get at their real meaning and 'spirit.' - -[307] Alfonso Fernandez, Archdeacon of Alcor, to Erasmus: Palencia, Nov. -27, 1527. _Life and Writings of Juan de Valdes_, by Benjamin Wiffen: -London, Quaritch, 1865, p. 41. - -[308] The above is an abridged translation from the _Enchiridion_, ed. -Argent. June, 1516, pp. 7, 8, which, being published before the Lutheran -controversy commenced, is probably a reprint of the earlier editions. The -editions of 1515 are the earliest that I have seen. - -[309] This letter was republished in the edition of some letters of -Erasmus printed at Basle, 1521, p. 221, and see also Eras. _Op._ iii. -Epist. ciii. - -[310] Letter to Fox, Bishop of Winchester. London, Cal. Jan. 1506. Eras. -_Op._ i. p. 214. - -[311] Erasmus's letter to Botzhem, _Catalogus, &c._ Basle, 1523, leaf b, -3. - -[312] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 475, D. - -[313] The epigrams have no dates, and it is impossible, therefore, to say -positively which of them were written during this period. The following -translation of one of them from Cayley's _Life of Sir Thomas More_, vol. -i. p. 270 (with this reservation as to its date), may be taken as a -sample:-- - - A squall arose; the vessel's tossed; - The sailors fear their lives are lost. - 'Our sins, our sins,' dismayed they cry, - 'Have wrought this fatal destiny!' - - A monk it chanced was of the crew, - And round him to confess they drew. - Yet still the restless ship is tossed, - And still they fear their lives are lost. - - One sailor, keener than the rest, - Cries, 'With our sins she's still oppress'd; - Heave out that monk, who bears them all, - And then full well she'll ride the squall.' - - So said, so done; with one accord - They threw the caitiff overboard. - And now the bark before the gale - Scuds with light hull and easy sail. - - Learn hence the weight of sin to know, - With which a ship could scarcely go. - -[For the Latin, see _Epigrammata Thomae Mori_, Basilae, 1520, pp. 72, 73.] - -[314] E. g.:-- - - 'T. Mori in Avarum.' - - 'Dives Avarus Pauper est.' - - 'Sola Mors Tyrannicida est.' - - 'Quid inter Tyrannum et Principem.' - - 'Sollicitam esse Tyranni Vitam.' - - 'Bonum Principem esse Patrem non Dominum.' - - 'De bono Rege et Populo.' - - 'De Principe bono et malo.' - - 'Regem non satellitium sed virtus reddit tutum.' - - 'Populus consentiens regnum dat et aufert.' - - 'Quis optimus reipub. status.' - -[315] Alluding to this time, Erasmus spoke of More as 'Tum studiorum -sodali.'--Letter to Botzhem, 1523, leaf b, 3. - -[316] See letter of Erasmus to Richard Whitford, Eras. _Op._ i. p. 265, -dated May, ex rure (1506). - -[317] Lucian's dialogue called _Somnium_ he sent to Dr. Christopher -Urswick, a well-known statesman (Eras. _Op._ i. p. 243); _Toxaris, sive de -Amicitia_, to Fox, Bishop of Winchester (_Ibid._ p. 214); _Timon_ to Dr. -Ruthall, afterwards Bishop of Durham (_Ibid._ p. 255); _De Tyrannicida_, -to Dr. Whitford, chaplain to Fox (_Ibid._ p. 267). - -[318] See an amusing account of this visit to Lambeth Palace in the letter -to Botzhem (_Catalogus_, leaf a, 5); also Knight's _Life of Erasmus_, p. -83. - -[319] See Knight's _Life of Erasmus_, pp. 96-101. _Adagia._ _Op._ ii. 554. -Epist. dccclxxiv. and dccccliii. - -[320] Eras. _Op._ iii. Epist. civ. - -[321] Epist. cv. - -[322] See his Colloquy, _Diversoria_. - -[323] Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 755. Erasmus to Botzhem, leaf a, 4. - -[324] Luther visited Rome in 1510, or a year or two later. Luther's -_Briefe_, De Wette, 1. xxi. - -[325] 'Nullum enim annum vixi insuavius!'--Erasmus to Botzhem, leaf a, 4. - -[326] Eras. Ep. cccclxxxvi. App. - -[327] Epist. cccclxxxvii. App. - -[328] Eras. to Botzhem, leaf b, 8. - -[329] Mountjoy to Erasmus, Epist. x., dated May 27, 1497, but should be -1509. - -[330] It is difficult to fix the date of the arrival of Erasmus in -England. He was at Venice in the autumn of 1508. (See the Aldine edition -of his _Adagia_, dated Sept. 1508.) After this he wintered at Padua (see -_Vita Erasmi_, prefixed to Eras. _Op._ i.); and after this went to Rome -(ibid.). This brings the chronology to the spring of 1509. In April, 1509, -Henry VIII. ascended the English throne. On May 27, 1509, Lord Mountjoy -wrote to Erasmus, who seems to have been then at Rome, pressing him to -come back to England (Eras. Epist. x., the date of which is fixed by its -contents). - -The letter prefixed to the _Praise of Folly_ is dated _ex rure, 'quinto -Idas Junias,'_ and states that the book is the result of his meditations -during his long journeys on horseback on his way from Italy to England. -This letter must have been dated June 9, 1510, at earliest, or 1511, at -latest. 1510 is the probable date (see _infra_, note at p. 204). The later -editions of the _Praise of Folly_ put the year 1508 to this letter; but -the edition of August, 1511 (Argent.) gives no year, nor does the Basle -edition of 1519, to which the notes of Lystrius were appended. So that the -printed date is of no authority, and it is entirely inconsistent with the -history of the book as given by Erasmus. The first edition, printed by -_Gourmont_, at Paris, I have not seen, but, according to Brunet, it has -_no date_. In the absence of direct proof, it is probable on the whole -that Erasmus returned to England between the autumn of 1509 and June, -1510. - -[331] See the letter to More prefixed to the _Praise of Folly_. - -[332] Roper, p. 9. - -[333] See More's letter to Dorpius, in which he mentions this visit. - -[334] Roper, p. 6. - -[335] Hall, ed. 1548, fol. lix. - -[336] _Epigrammata Mori_: Basil, 1520, p. 17. - -[337] Johnson's _Life of Linacre_, pp. 179 _et seq._ - -[338] Vide _infra_, p. 380. - -[339] Stapleton, 1588 ed. pp. 26, 27. - -[340] Roper, p. 9. - -[341] More's son John--nineteen in 1528, according to Holbein's -sketch--was probably born in 1509. More's three daughters, Margaret, -Elizabeth, and Cicely, were all older. - -[342] See the letter of Erasmus to Botzhem, ed. Basle, 1523, leaf b, 3, -and Jortin, App. 428. Also _Erasmi ad Dorpium Apologia_, Louvain, 1515, -leaf F, iv. - -[343] Argent. 1511, leaf D, iii., where occurs the marginal reading, -'Indulgentias taxat.' - -[344] Argent. 1511, E, 8, and Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 457. - -[345] Argent. 1511, leaf E, viii., and Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 462. - -[346] Argent, 1511, leaf F, and Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 465. - -[347] Argent. 1511, leaf F, and Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 465. - -[348] Basle, 1519, p. 178 _et seq._, and Eras. _Op._ ix. pp. 466 _et seq._ - -[349] Basle, 1519, p. 181. - -[350] Basle, 1519, p. 183, and Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 468. - -[351] Basle, 1519, p. 183, and Argent. 1511, leaf F; which contains, -however, only part of this paragraph. - -[352] Basle, 1519, p. 185. Argent. 1511, leaf F, ii., and Eras. _Op._ iv. -p. 469. - -[353] Basle, 1519, pp. 185 and 186. - -[354] Ibid. p. 180. - -[355] This paragraph is not inserted in the edition Argent. 1511, but -appears in the Basle edition, 1519, p. 192, and Eras. _Op._ iv. pp. 473, -474. - -[356] Argent. 1511, leaf F, viii. and Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 479. - -[357] Ranke, _Hist. of the Popes_, chap. ii. s. 1. - -[358] Erasmus Buslidiano: Bononiae, 15 Cal. Dec. 1506, Eras. _Op._ i. p. -311. - -[359] Argent. 1511, leaf G, iii. Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 484. - -[360] Ranke, _Hist. of the Popes_, chap. ii. s. 1 (abridged quotation). - -[361] _Moriae Encomium_: Argent. M.DXI. leaf G, iii. This edition contains -all the above passages on Popes, and was published during the lifetime of -Julius II., as he did not die till the spring of 1513. - -[362] Erasmus writes: 'It was sent over into France by the arrangement of -those at whose instigation it was written, and there printed from a copy -not only full of mistakes, but even incomplete. Upon this within a few -months it was reprinted more than seven times in different -places.'