Selections from Erasmus | Page 5

aim of his life was to

increase knowledge, in the assurance that from that reform would
surely come; but to force on reform by an appeal to passion, to settle
religious difficulties by an appeal to emotion was to him madness.
The ideals of Erasmus and Luther were irreconcilable: and bitterness
soon arose between them. From both sides Erasmus was assailed with
unmeasured virulence. The strict Catholics called him a heretic, the
Lutherans a coward. But throughout these stormy years he never
wavered. At the end he was still pursuing the ideal which he had sought
at the outset of his public career--reform guided by knowledge. He
lived to see some of the disasters which he had dreaded as the result of
encouragement given to lawless passion--the Peasants' Revolt in 1525,
and the Anabaptist horrors at Munster ten years later. If he could have
foreseen the course of the next century, he would not have lacked
instances with which to enforce his moral.
After 1516 Erasmus returned to England, and then after a few weeks
settled in the Netherlands, first at the court of Brussels, where he had
been appointed Councillor to the young Archduke Charles; and then at
the University of Louvain. He was incessantly at work, a new edition of
the New Testament being projected within a few weeks of the
publication of the first. This appeared in 1519, after Erasmus had
journeyed to Basel in the summer of 1518 to help with the printing. In
the autumn of 1521 he determined to remove to Basel altogether, to
escape the attacks of the Louvain theologians and to be near his printers.
For the next few years he was at Froben's right hand, editing the
Fathers in one great series of volumes after another, and unsparing of
his health.
It was during this period that one of the best known of his works, the
Colloquia, attained maturity. These were composed first in Paris for a
pupil, as polite forms of address at meeting and parting. In their final
shape they are a series of lively dialogues in which characters, often
thinly disguised, discuss the burning questions of the day with lightness
and humour. In all subsequent times they have been a favourite book
for school reading; and some of Shakespeare's lines are an echo of
Erasmus.
In 1529 religious dissensions drove him from Basel and he took refuge
at Freiburg in the Breisgau, which was still untouched by the
Reformation. There he worked on, in the intervals of severe illness; his

courage never failed him and he was comforted by the affection of his
friends. In 1535 he returned again to Basel, to be at hand in the printing
of a work on preaching, the Ecclesiastes, to which he had given his
recent efforts; and there death, which for twelve years had not seemed
far away, overtook him on July 12, 1536.
* * * * *
I. AN ORDINATION EXAMINATION
Non ab re fuerit hoc loco referre quid acciderit Davidi quondam
episcopo Traiectensi, Ducis Philippi cognomento Boni filio. Vir erat
apprime doctus reique theologicae peritus, quod in nobilibus et illius
praesertim dicionis episcopis profana dicione onustis 5 perrarum est.
Audierat inter tam multos qui sacris initiabantur, paucissimos esse qui
literas scirent. Visum est rem propius cognoscere. In aula in quam
admittebantur examinandi iussit sibi poni cathedram. Ipse singulis
proposuit quaestiones pro gradus quem 10 petebant dignitate;
hypodiaconis futuris leviores, diaconis aliquanto difficiliores,
presbyteris theologicas. Quaeris eventum? Submovit omnes exceptis
tribus. Qui his rebus praeesse solent existimarunt ingens Ecclesiae
dedecus fore, si pro trecentis tres tantum initiarentur. 15 Episcopus, ut
erat fervido ingenio, respondit maius fore dedecus Ecclesiae, si in eam
pro hominibus admitterentur asini et omnibus asinis stolidiores.
Instabant ii quibus hinc aliquid emolumenti metitur, ut moderaretur
sententiam, reputans hoc seculum non 20 gignere Paulos aut
Hieronymos, sed tales recipiendos quales ea ferret aetas. Perstitit
episcopus, negans se requirere Paulos ac Hieronymos, sed asinos pro
hominibus non admissurum. Hic confugiendum erat ad extremam
machinam. Admota est. Quaenam? 'Si qua 25 coepisti' inquiunt 'visum
est pertendere, salaria nobis augeas oportet; alioqui sine his asinis non
est unde vivamus.' Hoc ariete deiectus est erectus ille Praesulis animus.

II. A DOMESTIC AFFRAY
ERASMUS CHRISTIANO S. D.
Salve, mel Atticum. Heri nihil scripsi, et consulto quidem; nam eram
stomachosior. Ne roga in quem, in te inquam. 'Quid commerueram?'
Verebar mihi insidias strui per te hominem argutissimum. Suspectam
habebam illam tuam pyxidem, ne quid simile 5 nobis afferret, quale
ferunt Pandorae pyxidem Epimetheo; quam ubi recluseram, mihi ipsi

succensebam qui fuissem suspiciosulus. 'Cur igitur ne hodie quidem
scripsisti?' inquies. Eramus occupatissimi. 'Quid tandem negotii?' In
spectaculo sedimus, sane iucundo. 10 'Comoedia' inquis 'fuit, an
Tragoedia?' Utrumvis, verum nemo personatus agebat, unicus duntaxat
actus, chorus sine tibiis, fabula nec togata nec palliata, sed planipedia,
humi acta,