Chapter 11

IUGULAVI] 'I have disposed of', lit. 'have cut their throats'.

201. CULTU CANONICORUM] The proper dress of an Augustinian canon consisted of a 'tunica candida cum linea toga sub nigro pallio. Tegumentum a scapulis impositum cervicem totumque contegit caput'.

215. THESAURARII FILIOS] Matthias and Mark Lauweryn, sons of the Archduke Philip's Treasurer; who were studying at Bologna in 1507. Mark afterwards became an intimate friend of Erasmus.

218. Julius II was Pope, 1503-13.

228. _admonitus sum_ is followed here first by a statement and then by a piece of advice.

251. APUD MONACHAS ALIQUAS] Convents of nuns require a resident priest to conduct their services. These posts, the work of which was light, were usually given to monks advanced in years. Servatius himself in later life retired in this way to a convent of Augustinian nuns near Leiden.

253. NIHIL MOROR] The technical formula of dismissal, either of persons receiving an audience, or of an accused person when the charge against him is withdrawn. Then, by transference, 'I do not detain to make inquiries about,' 'I do not care about.'

268. PASCHA] Easter, 16 April 1514. In calculating dates the Romans reckoned inclusively, so that the _tertius dies_ is Tuesday.

XVII

[An extract from a letter written in September 1514. On his way to Basel Erasmus passed through Strasburg, where he was welcomed with enthusiasm, especially by the Literary Society, of which James Wimpfeling, a native of Schlettstadt, was head. After his departure the Society, through Wimpfeling, wrote him a formal letter of welcome into Germany, to which this letter is the reply.]

6. CANTHAROS] casks.

8. John Sapidus (a Latinized form of Witz) was headmaster of the Latin school at Schlettstadt, which was one of the most important in South Germany.

15. Beatus Rhenanus (1485-1547) became a most faithful friend to Erasmus, working as his coadjutor in many of his publications.

44, 5. DE EODEM ... OLEO] A proverbial phrase for an uninterrupted effort. For the combination cf. _oleum et operam perdere_, to lose time (literally, light) and trouble.

46. _liceat_ represents a slight change of mental attitude as to the condition being fulfilled.

62. CIRCUMFERUNT, &c.] The subjunctive would be more usual.

XVIII

[A letter written in 1516 at the close of a visit to England, when Erasmus was preparing to settle in the Netherlands. Reuchlin, to whom it is addressed, was the first Hebrew scholar in Europe at this time. The testimony in the final paragraph to the progress of learning in England is valuable, inasmuch as it is not written to an Englishman.]

3. ROFFENSIS] John Fisher (c. 1459-1535) had been a constant patron to Erasmus. He had been confessor to the Lady Margaret Tudor, mother of Henry VII; and through his influence she had used her wealth to endow learning, founding Professorships of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge, and two colleges--Christ's in 1506 and St. John's which was opened in 1516--at Cambridge. Fisher became Bishop of Rochester and Chancellor of Cambridge in 1504, and was President of Queens' College, Cambridge, 1505-8.

7. PRO MEA VIRILI] _sc_. parte.

12. VENANTUR] It was evidently considered quite decorous for a bishop to hunt. Warham's abstinence from the chase, which is commended in XXII and XXIII, was clearly exceptional.

28. CALAMORUM NILOTICORUM] pens made from the reeds that grow on the banks of the Nile. Reed-pens from Cyprus were also in demand at this time.

30. POSSIS] _Si ... sunt_ is not the protasis.

38. AD MEAM EPISTOLAM] in which Erasmus asked permission to dedicate his edition of Jerome to the Pope. It was dated 21 May 1515 from London; and Leo's reply 10 July 1515 from Rome.

44. UTERQUE CARDINALIS] Grimani and another, to whom Erasmus had written on the same subject.

46. Pace (c. 1482-1536), a scholar and diplomatist, who succeeded Colet as Dean of St. Paul's in 1519, and was now ambassador (oratorem gerere).

49. ET HIERONYMUM] as well as the New Testament. Jerome was dedicated to Warham.

51. CAROLUS] The young prince Charles, who afterwards succeeded his grandfather Ferdinand as king of Spain in 1517, and his grandfather Maximilian as the Emperor Charles V in 1519. He was now governing the Netherlands.

PRAEBENDAM] A canonry at Courtray.