--_Erasmi ad Dorpium Apologia_, Louvain, 1515. - -See also Erasmus to Botzhem, where Erasmus says 'Aderam Lutetiae quum per -Ricardum Crocum pessimis formulis depravatissime excuderetur.' (First -edition of this letter: Basle, 1523; leaf b, 4.) In the copy fixed to -Eras. _Op._ i. '_nescio quos_' is substituted for '_Ricardum Crocum_,' -_who was not the printer, but the friend of More who got it published_. -(See Erasmus to Colet, Epist. cxlix. Sept. 13, 1511 (wrongly dated 1513), -where Erasmus says of Crocus, 'qui nunc Parisiis dat operam bonis -literis.' Erasmus was at Paris in April 1511. (See Epistolae clxix., cx., -and clxxv. taken in connection with each other.)) In a catalogue of the -works of Erasmus (a copy of which is in the British Museum Library), -entitled _Lucubrationum Erasmi Roterodami Index_, and printed by Froben, -at Basle, in 1519, it is stated that the _Moriae Encomium_ was 'saepius -excusum, _primum Lutetiae per Gormontium, deinde Argentorati per -Schurerium_,' &c. The latter edition is the earliest which I have been -able to procure, and it is dated 'mense Augusti M.DXI.' But the date of -the first edition printed at Paris by Gourmont I have not been able to fix -certainly. According to Brunet, it had no date attached. - -After staying at More's house, and there writing the book itself, he may -have added the prefatory letter 'Quinto Idus Junias,' 1510, 'ex rure,' -whilst spending a few months with Lord Mountjoy, as we learn he did from a -letter to Servatius from 'London from the Bishop's house' (Brewer, No. -1418, Epist. cccclxxxv., under date 1510), it is most probable that in -1511 Erasmus paid a visit to Paris, being at Dover 10 April, 1511; at -Paris 27 April (see _Epistolae_ clxix., cx., and clxxv.); and thus was -there when the first edition was printed. His letters from Cambridge do -not seem to begin till Aug. 1511. See Brewer, Nos. 1842, Epist. cxvi.; and -1849, Epist. cxviii. No. 1652 belongs, I think, to 1513. Possibly No. -1842, Epist. cxvi., belongs to a later date; and, if so, No. 1849, Epist. -cxviii., may be the first of his Cambridge letters, and with this its -contents would well agree. - -[363] Brewer, No. 1418. Eras. Epist. App. cccclxxxv., and see cccclxxxiv., -dated 1 April, London. - -[364] Brewer, No. 1478. Eras. Epist. cix. 6, Id. Feb., and it seems, in -March 1511, Warham gave him a pension out of the rectory of Aldington. -Knight, p. 155. - -[365] Brewer, No. 4427. - -[366] 'A right fruitfull Admonition concerning the Order of a good -Christian Man's Life, very profitable for all manner of Estates, &c., made -by the famous Doctour Colete sometime Deane of Paules. Imprinted at London -for Gabriell Cawood, 1577.'--Brit. Museum Library. - -[367] In Sept. 1505. Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 265, and n. a. - -[368] 'Insumpto patrimonio universo vivus etiam ac superstes solidam -haereditatem cessi,' &c. Letter of Colet to Lilly, dated 1513, prefixed to -the several editions of _De Octo Orationis Partibus, &c._ - -[369] The number of the 'miraculous draught of fishes.' - -[370] Statutes of St. Paul's School. Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 364. See -also the letter from Colet to Lilly, prefixed to the _Rudiments of -Grammar_, 1510. Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 124, n. r. - -[371] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 457, c. - -[372] Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 109. - -[373] Brewer's _Calendar of State Papers_, Henry VIII., vol. i. No. 1076, -under date June 6, 1510. - -[374] Compare licenses mentioned in Brewer's _Calendar of State Papers_ of -Henry VIII. (vol. i. Nos. 1076, 3900, and 4659), with documents given in -Knight's _Life of Colet_, _Miscellanies_, No. v. and No. iii. - -[375] 'De pueris statim ac liberaliter instituendis.'--Eras. _Op._ i. p. -505. - -[376] Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 175, and copied from him by Jortin, -vol. i. pp. 169, 170. - -[377] Take the following examples: 'Revere thy elders. Obey thy superiors. -Be a fellow to thine equals. Be benign and loving to thy inferiors. Be -always well occupied. Lose no time. Wash clean. Be no sluggard. Learn -diligently. Teach what thou hast learned lovingly.'--Colet's _Precepts of -Living for the Use of his School_. Knight's _Life of Colet_. -_Miscellanies_, No. xi. - -[378] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 458, D. - -[379] This epigram and the above-mentioned prefaces are inserted by Knight -in his _Life of Colet_ (_Miscellanies_, No. xiii.), and were taken by him -from what he calls _Grammatices Rudimenta_, London, M.DXXXIIII. in '_Bibl. -publ. Cantabr. inter MS. Reg._' But see note 1 on the next page. They were -in the preface to Colet's _Accidence_. - -[380] See also the characteristic letter from Colet to Lilly, prefixed to -the _Syntax_. The editions of 1513, 1517, and 1524 are entitled, -_Absolutissimus de Octo Orationis Partium Constructione Libellus_. The -_Accidence_ was entitled, _Coleti Editio una cum quibusdam_, &c. - -[381] Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 126. - -[382] Eras. Epist. cxlix. Erasmus to Colet, Sept. 13, 1513 (Brewer, i. -4447), but should be 1511. See 4528 (Eras. Epist. cl.), which mentions the -_De Copia_ being in hand, which was printed in May 1512. (?) - -[383] _De Ratione Studii Commentariolus_: Argent. 1512, mense Julio, and -printed again with additions, Argent. 1514, mense Augusto. The above -translation is greatly abridged. - -[384] Eras. Epist. App. iv. - -[385] In 4 Henry VIII. (1513) Lord Chancellor Warham received 100 marks -salary, and 100 marks for commons of himself and clerk--200 marks, or -133_l._ Brewer, i. Introduction, cviii. note (3). - -[386] Prefatory Letter of Beatus Rhenanus, prefixed to the edition of -More's _Epigrammata_, printed at Basle, 1518 and 1520. - -[387] Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 370. _Miscellanies_, No. vi. - -[388] 'Recte instituendae pubis artifex.' Preface of Erasmus to _De Octo -Orationis Partium Constructione_, etc. Basle, 1517. - -[389] Colet to Erasmus, Sept. 1511, not 1513 (Brewer, No. 4448), for the -same reason as Nos. 4447 and 4528. - -[390] Eras. Epist. cl. Brewer, p. 458. Dated October 29, 1513, but, as it -mentions the _De Copia_ being in hand, it must have been written in 1511. - -[391] John Ritwyse, or Rightwyse. - -[392] 'Moreover, that Thomas Geffrey caused this John Butler divers -Sundays to go to London to hear Dr. Colet.'--Foxe, ed. 1597, p. 756. - -[393] Ibid. p. 1162. - -[394] William Sweeting and John Brewster, on October 18, 1511.--Foxe, ed. -1597, p. 756. - -[395] Eras. Epist. cxxvii. Brewer, i. No. 1948. - -[396] Brewer, i. p. 2004. - -[397] Ibid. i. Introduction. - -[398] Brewer, i. p. 4312. Warham to Henry VIII.--a document referring to -this convocation as held at St. Paul's from Feb. 6, 1511 (i.e. 1512) to -Dec. 17 following. This document is in many places wholly illegible, but -these words are visible: 'concessimus ... [pro defensione ecclesiae] -Anglicanae et hujus inclyti regni vestri Angliae; necnon ad sedandum et -extirpandum hereses et schismata in universali ecclesia quae his diebus -plus solito pullulant.' - -[399] That Colet preached in English, see the remark of Erasmus that he -had studied _English_ authors in order to polish his style and to prepare -himself for preaching the gospel.--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 456, B. It may also -be inferred from the Lollards going to hear his sermons. In his rules for -his school he directed that the chaplain should instruct the children in -the Catechism and the Articles of the faith and the Ten Commandments in -_English_.--Knight's _Life of Colet_. _Miscellanies_, Num. v. p. 361. - -[400] Tyndale, p. 168 (Parker Society). - -[401] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 460, D. - -[402] Erasmus to Werner: Eras. Ep. Lond. ed. lib. xxxi. Ep. 23. The person -alluded to in this letter was clearly not James Stanley, as has sometimes -been assumed. - -[403] Cooper's _Athenae Cantab._ p. 16. Also _Philomorus_, Lond. Pickering, -1842, pp. 55-57, and _Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae_, p. 70. - -[404] Epigram 'In Posthumum Episcopum.' - -[405] Epigram 'In Episcopum illiteratum, de quo ante Epigramma est sub -nomine Posthumi.' There is no reason, I think, to conclude that More's -satire was directed in these epigrams against the Bishop of Ely. There may -have been plenty of Scotists whom the cap might fit as well, or better. In -the same year that Stanley was made Bishop of Ely, Fitzjames was made -Bishop of London. The late Dean Milman (_Annals of St. Paul's_, p. 120) -shows, however, that Fitzjames was not unlearned, as he had been Warden of -Merton and Vice-chancellor of Oxford. - -[406] _Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae_, p. 298; and Knight's _Life of Erasmus_, -p. 229. - -[407] Brewer, i. 4312. - -[408] A 'tenth,' of the clergy, produced in 1500 about 12,000_l._ See -Italian Relation of England, C. S. p. 52. Four-tenths would be equal to -about half a million sterling in present money. - -'If the King should go to war, he ... immediately compels the clergy to -pay him one, two, or three fifteenths or tenths ... and more if the -urgency of the war should require it.'--_Ibid._ p. 52. - -[409] 'Senex quidam theologus et imprimis severus.'--_Erasmi -Annotationes_, edit. 1519, p. 489; and edit. 1522, p. 558. 'Senex quidam -severus et vel supercilio teste theologus, magno stomacho, -respondit.'--_Erasmi Moriae Encomium_, Basle, 1519, p. 225. - -[410] See note of Erasmus in his '_Annotationes_,' _in loco_ Titus iii. -10; also the _Praise of Folly_, where the story is told in connection with -further particulars. The exact coincidence between the two accounts of the -old divine's construction of Titus iii. 10 leads to the conclusion that -the rest of the story, as given in the _Praise of Folly_, may also very -probably be literally true. Knight, in his _Life of Colet_, concludes that -as the story is told in the _Praise of Folly_, the incident must have -occurred in a _previous convocation_, as this satire was written _before_ -1512.--Knight, pp. 199, 200. But the story is not inserted in the editions -of 1511 and of 1515, whilst it is inserted in the Basle edition of the -_Encomium Moriae_, November 12, 1519, published just after Colet's death -(p. 226). Nor is the first part of the story relating to Titus iii. 10 to -be found in the first edition of the _Annotationes_ (1516). The story is -first told by Erasmus in the second edition (1519), published just before -Colet's death, and then without any mention of Colet's name; the latter -being possibly omitted lest, as Bishop Fitzjames was still living, its -mention should be dangerous to Colet. It was not till the third edition -was published (in 1522), when both Colet and Colet's persecutor were dead, -that Erasmus added the words, 'Id, ne quis suspicetur meum esse commentum, -accepi _ex Johanne Coleto_, viro spectatae integritatis, quo praesidente res -acta est.'--_Annotationes_, 3rd ed. 1522, p. 558. - -[411] _Praise of Folly_, 1519, p. 226. - -[412] There is an old English translation given by Knight in his _Life of -Colet_ (pp. 289-308), printed by 'Thomas Berthelet, regius impressor,' and -without date. _Pynson_ was the King's printer in 1512 (Brewer, i. p. -1030), and accordingly he printed the Latin edition of 1511, _i.e._ -1512.--Knight, p. 271. Knight speaks of the old English version as -'written probably by the Dean himself,' but he gives no evidence in -support of his conjecture.--See Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 199. - -[413] 'Neque valde miror si clarissimae scholae tuae rumpantur invidia. -Vident enim uti ex equo Trojano prodierunt Graeci, qui barbaram diruere -Trojam, sic e tua prodire _schola_ qui ipsorum arguunt atque subvertunt -inscitiam.'--Stapleton's _Tres Thomae_, p. 166, ed. 1612; p. 23, ed. 1588. - -[414] Brewer, vol. ii. No. 3190. The true date, 1512, is clearly fixed by -the allusion to the 'De Copia,' &c.--Eras. Epist. App. ccccvi. - -[415] Dated 'M.DXII. iii. Kal. Maias: Londini.' - -[416] The first edition was printed at Paris by Badius. Another was -printed by Schurerius (Argentorat.), January 1513. And, in Oct. 1514, -Erasmus sent to Schurerius a _revised_ copy for publication. - -[417] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 460, D and E. - -[418] Ibid. p. 460, E. - -[419] 3 Tyndale, p. 168 (Parker Society). - -[420] 'The Seven Peticyons of the Paternoster, by Joan Colet, Deane of -Paules,' inserted in the collection of Prayer entitled '_Horae beate Marie -Virginis secundum usum Sarum totaliter ad longum_.'--Knight's _Life of -Colet_, App. _Miscellanies_, No. xii. p. 450. - -[421] Eras. Epist. cvii. Brewer, No. 3495, under date 1st Nov. 1512. - -[422] Eras. Epist. cxxviii. and cxvi. - -[423] 'Written by Master Thomas More, then one of the undersheriffs of -London, about the year 1513.'--_More's English Works_, p. 35. - -[424] 'Morus noster melitissimus, cum sua facillima conjuge ... et liberis -ac universa familia pulcherrime valet.'--Ammonius to Erasmus: Epist. -clxxv. This letter, dated May 19, 1515, evidently belongs to an earlier -date. It is apparently in reply to Epist. cx. dated April 27, from Paris, -and written by Erasmus during his stay there in 1511. - -[425] The date of the death of More's first wife it is not easy exactly to -fix. Cresacre More says, 'His wife Jane, as long as she lived, which was -but some six years, brought unto him almost every year a child.'--_Life of -Sir T. More_, p. 40. This would bring her death to 1511, or 1512. - -[426] _Philomorus_, p. 71. - -[427] See Brewer, i. preface p. xl et seq., and authorities there cited. - -[428] '_In Brixium Germanum falsa scribentem de Chordigera._' '_In eundem: -Versus excerpti e Chordigera Brixii_;' '_Postea de eadem Chordigera_;' -'_Epigramma Mori alludens ad versus superiores: Aliud de eodem_,' -&c.--_Mori Epigrammata._ - -[429] See the several epigrams relating to Brixius in _Mori Epigrammata_. -For the wearisome correspondence which resulted from the publication of -these epigrams and the '_Antimorus_' of Brixius in reply, see Eras. _Op._ -iii., index under the head 'Brixius (Germanus).' See also _Philomorus_, p. -71. - -[430] Eras. _Op._ iii. pp. 460, 461. See also '_Richardi Pacei ... de -Fructu qui ex doctrina percipitur, liber_.' Basle, 1517, Oct. And Cresacre -More's _Life of More_, App. - -[431] Brewer, i. 3723. - -[432] Ibid. 3752, 3821. - -[433] Ibid. 3809. - -[434] Brewer, i. xlvii, and No. 3820. Edward Lord Howard to Henry VIII. - -[435] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 461. Compare _Enchiridion_, 'Canon VI.' - -[436] Colet, and Erasmus, and More, notwithstanding their very severe -condemnation of the wars of the period, and wars in general, never went so -far as to lay down the doctrine, that '_All_ War is unlawful to the -Christian.' - -[437] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 461, A, E. - -[438] Knight's _Life of Colet_, p. 207, note quoted from _Antiq. -Britann._, Sub. Wil. Warham, ed. Han. p. 306. - -[439] Brewer, Nic. West to Henry VIII. 3838. - -[440] Brewer, i. 3780. - -[441] Ibid. 3857. Sir E. Howard to Wolsey. - -[442] Henry VIII. to Cardinal Bainbridge. Brewer, i. 3876. - -[443] Brewer, i. 3876. - -[444] Ibid. 3903, Sir E. Howard to Henry VIII. - -[445] Ibid. 4005, Echyngham to Wolsey. - -[446] Brewer, i. 4019, Thomas Lord Howard to Wolsey; 4020, Thomas Lord -Howard to Henry VIII. - -[447] Ibid. 4055, Henry VIII. to his ambassadors in Arragon. - -[448] Ibid. 4075, Fox to Wolsey. - -[449] Ibid. 3977, 5761. - -[450] Eras. Epist. cxix. Brewer, i. 4427, Erasmus to Ammonius. - -[451] Erasmi _Epigrammata_: Basle, 1518, p. 353; and Eras. _Op._ i. p. -1224, F. - -[452] _De Deditione Nerviae, Mori Epigrammata_: Basle, 1518, p. 263, and -ed. 1522, p. 98. - -[453] For the particulars mentioned in this section, it will be seen how -much I am indebted to Mr. Brewer. See vol. i. of his Calendar, preface pp. -l-lv, in addition to the particular authorities cited. - -[454] Eras. Epist. cxiv. Brewer, i. 1652. - -[455] See mention of Aldridge in Eras. Epist. dcclxxxii. - -[456] _Compendium Vitae Erasmi_: Eras. _Op._ i. preface. - -[457] Eras. Epist. cxvii. Brewer, i. 1847. - -[458] Eras. Epist. cxv. Brewer, i. 4336. The allusion to the 'De Copia' -(printed in May 1512) fixes the date. - -[459] Eras. Epist. cxxix. Brewer, i. 4576. See also Brewer, i. 2013, which -belongs to the same autumn. Epist. cxli. - -[460] From the letters referred to by Brewer, i. p. 963, Nos. 5731 (Eras. -Epist. clxv.), 5732, 5733, and 5734, it would seem that he had undertaken -the education of a boy to whom he had been '_more than a father_.' This -does not prove that he was in the habit at Cambridge of taking private -pupils, as possibly this boy was placed under his care somewhat in the -same way as More had been placed with Cardinal Morton. - -[461] See Eras. Epist. cl. Brewer, i. 4528. - -[462] Eras. Epist. cxix. Brewer, i. 4427. - -[463] Brewer, i. 4428. - -[464] Eras. Epist. cxxxi. Brewer, i. 2001, under the date 1511. The -allusion to the King of Scots, as well as the passage quoted, fix the date -1513. See also Eras. Epist. cxxix. Brewer, i. 4576. - -[465] Eras. Epist. cxxxi. Brewer, i. 2001. - -[466] 5 Henry VIII. c. i. - -[467] Brewer, i. 4819. Notes of a speech in this parliament. - -[468] Eras. Epist. cxliv. - -[469] Compare More's _Epigrams_, headed: 'Populus consentiens Regnum dat -et aufert,' and 'Bonum Principem esse patrem non dominum.' - -[470] Eras. Epist. cxliv. and published among 'Auctarium Selectarum -aliquot Epistolarum Erasmi,' &c. Basil, 1518, p. 62. The above extracts -are abridged in the translation. - -[471] Eras. Epist. cxliii. - -[472] Eras. Germano Brixio: Eras. Epist. mccxxxix. - -[473] Brewer, i. 4845, 5173, and 4727. - -[474] Eras. Epist. cxv. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 107, D. Brewer, i. 4336. - -[475] Eras. Epist. cxv. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 106, E and F. - -[476] Eras. Epist. cxv. - -[477] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 785, A. - -[478] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 785, A, C. - -[479] _Ibid._ p. 457, A. See also Eras. Epist. viii. App. - -[480] The companion of Erasmus was, according to the 'Colloquy,' -'_Gratianus Pullus_, an Englishman, learned and pious, but with less -liking for this part of religion than I could wish.' 'A _Wickliffite_, I -fancy!' suggested the other spokesman in the 'Colloquy.' 'I do not think -so' (was the reply), '_although he had read his books_, somewhere or -other.'--_Colloquia_: Basle, 1526, p. 597. In his letter to Justus Jonas, -Erasmus mentions that Colet was in the habit of reading heretical -books.--Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 460, A. It has been suggested also -(_Pilgrimages to Walsingham_, &c. by J. G. Nichols, F.S.A. Westminster, -1849, p. 127), that as in the same letter he describes Colet as wearing -_black_ vestments (_pullis_ vestibus), instead of the usual purple (Eras. -_Op._ iii. p. 457, B.), hence the name '_Pullus_' may in itself point to -Colet. There is also an allusion by Erasmus in his treatise, '_Modus -Orandi_,' to his visit to the shrine of St. Thomas-a-Becket, in which he -says, 'Vidi ipse quum ostentarent linteola lacera quibus ille dicitur -abstersisse muccum narium, abbatem ac caeteros, qui adstabant, aperto -scriniolo venerabundos procidere ad genua, ac manibus etiam sublatis -adorationem gestu repraesentare. Ista _Joanni Coleto, nam is mecum aderat_, -videbantur indigna, mihi ferenda videbantur donec se daret opportunitas ea -citra tumultum corrigendi.'--Eras. _Op._ v. p. 1119, F, and p. 1120, A. -This allusion to Colet so accurately comports with what is said in the -Colloquy of 'Gratianus Pullus,' that the one seems most probably suggested -only as a _nom de plume_ for the other. I am further indebted to Mr. -Lupton for the suggestion that when Ammonius, writing to Erasmus (Epist. -clxxv.), says 'tuus _Leucophaeus_ salvere te jubet,' he alludes to Colet: -'Leucophaeus' being a Greek form of the same nickname as 'Pullus' might be -in a Latin form. Mr. Lupton has also shown that '_Gratian_' is a rendering -of '_John_.' See his introduction to his edition of _Colet on the -Sacraments of the Church_, pp. 6, 7. So that the identification of Colet -with the _Gratianus Pullus_ of the Colloquy is now complete. - -[481] The lazar-house of Harbledown. See Dean Stanley's _Historical -Memorials of Canterbury_, ed. 1868, p. 243. - -[482] The colloquy from which the particulars given in this section have -been obtained is entitled _Peregrinatio Religionis ergo_. It was not -contained in the edition of 1522 (Argent.), but it was inserted probably -in that of 1524 (which, however, I have not seen). It was contained in the -Basle edition of 1526, which is probably a reprint of that of 1524, the -prefatory letter at the beginning being dated Calen. Aug. 1524. - -[483] Eras. Ammonio: Eras. Epist. clix. - -[484] Eras. Epist. App. viii. There is a reference in the letter to Wolsey -as 'Episcopus Lincolniensis,' and this confirms the correctness of the -date, as Wolsey was translated to the Archbishopric of York Aug. -1514.--_Fasti Eccl. Anglicanae_, p. 310. - -[485] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 160, A. - -[486] Eras. Epist. clxxxii. Partly written at Antwerp, but finished at -Basle, Aug. 29, 1514. - -[487] The letter is dated 'Lovanii, A.D. mdxiiii. Kal. Aug.' - -[488] 'Quo viro non alium habet mea quidem sententia Anglorum Imperium vel -magis pium, vel qui Christum verius sapiat.' - -[489] _Cato Erasmi. Opuscula aliquot Erasmo Roterodamo Castigatore et -Interprete, &c._ 'Colonie in edibus Quentell. A.D. mcccccxv;' and Ibid. -'Colonie in edibus Martini Werdenensis xii. Kal. Dec. (1514?)' - -[490] Coletus Erasmo: Epist. lxxxv. App. - -[491] Ranke's _History of the Reformation_, bk. ii. c. 1. See Erasmus's -mention of Reuchlin in the letter written this autumn to Wimphelingus, -appended to the 2nd edition of _De Copia_. Schelestadt, 1514; and Eras. -Epist. clxvii. and clxviii. As to his friendship with the Archbishop of -Maintz, _vide_ Epist. cccxxxiv. - -[492] See letter to Wimphelingus, Basle, xi. Kal. Oct. 1514, _ubi supra_, -for these and the following particulars. - -[493] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 1249; and see Epist. clxxiv. Erasmus to Leo X. -p. 154, C and D. - -[494] Epist. dccccxxii. Eras. _Op._ iii. pp. 1054, 1055. - -[495] See the _Life of Beatus Rhenanus_, by John Sturmius, 'Vita -clarissimorum Historicorum.' Buderi, 1740, pp. 53-62; and Eras. _Op._ iii. -pp. 154, C, &c. (see Index under his name); and especially the prefatory -letter from Erasmus to Beatus Rhenanus, prefixed to 'Enarratio in Primum -Psalmum, Beatus vir,' &c. Louvain, 1515. There is also a mention of him -worth consulting in Du Pin's _Ecclesiastical Writers_, iii. p. 399. - -[496] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 222, E; and the letter to Wimphelingus. - -[497] Erasmus to Mountjoy, Epist. clxxxii., and the letter above mentioned -to Wimphelingus. - -[498] Epist. clxxxii. - -[499] Epist. Erasmi clix. and Epist. lxxxv. App. - -[500] Epist. lxxxv. App. - -[501] Epist. ad Wimphelingum. - -[502] Epist. clxvii. clxviii. and clxxiv. - -[503] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 141, C and D. - -[504] Brewer, i. lxix, and ii. i, _et seq._ - -[505] Ibid. ii. xxxviii. - -[506] Brewer, ii. liv. - -[507] See Eras. Epist. App. xxvii. xxi. and xxiii. These letters are dated -1515; and, from the mention of the New Testament as not yet placed in -Froben's hand, this date would seem to be correct. - -[508] Eras. _Op._ ii. pp. 870-2; and in part translated in Hallam's -_Literature of the Middle Ages_, part I, c. iv. These passages are quoted -from the explanation given in the Adagia of the proverb, '_Scarabeus -Aquilam quaerit_.' They occur in the edition separately printed by Froben -in large type and in an octavo form, entitled 'Scarabeus:' Basle, mense -Maio, 1517, ff. 21-23. - -[509] Eras. _Op._ ii. p. 775. From the _Adagia_, 'Sileni Alcibiadis.' - -[510] Eras. Epist. App. xxi. That this edition was printed in 1515, see -mention of it in Erasmus's letter to Dorpius, dated Antwerp, 1515, and -published at Louvain, Oct. 1515. - -[511] Martinus Dorpius Erasmo: _D. Erasmi, &c. Enarratio in Primum -Psalmum, &c. &c._ Louvain, Oct. 1515. - -[512] See the commencement of the reply of Erasmus. - -[513] 'Martinus Dorpius instigantibus quibusdam primus omnium coepit in me -velitari.... Scirem illum non odio mei huc venisse, sed juvenem tum, ac -natura facilem, aliorum impulsu protrudi.'--_Erasmus Botzemo, Catalogus_, -&c. Basle, 1523; leaf b, 5. - -[514] Erasmus to Dorpius: _D. Erasmi, &c. Enarratio in Primum Psalmum, &c. -&c._ Louvain, Oct. 1515. - -[515] Erasmus to Wolsey: Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 1565; App. Epist. lxxiv. -wrongly dated 1516 instead of 1515. - -[516] In a letter prefixed to the _Erasmi Epigrammata_, Basle, 1518, -Froben pays a just tribute to the good humour and high courtesy of Erasmus -while at work in his printing-office, interrupted as he often was, in the -midst of his laborious duties, by frequent requests from all kinds of -people for an epigram or a letter from the great scholar.--Pp. 275, 276. - -[517] Erasmus Urbano Regio: Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 1554, App. Epist. liii. - -[518] In one place he even supplied a portion of the Greek text which was -missing by translating the Latin back into Greek! - -[519] _Epist. ad Car. Grymanum_, prefixed to the Paraphrase on the Epistle -to the Romans. Edition Louvain, 1517. - -[520] Erasmus Gwolfgango Fabricio Capitoni: Epist. ccvii. _Op._ iii. p. -189, 89, A, C, Feb. 22, 1516, from Antwerp, but probably the year should -be 1518. See also his reference to the same pagan tendencies of Italian -philosophy in his treatise entitled '_Ciceronianus_,' and the letter -prefixed to it. - -[521] Ranke's _History of the Popes_, i. ch. ii. sec. 3. - -[522] _Ubi supra._ - -[523] See the authorities mentioned by Ranke, and also Hallam's -_Literature of Europe_, chap. iv. ed. 1837, p. 435. - -[524] Hallam, p. 436. - -[525] Moria, ed. 1511, Argent. fol. G. iii. - -[526] Hallam's _Literature of the Middle Ages_, ed. 1837, p. 555, _et -seq._ - -[527] Compare the satire on Monks in '_Scarabeus_,' and the colloquy -called '_Charon_,' with the following passage, in which Erasmus alludes to -the continental wars of Henry VIII.: 'Id enim temporis adornabatur bellum -in Gallos, et hujus fabulae non minimam partem Minoritae duo agebant, quorum -alter, fax belli, mitram meruit, alter bonis lateribus vociferabatur in -concionibus in _Poetas_. Sic enim designabat Coletum,' &c. Eras. _Op._ -iii. p. 460, F. - -[528] Compare the similar views expressed in the _Enchiridion_ (Canon V.) -fifteen years before. - -[529] Both the above passages are slightly abridged in the -translation.--_Novum Instrumentum_, leaf aaa, 3 to bbb. - -[530] _Id._ leaf bbb to bbb 5. The quotations in this case also are -abridged. - -[531] _Novum Instrumentum_: Annotationes in loco Acts vii. p. 382:--'Et -hunc locum annotavit Hieronymus in Libro ad Pammachium de Optimo Genere -Interpretandi, qui secus habeatur in Genesi, ubi legitur quod Abraham -emerit ab Ephron Etheo filio Saor juxta Hebron quadringentis drachmis -speluncam duplicem, et agrum circa eam, sepelieritque in ea Saram uxorem -suam; atque in eodem legimus libro postea revertentem de Mesopotamia Jacob -cum uxoribus et filiis suis posuisse tabernaculum ante Salem, urbem -Sichymorum, quae est in terra Chanaan, et habitasse ibi et emisse partem -agri, in quo habebat tentoria, ab Emor patre Sychem, centum agnis, et -statuisse ibi altare et invocasse deum Israhel. Proinde Abraham non emit -specum ab Emor patre Sychem, sed ab Ephron filio Saor, nec sepultus est in -Sychem sed in Hebron, quae corrupte dicitur Arboch. Porro duodecim -patriarchae non sunt sepulti in Arboch sed in Sychem, qui ager non est -emptus ab Abraham sed a Jacob. Hunc nodum illic nectit Hieronymus nec eum -dissolvit.' - -[532] In loco Mark ii. p. 299, where Erasmus writes:--'Divus Hieronymus in -libello de Optimo Genere Interpretandi indicat nomen Abiathar pro -Achimelech esse positum, propterea quod libro Regum primo, capite 22, ubi -refertur hujusce rei historia, nulla mentio hat Abiathar sed duntaxat -Achimelech. Sive id acciderit lapsu memoriae, sive vitio scriptorum, sive -quod ejusdem hominis vocabulum sit Abiathar et Abimelech; nam Lyra putat, -Abiathar fuisse filium Achimelech qui sub patre functus sit officio -paterno, et eo caeso jussu Saulis comes fuerit fugae Davidicae.' - -[533] In loco Matt. xxvii. p. 290:--'Annotavit hunc quoque locum divus -Hieronymus in libro cui titulus de Optimo Genere Interpretandi, negans -quod his citat ex Hieremia Matthaeus, prorsus exstare apud Hieremiam, verum -apud Zachariam prophetam, sed ita ut quae retulit evangelista, parum -respondeant ad Hebraicam veritatem, ac multo minus ad vulgatam editionem -Septuaginta. Etenim ut idem sit sensus tamen inversa esse verba, imo pene -diversa. Caeterum locus est apud Zachariam, cap. ii., si quis velit -excutere. Nam res perplexior est quam ut his paucis explicari possit, et -prope [Greek: parergon] est. Refert Hieronymus Hieremaiam apocryphum sibi -exhibitum a quodam Judaeo factionis Nazarenae in quo haec ad verbum ut ab -evangelista citantur haberentur. Verum non probat ut apostolus ex -apocryphis adduxerit testimonium, praesertim cum his mos sit evangelistis -et apostolis ut, neglectis verbis, sensum utcumque reddant in citandis -testimoniis.' - -[534] See especially _Novum Instrumentum_, pp. 295, 290, 377, 382, 270. - -[535] Roper, 9. - -[536] - - 1512 L286,269 - 1513 699,714 - 1514 155,757 - --------- - L1,141,740 - - 1515 L74,007 - 1516 130,779 - 1517 78,887 - ------- - L283,673 - -See Brewer, ii. preface, cxciv. - -[537] 6 Henry VIII. c. 24. - -[538] Ibid. c. 26. - -[539] 6 Henry VIII. c. 1. The draft of this Act in the final form in which -it was adopted when Parliament met again in the autumn, is in Wolsey's -handwriting.--Brewer. - -[540] Grafton, p. 104. Holinshed, ii. 835, under date 6 Henry VIII. - -[541] 4 Henry VIII. c. 5, and 6 Henry VIII. c. 3. - -[542] 6 Henry VIII. c. 5. - -[543] Lord Herbert's History, under date 1521, ed. 1649, p. 108; and -Grafton, pp. 1016-1018. - -[544] Brewer, i. Nos. 4019 and 4020. - -[545] 4 Henry VIII. c. 2, and 6 Henry VIII. c. 6. - -[546] 6 Henry VIII. c. 12. - -[547] Brewer, ii. 422 (7 May), 480, and 534; also Roper, 10. - -[548] Brewer, ii. 672, 679, 733, 782, 807. - -[549] Ibid. 672 and 733. - -[550] Ibid. 904 and 922. - -[551] Ibid. 1067. - -[552] 'First after the Trinity come the _Seraphic_ spirits, all _flaming -and on fire_.... They are _loving_ beings of the highest order, &c.' -Colet's abstract of the _Celestial Hierarchy of Dionysius_. Mr. Lupton's -translation, p. 20. - -[553] Fiddes' _Life of Wolsey_. Collections, p. 252, quoted from MS. in -Herald's office. Cerem. vol. iii. p. 219, &c. Brewer, ii. 1153. - -[554] Brewer, ii. 1335. - -[555] Eras. Epist. ccli. and App. lxxxvii. - -[556] Erasmus to Hutten, Epist. ccccxlvii. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 476, F. - -[557] Utopia, 1st ed. T. Martins. Louvain [1516], chap. 'De Foederibus.' -Leaf k, ii. - -[558] Utopia, 1st ed. 'De Re Militari.' Leaf k, iii. - -[559] _Utopia_, 1st ed. Leaves m, iv. v. - -[560] More's English Works: _The Apology_, p. 850. - -[561] _Utopia_, 1st ed. Leaf h, i. - -[562] _Utopia_, 1st ed. Leaf f, iii. - -[563] _Ibid._ chap. 'De Urbibus,' Leaf f, i. - -[564] I may be allowed to refer the reader to the valuable mention of -'Utopia' in the preface to Mr. Brewer's _Calendar of the Letters, &c. of -Henry VIII._ vol. ii. cclxvii _et seq._, where its connection with the -political and social condition of Europe at the time is well pointed out. - -[565] In support of the abstract here given of the moral philosophy of the -Utopians, see _Utopia_, 1st ed. Leaf h, ii. _et seq._ - -For the following careful translation of the most material part of it, I -am indebted to the Rev. W. G. Rouse, M.A. - -'The same points of moral philosophy are discussed by the Utopians as by -us. They inquire what is "_good_" in respect as well of the mind as of the -body, as also of external things; also, whether the title "_good_" be -applicable to all these, or to the mental qualities alone. They discuss -"_virtue_" and "_pleasure_." But their first and principal topic of debate -is concerning human "_happiness_"--on what thing or things they consider -it to depend. - -'But here they seem more inclined than they should be to that party which -advocates "_pleasure_," as being that which they define as either the -whole, or the most important part of human happiness. And, what is more -surprising, they even draw arguments in support of so nice an opinion from -the principles of religion, which is usually sombre and severe, and of a -stern and melancholy character. For they never dispute about happiness -without joining some principles drawn from religion to those derived from -rational philosophy; without which, reason is, in their opinion, defective -and feeble in the search for true happiness. Their religious principles -are as follow. The soul is immortal, and, by the goodness of God, born to -happiness. He has appointed rewards after this life for man's virtues and -good deeds--punishment for his sins. Now, though these principles -appertain to _religion_, yet they think that they are led by _reason_ to -believe and assent to them. Apart from these principles, they -unhesitatingly declare that no man can be so foolish as not to see that -pleasure is to be pursued for its own sake through thick and thin; so long -as he takes care only not to let a less pleasure stand in the way of a -greater, and not to pursue any pleasure which is followed in its turn by -pain. - -'For they consider "_virtue_" austere and hard to strive after; and they -deem it the greatest madness for a man not only to exclude all -"_pleasure_" from life, but even voluntarily to suffer pain without -prospect of future profit (for what profit can there be, if you gain -nothing after death, after having spent the whole of your life without -pleasure, that is, in misery?). - -'But now they do not place happiness in the enjoyment of every kind of -pleasure, but in that only which is honest and good. For they think that -our nature is attracted to happiness, as to its supreme good, by that very -"_virtue_" to which alone the opposite party ascribes happiness. For they -define "_virtue_," the living in accordance with nature; inasmuch as, to -this end, we are created by God. They believe that he follows the guidance -of nature who obeys the dictates of reason in the pursuit or avoidance of -anything; and they say that reason first of all inflames men with a love -and reverence for the Divine Majesty, to whom we owe it both that we -exist, and that we are capable of happiness; and secondly, that reason -impresses upon us and urges us to pass our lives with the least amount of -care and the greatest amount of pleasure ourselves; and, as we are bound -to do by the natural ties of society, to give our assistance to the rest -of mankind towards attaining the same ends. For never was there a man so -stern a follower of "virtue," or hater of pleasure, who, whilst thus -enjoining upon you labours, watchings, and discomfort, would not tell you -likewise to relieve the want and misfortunes of others to the utmost of -your ability, and would not think it commendable for men to be of mutual -help and comfort to one another in the name of humanity. If, then, it be -in human nature (and no virtue is more peculiar to man) to relieve the -misery of others, and, by removing their troubles, to restore them to the -enjoyment of life, that is, to pleasure--does not nature, which prompts -men to do this for others, urge them also to do it for themselves? For a -joyful life--that is, a life of pleasure--is either an evil--in which -case, not only should you not help others to lead such a life, but, as far -as you can, prevent them from leading it, as being hurtful and deadly; or, -if it be a good thing, and if it be not only lawful, but a matter of duty -to enable others to lead such a life--why should it not be good for -yourself first of all, who ought not to be less careful of yourself than -of others? For when nature teaches you to be kind to others, she does not -bid you to be hard and severe to yourself in return. Nature herself then, -in their belief, enjoins a happy life--that is, "_pleasure_"--as the end -of all our efforts; and to live by this rule, they call "_virtue_." - -'But, since nature urges men to strive together to make life more cheerful -(which, indeed, she rightly does; for no man is so much raised above the -condition of his fellows as to be the only favourite of nature, which -cherishes alike all whom she binds together by the tie of a common shape), -she surely bids you urgently to beware of attending so much to your own -interest as to prejudice the interest of others. They think, therefore, -that not only all contracts between private citizens should be kept, but -also public laws, which either a good prince has legally enacted, or a -people neither oppressed by tyranny, nor circumvented by fraud, has -sanctioned by common consent for the apportionment of the conveniences of -life; that is, the material of pleasure. Within the limits of these laws, -it is common prudence to look after your own interests; it is a matter of -duty to have regard for the public weal also. But to attempt to deprive -another of pleasure in favouring your own, is to do a real injury. On the -other hand, to deprive yourself of something in order that you may give it -to another, that is indeed an act of humanity and kindness which in itself -never costs so much as it brings back. For it is not only repaid by the -interchange of kindnesses; but also the very consciousness of a good -action done and the recollection of the love and gratitude of those whom -you have benefited, afford more pleasure to the mind, than the thing from -which you have abstained would have afforded to the body. And, lastly, God -repays the loss of these small and fleeting pleasures with vast and -endless joy; a doctrine of the truth of which religion easily convinces a -believing mind. - -'Thus, on these grounds, they determine that, all things being carefully -weighed and considered, all our actions, and our very virtues among them, -regard pleasure and happiness after all as their object.'--_Utopia_, 1st -ed. Leaf h, ii. _et seq._ - -[566] J. S. Mill's _Essay on Utilitarianism_, p. 24. - -[567] _Utopia_ 1st ed. Leaf i, i. - -[568] Leaf i, ii. - -[569] Leaf i, iii. - -[570] Leaf h, ii. - -[571] Leaves h, i. and ii. - -[572] Leaf l, iv. - -[573] Ibid. - -[574] Leaf m, ii. - -[575] Leaf m, i. - -[576] Leaf l, iii. - -[577] Leaf m, iii. - -[578] It is impossible not to see in this a ritualism rather of the -_Dionysian_ than of the modern sacerdotal type. - -[579] _Utopia_, 1st ed. 'De Religionibus Vtopiensium.' - -[580] Epist. clxvii. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 144, A. - -[581] Erasmus to Savage: Epist. clxxvi. June 1, 1516. Brewer, 1976. - -[582] 'There is certainly a steadiness of moral principle and Christian -endurance, which tells us that it is better not to exist at all than to -exist at the price of virtue; but few indeed of the countrymen and -contemporaries of Machiavel had any claim to the practice, whatever they -might have to the profession, of such integrity. _His crime in the eyes of -the world, and it was truly a crime, was to have cast away the veil of -hypocrisy, the profession of a religious adherence to maxims which at the -same moment were violated._'--Hallam's _Literature of the Middle Ages_, -chap. vii. s. 31. - -[583] 'Whatever may be thought of the long-disputed question as to -Machiavelli's motives in writing, his work certainly presents to us a -gloomy picture of the state of public law and European society in the -beginning of the sixteenth century: one mass of dissimulation, crime, and -corruption, which called loudly for a great teacher and reformer to arise, -who should speak the unambiguous language of truth and justice to princes -and people, and stay the ravages of this moral pestilence. - -'Such a teacher and reformer was _Hugo Grotius_, who was born in the -latter part of the same century and flourished in the beginning of the -seventeenth.... He was one of those powerful minds which have paid the -tribute of their assent to the truth of Christianity.'--Wheaton's -_Elements of International Law_: London, 1836, pp. 18, 19. - -[584] 1st ed. leaf c, i. - -[585] 1st ed. leaf d, ii. Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 567. - -[586] 1st ed. leaf d, iii. Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 567. - -[587] Leaf d, iii. - -[588] 1st ed. leaf f, ii. Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 574. - -[589] 'Monarchia temperata,' in the marginal reading. - -[590] Abridged quotation, 1st ed. leaf f, iv. Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 576. - -[591] _Ibid._ - -[592] 1st ed. leaf g, iii. Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 579. - -[593] Leaf l, i. - -[594] 1st. ed. leaf l, i. Eras. _Op._ iv. pp. 593, 594. - -[595] _Ibid._ Charles the Bold was the prince alluded to. - -[596] Eras. _Op._ iv. p. 595, _et seq._ - -[597] 1st ed. leaf l, iv. - -[598] Leaf m, i. - -[599] Eras. _Op._ iv. 603. - -[600] 1st ed. leaf o, i. Eras. _Op._ iv. pp. 607 _et seq._ - -[601] 1st ed. leaf o, iii. - -[602] On August 5 he seems to have been in London, and to have written a -letter from thence to Leo X. Eras. Epist. clxxxi. Brewer, ii. 2257. - -On August 17 he writes from Rochester to Ammonius, that he is spending ten -days there. Eras. Epist. cxlvi. Brewer, ii. 2283. And again on August 22. -Eras. Epist. cxlvii. Brewer, ii. 2290. On the 31st he writes to Boville -from the same place. Eras. Epist. cxlviii. Brewer, ii. 2321. - -[603] Erasmus to Ammonius: Epist. cxxxiii. Brewer, ii. 2323, without date. - -[604] Eras. Epist. lxxxvii. App. and ccxviii. Brewer, ii. 2409. - -[605] Erasmus AEgidio: Epist. cccxlv. November 18, 1518. The mention of St. -Jerome as not yet finished (see Epist. ccxviii.; Brewer, 2409), fixes the -date 1516. Brewer, ii. 2558. - -[606] Letter from More to Peter Giles, prefixed to 'Utopia.' - -[607] Roper, pp. 9, 10. Eras. _Op._ iii. pp. 474, 476. - -[608] More to Erasmus: Eras. Epist. ccxxvii. - -[609] Roper, 10. - -[610] Erasmus to Hutten: Epist. ccccxlvii. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 476, B. - -[611] Leaf b, 4. - -[612] Leaves b, iv to c, ii. These extracts are somewhat abridged and -condensed. - -[613] Leaves d, ii. _et seq._ These extracts are somewhat abridged and -condensed. - -[614] Eras. Epist. App. xliv. (Brewer, ii. 2748), in which Lord Mountjoy -acknowledges the receipt of a copy sent by Erasmus, dated Jan. 4, 1516; -i.e. 1517 in modern reckoning. - -[615] The extracts from the Utopia, translations of which are given in -this chapter, have in all cases been taken from the first edition -(Louvain, 1516), but very few alterations were made in subsequent -editions. The first edition was published in Dec. 1516. I am indebted to -Mr. Lupton for the suggestion that the publication of some letters of -Vespucci at Florence, in 1516, may have suggested More's use of that -voyager's name in his introductory book. - -Erasmus, writing from Antwerp to More, March 1 [1517], says: 'Utopiam tuam -recognitam, huc quam primum mittito, et nos exemplar, aut Basilium -mittemus aut Lutetiam.'--Epist. ccviii. - -Erasmus sent it to Froben of Basle, by whom a corrected edition was -published in March, 1518, and another in November of the same year. See -Appendix F. - -[616] Eras. Epist. cclvi. Brewer, ii. 2000; from St. Omer; and see ccxxv. -Brewer, ii. 1976. - -[617] Epist. clviii. Erasmus to Ammonius: June 5, 1514; in error for 1516. - -[618] More to Erasmus: Eras. Epist. lii. App. London, Feb. 25, 1516. - -[619] Eras. Epist. lxxxiv. App. Brewer, ii. 2941, dated 'in die sancti -Edwardi, in festo _suae_ [? secundae] translationis, sive 13 Octobris, -1516.' Probably '_second_ translation of St. Edward,' on June 20, 1516. -The words 'sive 13 Oct.' are not found in the copy of this letter in -_Aliquot Epistolae, &c._ (Basle, 1518, pp. 249, 252), nor in the ed. of -1640. The earlier date seems to harmonise more with the contents of the -letter than the later date. - -[620] Eras. Epist. lxxxvii. App. Brewer, ii. 2492. - -[621] Eras. Epist. Waramus Erasmo, cclxi. _Aliquot Epistolae, &c._ Basle, -1518, p. 231. - -[622] Eras. Epist. ccxxi. App. - -[623] Thomae Mori ad Monachum Epistola: _Epistolae aliquot Eruditorum -Virorum_. Basle, 1520, p. 122. - -[624] Erasmus to Boville, from the Bishop's palace at Rochester, pridie -calendas Septembris. _Aliquot Epistolae, &c._ Basle, 1518, pp. 234-246. -Eras. Epist. cxlviii. Brewer, ii. 2321. The above is only an abstract of -this letter, and some of the quotations are abridged. - -[625] More to Erasmus: Epist. lxxxvii. App. dated Oct. 31, 1516. - -[626] Erasmus to Ammonius, from Brussels, December 29, 1516. Brewer, ii. -2709. - -[627] Epist. cclvi. June 1517; should be 1516. Brewer, ii. 2000. - -[628] Bearing date, Tubingen, Aug. 21, 1516. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 1595. It -was first printed probably at the back of the titlepage of '_Epigrammata -Des. Erasmi Roterodami_.' Basle, March 1518. - -[629] Oecolampadius Erasmo: Eras. Epist. ccxxxviii.; also cxix. App. and -ccccxi. - -[630] Spalatinus Erasmo: Eras. Epist. xciv. App. - -[631] Luther's _Briefe_. De Wette, i. 40, No. xxii. - -[632] Philippi Melanchthonis _Vita Martini Lutheri_, chap. v. 'Vita ejus -monastica.' - -[633] Philippi Melanchthonis _Vita Martini Lutheri_, chap. vi. vii. - -[634] Ranke refers to the period before 1516. See _Hist. of Reformation_, -vol. i. bk. ii. ch. i. - -[635] _Novum Instrumentum_, folio, 433. - -[636] Luther to Spalatin: Luther's _Briefe_. De Wette, No. xxii. - -[637] Luther an Joh. Lange: De Wette, No. xxix. p. 52. - -[638] More to Erasmus: Epist. lxxxvii. App. Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 1575, A -and B. - -[639] Vol. i. Epist. 2. - -[640] Vol. i. App. 1. - -[641] Vol. ii. Ep. 9. - -[642] Vol. ii. Ep. 49. - -[643] Ibid. Ep. 68. - -[644] One of the best and most valuable essays on the _Epistolae Obscurorum -Virorum_ will be found in No. cv. of the _Edinburgh Review_, March 1831. - -[645] Ranke's _History of the Reformation_, bk. ii. chap. 1. - -[646] Epist. cxxxiii. App. - -[647] Ibid. ccccxxviii. App. - -[648] Ibid. ccxlvi. App. - -[649] 'Sed, meo judicio, nulla via assequemur, quam ardenti amore et -imitatione Jesu. Quare relictis ambagibus, ad brevitatem brevi compendio -eamus: ego pro viribus volo.' These sentences remind one of the -conversation between Tauler and Nicholas of Basle, in the beautiful story -of the _Master and the Man_, where the master says, 'Verum est, charissime -fili, quod ais. Adhuc enim durior mihi videtur esse hic sermo tuus.' And -the layman replies, 'Et tamen ipse me rogasti, Domine Magister, ut -compendiosissimum ad supremam hujus vitae perfectionem iter tibi -demonstrarem. Et certe securiorem ego, quam sit ista, viam ad imitandum -exemplar sacratissimae humanitatis Christi nullam novi.' _Thauleri Opera_, -p. 16. Paris. 1623. - -[650] Foxe, ed. 1597, p. 887. - -[651] Thomae Mori ad Monachum Epistola. _Epistolae aliquot Eruditorum -Virorum_: Basle, 1520, pp. 128, 129. The letter does not state exactly the -date of this singular occurrence. - -[652] _On the Romans_: Louvain, 1517, at the press of Martins. - -[653] Erasmus to Cope, ccv. Brewer, ii. p. 2962. See also cciii. and cciv. -and Erasmus to Henry VIII. cclxviii. - -[654] Erasmus to Cardinal Grymanus, prefixed to the _Paraphrases on the -Romans_. Dated, Id. Nov. 1517. - -[655] Mountjoy to Wolsey: Brewer, ii. p. 1259; and Bishop of Worcester to -Wolsey: ibid. No. 4179. Ranke's _Hist. of the Reformation_, bk. ii. chap. -1. - -[656] One early edition, without date, has in the margin, 'Fictae -pontificum condonationes vel indulgentiae;' and Lystrius, in his note on -this passage, says, 'Has vulgo vocant indulgentias.' The marginal note in -the Argent. edition of 1511 reads, 'indulgentias taxat.' - -[657] Basle, ed. 1519, p. 141. - -[658] Eras. Epist. cclxiv. Aug. 29, 1517. - -[659] Bishop of Worcester to Wolsey: Brewer, ii. p. 4179. - -[660] Papers relating to the Convocation: Brewer, ii. p. 1312. - -[661] Ranke's _History of the Reformation_, London, 1845, i. p. 333. -Brewer, ii. p. 3160 and 3688. - -[662] Brewer, ii. p. 3818, and preface, ccv. - -[663] Ranke, p. 332. - -[664] Ibid. p. 333. - -[665] Ibid. p. 350. - -[666] Ibid. p. 356. - -[667] Erasmus to Beatus Rhenanus: Epist. clxiv. App. Brewer, ii. p. 3614. -Ranke, p. 378. - -[668] Ranke, pp. 239 and 379. - -[669] Ibid. p. 359. - -[670] Ranke, p. 239. - -[671] Ibid. p. 241. - -[672] Erasmus to Fisher: cccvi. App. Brewer, ii. p. 3989. - -[673] Eras. Epist. App. cccv. Brewer, ii. p. 3992. - -[674] Eras. Epist. App. cclxix. - -[675] Epist. App. cclxv. Brewer, ii. p. 3991. - -[676] AEgidius to Erasmus: Epist. ccccxxxvi. Brewer, ii. p. 4238. - -[677] See Brewer's preface to vol. ii. pp. cxlvii-clvii. - -[678] See Brewer, ii. cxlii-clxi (preface). - -[679] Roper, p. 11. - -[680] Roper, p. 48. - -[681] Epist. cclxviii. - -[682] Epist. App. cccxi. and cclxxxii. Brewer, ii. p. 4111. - -[683] Erasmus to Henry VIII.: Brewer, iii. No. 226. - -[684] March 13, 1518. Eras. Epist. App. cclxxiv. Brewer, ii. p. 4005. - -[685] Epist. ccxlvii. Brewer, ii. p. 4138. Eras. Epist. Basle, 1521, p. -217. - -[686] Eras. Epist. App. cclxxxiv.-v. - -[687] Ibid. App. cccv. - -[688] Eras. _Op._ iii. 401 E. - -[689] Eras. Epist. ccciii. first printed in _Auctarium selectarum -Epistolarum Erasmi, &c._ Basle, 1518, p. 39. - -[690] Luther's _Briefe_. De Wette. Epist. No. xxxvii. - -[691] Eras. Epist. ccciii. - -[692] Epist. ccclxxvi. dated May 15, 1518, and first printed at p. 45 of -the _Auctarium selectarum Epistolarum, &c._ Basle, 1518. - -[693] Erasmus to More, App. cclxxxv. Brewer, ii. p. 4204; and in App. -cclxxxiv. Ibid. ii. p. 4203. - -[694] Brewer, ii. p. 3991. Eras. Epist. App. cclxv. - -[695] _Lucubrationum Erasmi Index_: Frobenius, Basle, 1519. - -[696] Epist. cclxv. App. Brewer, ii. p. 3991. Dated March 5, 1518. - -[697] Eras. Epist. App. cccxi. Brewer, ii. p. 4110. - -[698] _Adagia_: Basle, 1520-21, p. 494. I have not seen the edition of -1517, but it is mentioned in _Lucubrationum Erasmi Index_; Basle, 1519. - -[699] _Auctarium selectarum aliquot Epistolarum Erasmi_, &c.: Basle, with -preface by Beatus Rhenanus, dated xi. Calendas Septembris, 1518, and -'_Aliquot Epistolae sane quam elegantes Erasmi Roterodami, et ad hunc -aliorum eruditissimorum hominum_.' Basle, Jan. 1518. The latter includes -Colet's letter to Erasmus on the _Novum Instrumentum_. An edition, -containing some of the letters of Erasmus and others, had also been -printed by Martins at Louvain in April, 1517. - -[700] English translation. London: Jno. Byddell, 1522. - -[701] 'Cur sic arctamus Christi professionem quam ille latissime voluit -patere?' - -[702] These passages are condensed in the translation. - -[703] Erasmus to Laurinus: Epist. ccclvi. See Jortin, i. 140. - -[704] The Epistle at the beginning from Leo X. to Erasmus, bears date -Sept. 1518. March 1519 is the date printed at the end. - -[705] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. p. 266. - -[706] _Novum Testamentum_, pp. 209, 93, 82, 83. - -[707] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. pp. 19, 20. - -[708] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. pp. 28, 29. - -[709] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. pp. 34, 35. - -[710] _Ibid._ p. 32. - -[711] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. p. 32. These passages are abridged in -the translation. - -[712] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. pp. 35, 36. - -[713] _Novum Testamentum_, 2nd ed. p. 42. - -[714] _Ibid._ p. 61. - -[715] When, after the 3rd edition had been published and a 4th was in -preparation, in 1526, a Doctor of the Sorbonne attacked the New Testament -of Erasmus, he was able triumphantly to ask him, 'what he wanted?' His New -Testament had already been 'scattered abroad by the printers in thousands -of copies over and over again.' His critic '_should have written in -time_!'--Erasmus to the Faculty of Paris. Jortin, ii. App. No. xlix. p. -492. - -[716] Eras. _Op._ iii. pp. 374, 375. - -[717] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 432, D and E. - -[718] Eras. Epist. ccclvii. - -[719] Eras. _Op._ iii. 1490, D. Brewer, ii. Nos. 3670, 3671, dated Sept. -1517. - -[720] Brewer, preface, ccxi. - -[721] Jortin's _Life of Erasmus_, App. p. 662-667. - -[722] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 408, b. - -[723] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 408. - -[724] _Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII._ ii. p. 127. - -[725] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 457, E. See also Mr. Lupton's _Introduction_ to -his edition of _Dean Colet on the Sacraments of the Church_, pp. 19 and -26. - -[726] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 457, E. - -[727] _Ibid._ p. 459, A and B. - -[728] William Lilly was married and had several children. The sur-master, -John Rightwyse, married his daughter. Mr. Lupton informs me, that in vol. -iv. of Stow's _Historical Collections_ (Harleian, No. 450), fol. 58 _b_, -is a Latin epitaph, in ten lines, by Lilly on his wife. Her name is spelt -'Hagnes,' and (if the reading be correct) they appear to have had fifteen -children. - -[729] Knight's _Life of Colet_. _Miscellanies_, No. v. - -[730] The original of this book with Colet's signature is still preserved -at the Mercers' Hall. - -[731] Knight, p. 227. He drew up a body of statutes, which, however, were -never accepted by the chapter.--Milman's _Annals of St. Paul's_, p. 124. - -[732] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 460, A. - -[733] _Ibid._ p. 445, B. - -[734] _Ibid._ p. 751, E. - -[735] Strausz. Leipzig, 1858, vol. i. p. 123. - -[736] _Epistolae aliquot Eruditorum, &c._ Appended to _Apologia Erasmi, -&c._ Basil 1520, pp. 139, 140. - -[737] This letter possibly may not have reached England before Colet's -death; but it is most likely that the date is wrong, as so often is the -case with these letters--the year not being often added by the writer -himself at the time, but by some copyist subsequently. - -[738] 'Epistola clarissimi viri Thomae Mori, qua refellit rabiosam -maledicentiam monachi cujusdam juxta indocti atque arrogantis.'--_Epistolae -aliquot Eruditorum Virorum, &c._ Basileae, M.DXX. pp. 92-138. Also Jortin's -_Life of Erasmus_, Appendix. - -[739] 'Nisi quod Lutherus fertur Augustini doctrinam mordicus tenens -antiquatam sententiam rursus instaurare.'--p. 99. - -[740] For the above particulars see Ranke's _History of the Reformation_, -bk. ii. c. iii. - -[741] _Melanchthonis Epistolae_: Bretschneider, i. p. 63, and p. 66. - -[742] March 1519, Bretschneider, i. p. 75. - -[743] Erasmus to Oecolampadius, 1518, Epist. cccliv. - -[744] Dated January 5, from Wittemberg. Bretschneider, i. p. 59. - -[745] Epist. ccccxi. - -[746] Luther's _Briefe_. De Wette, vol. i. Epist. cxxx. p. 249. - -[747] Louvain, May 30, 1519. Eras. Epist. ccccxxvii. - -[748] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 444, E and F. - -[749] Epist. cccxvii. May 8, 1519. - -[750] Epist. ccccxiii. Ap. 23, 1519. - -[751] Eras. Epist. Laurentio: Louvain, Feb. 1519, prefixed to the Basle -edition of the Five Epistles, 1520. - -[752] _Apologia pro Declamatione de Laude Matrimonii_: Basil. 1519. - -[753] Colet seems even to have retired from the office of preacher before -the King on Good Friday, which he had filled in 1510, 1511, 1512, 1513, -1515, 1516, and 1517. Brewer, ii. pp. 1445-1474. In 1518 the sermon was -preached by the Dean of Sarum, p. 1477. - -[754] Epist. cccclxxiv. Erasmus to Fisher: Louvain, Oct. 17, 1519. - -[755] Ranke, bk. ii. c. iii. De Wette, i. No. ccviii. p. 425. That Luther -had found a point of unison between himself and the Hussites, not only in -their common opposition to Papal authority, but also in their common -adoption of the severest views of St. Augustine, see '_Assertio omnium -articulorum M. Lutheri per Bullam Leonis X. novissimam damnatorum_.' Mense -Martio M.DXXI. Leaves Kk, ii. and iii. 'Habes, miserande Papa, quid hic -oggannias. Unde et hunc articulum necesse est revocare, male enim dixi -quod liberum arbitrium ante gratiam sit res de solo titulo, sed -simpliciter debui dicere, lib. arb. est figmentum in rebus, seu titulus -sine re. Quia nulli est in manu sua quippiam cogitare mali aut boni, sed -omnia (ut Viglephi articulus _Constantiae_ damnatus recte docet) de -necessitate absoluta eveniunt.' These articles were condemned as a part of -the heresy of John Huss, of whom Luther in the same treatise had -said:--'Et in faciem tuam sanctissime Vicarie Dei, tibi libere dico, omnia -damnata Joannis Huss esse evangelica et Christiana,' &c. (_Ibid._ leaf Hh, -iii.) - -[756] See Epist. ccccxii. Louvain, April 23, 1519. - -[757] _History of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren._ By the -Rev. John Holmes. London, 1825, vol. i. chaps. i. and ii. - -[758] This middle party were called 'Calixtines.' See introduction to -Holmes's _History_, vol. i. p. 21, where the facts mentioned in this -letter are detailed, very much in accordance with Schlechta's account. - -[759] John Zisca was a Hussite. He died in 1424, nine years after the -death of Huss, and on his monument was inscribed, '_Here lies John Zisca, -who having defended his country against the encroachments of Papal -tyranny, rests in this hallowed place in spite of the Pope_.'--Ibid. p. -20. - -[760] Epist. cccclxiii. Dated Oct. 10, 1519. - -[761] Epist. cccclxxviii. Dated Nov. 1, 1519. The letter is a long one, -and these quotations are somewhat abridged in translation. - -[762] Luther replied:--'Absint a nobis Christianis Sceptici.... Nihil apud -Christianos notius et celebratius, quam assertio. Tolle assertiones et -Christianissimum tulisti.... Spiritus Sanctus non est scepticus, nec dubia -aut opiniones in cordibus nostris scripsit, sed assertiones, ipsa vita, et -omni experientia, certiores et firmiores.'--_De Servo Arbitrio_ Mar. -Lutheri. Wittembergae, 1526, pp. 7-12. - -[763] 'Ideo alteram est judicium externum, quo non modo pro nobis ipsis, -sed et pro aliis et propter aliorum salutem, certissime judicamus spiritus -et dogmata omnium. Hoc judicium est publici ministerii in verbo et officii -externi, et maxime pertinet ad duces et praecones verbi &c.'--_De Servo -Arbitrio_ Mar. Lutheri. Wittembergae, 1526, p. 82. - -[764] See Mozley's _Augustinian Doctrine of Predestination_. Chap. x. -_Scholastic Doctrine of Predestination._ And see the particular instance -there given on the subject of infants dying in original sin, p. 307. -'Being by nature reprobate, and not being included within the remedial -decree of predestination, they were ... [according to the pure Augustinian -doctrine] ... subject to the sentence of eternal punishment.... The -Augustinian schoolman [Aquinas] could not expressly contradict this -position, but what he could not contradict he could explain. Augustine had -laid down that the punishment of such children was the mildest of all -punishment in hell.'... Aquinas 'laid down the further hypothesis, that -this punishment was not pain of body or mind, but _want of the Divine -vision_.' - -[765] Epist. ccccxlvii. - -[766] See note on the date, More's birth, Appendix C. - -[767] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 475, E. - -[768] _Ibid._ C and D. One is tempted to think that More intended to -describe his first wife in the epigram, 'Ad Candidum qualis uxor -deligenda,' very freely translated into English verse by Archdeacon -Wrangham as follows:-- - - Far from her lips' soft door - Be noise or silence stern, - And hers be learning's store, - Or hers the power to learn. - - With books she'll time beguile, - And make true bliss her own, - Unbuoyed by Fortune's smile, - Unbroken by her frown. - - So still thy heart's delight, - And partner of thy way, - She'll guide thy children right, - When myriads go astray. - - So left all meaner things, - Thou'lt on her breast recline, - While to her lyre she sings - Strains, Philomel, like thine; - - While still thy raptured gaze - Is on her accents hung, - As words of honied grace - Steal from her honied tongue. - -Quoted from _Philomorus_, p. 42. - -[769] More's English _Works_, p. 1420. - -[770] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 475, D and E. - -[771] Eras. _Op._ iii. p. 476, D, &c. - -[772] _Ibid._ p. 474, B. - -[773] _Ibid._ p. 474, E. - -[774] _Ibid._ p. 477, B. - -[775] _Ibid._ p. 474, E and F. - -[776] Colloquy entitled _Amicitia_. - -[777] Stapleton's _Tres Thomae_, p. 257. - -[778] Eras. _Op._ i. p. 511, E. - -[779] _Mori Epigrammata_: Basle, 1520, p. 110. The first edition was -printed at Basle along with the _Utopia_ in 1518, and does not contain -these verses. - -[780] Mackintosh's _Life of Sir Thomas More_, p. 73, quoting 'City -Records.' - -[781] Roper, p. 12. - -[782] Ellis, _Original Letters_, 3rd series, letter lxxx. - -[783] Epist. cccclxvii. - -[784] Ibid. cccclxx. - -[785] Epist. cccclxxi. - -[786] Ibid. cccclxxiv. - -[787] Eras. _Op._ iii. Epist. cccclxxxi., and _Epistolae aliquot Eruditorum -Virorum_: Basil. 1520, p. 46. - -[788] Ibid. p. 122. 'Coletum nomino, quo uno viro neque doctior neque -sanctior apud nos aliquot retro seculis quisque fuit.' - -[789] Ashmolean MSS. Oxford 77-141 a. I have to thank Mr. Coxe for the -following copy of the inscription: 'Joannes Coletus, Henrici Coleti iterum -praetoris Londini filius, et hujus templi decanus, magno totius populi -moerore, cui, ob vitae integritatem et divinum concionandi munus, omnium -sui temporis fuit chariss., decessit anno a Christo nato 1519 et inclyti -regis Henrici Octavi 11, mensis Septembris 16. Is in coemeterio Scholam -condidit ac magistris perpetua stipendia contulit.' - -[790] Luther in his famous speech at the Diet, after alluding to his -doctrinal and devotional works, and offering to retract whatever in them -was contrary to Scripture, emphatically refused to retract what he had -written against the Papacy, on the ground that were he to do so, it would -be 'like throwing both doors and windows right open' to Rome to the injury -of the German nation. And in his German speech he added an exclamation, -most characteristic, at the very idea of the absurdity of its being -thought possible, that he could retract anything on this point:--'Good -God, what a great cloak of wickedness and tyranny should I be!' See -Foerstermann's _Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der evangelischen -Kirchen-Reformation_, vol. i. p. 70: Hamburg, 1842. - -[791] I am mainly indebted to Mr. Lupton for this list. - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - -Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. - -Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}. - -The original text includes Greek characters that have been replaced with -transliterations in this text version. - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Oxford Reformers, by Frederic Seebohm - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OXFORD REFORMERS *** - -***** This file should be named 43735.txt or 43735.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/7/3/43735/ - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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