55. ARCHIEPISCOPUS] Warham.

57. OMNIA SUA] Cf. XXIII. 24.

70. PHILIPPUM] Probably Melanchthon (1497-1560), who was Reuchlin's great-nephew. Erasmus evidently wished that he should be sent to St. John's.

XIX

[This letter, written to a familiar friend at Basel, describes Erasmus' journey down the Rhine to the Netherlands in September 1518; after a few months' residence in Basel, during which a beginning had been made with the second edition of the New Testament.]

5. DISTENTUS] from _distineo_.

10. ILLI] _sc_. caupones.

13. Gallinarius was the parish-priest of Breisach and an old friend of Erasmus.

15. MINORITAM] A name for a Franciscan; formed from the humble style adopted by the Order, 'Fratres Minores.'

17. SCOTICAM] worthy of Scotus; cf. XXIV. 27 n.

22. HORAM ... DECIMAM] Erasmus is here using the modern, and not the Roman reckoning; for which cf. IX. 217 n.

23. AD ILLORUM CLEPSYDRAS] _sc_. usque ad multam noctem: not being allowed to rise from table, to go to bed.

30. SODALITATIS] The Literary Society over which Wimpfeling presided. Cf. XVII introduction.

35. ANGLUS EQUUS] A horse given him by an English friend.

39. Maternus Hatten was precentor of the cathedral at Spires.

45. CAESARIS] The Emperor Maximilian.

53. PROFESSUS EST] taught, was professor.

71. PRAEFECTUS] Cf. XVI. 251 n.

73. OFFICIALIS] legal adviser, chancellor.

83. DIE DOMINICO] Sunday: Ital. Domani, Fr. Dimanche.

91. COMITEM NOVAE AQUILAE] Hermann, Count of Neuenahr (Germ. Aar, a poetical name for an eagle).

99. HOMERUS] _Il_. 3. 214.

107. TOTIES OFFERT] Cf. XVI. 135-6.

123. HESIODUS] I have not been able to find this phrase in Hesiod. Erasmus is perhaps unconsciously contaminating _Sc_. 149 with Hom. _Od_. 17. 322-3.

130. QUANTUS, &c.] Hor. _Epod_. 10. 7, 8.

148. PERIODUS] 'a round'; apparently the canons dined with one another in turn.

193. VEL MANU CONTACTA] 'with a mere touch of my hand.'

211. CUBICULUM] Erasmus had a room in the Collège du Lis at Louvain.

226. HEBRAEUM] A Jewish physician.

268. LAURINUS] Cf. XVI. 215 n.

291. POETAE] Cf. Hor. _C_. 3. 24. 31-2.

XX

[A letter to Erasmus' old friend and patron.]

10. WINTONIENSEM] Richard Foxe (c. 1448-1528), a powerful statesman and ecclesiastic. He founded Corpus Christi College at Oxford in 1516 to be the home of the Renaissance.

13. EBORACENSIS] In 1518 Wolsey, who was now Archbishop of York and Cardinal, founded six public Lectureships in Oxford, Theology, Humanity, Rhetoric and Canon Law being among the subjects on which lectures were provided.

14. SCHOLA] the University.

18. ROFFENSI] Cf. XVIII. 3 n.

28. TUAE CELSITUDINI] as we should say, 'your Lordship.'

32. CONFLICTANDUM] in repelling attacks made on his edition of the New Testament.

34. HOMERICA] Cf. _Il_. 1. 194 seq.

XXI

[An account of an explosion of gunpowder which took place in Basel in Sept. 1526. The correspondent to whom the letter is addressed was Principal of Busleiden's Collegium trilingue at Louvain.]

1. AFRICA] An allusion to the proverb, 'Semper Africa novi aliquid apportat.' Erasmus' Africa here is the city of Basel, where religious innovations were already beginning.

21. GIGANTUM MOLES] When they tried to scale the heights of heaven by piling Mt. Pelion on Mt. Ossa.

22. Salmoneus was a presumptuous Thessalian who invented thunder and lightning of his own, and was killed by Jupiter as a punishment.

Ixion was the king of the Lapithae who was bound upon an ever-revolving wheel as punishment for having affronted Juno.

26. FLORENTIAE] When the bellicose Pope Julius II was attacking Bologna in the autumn of 1506, Erasmus took refuge at Florence.

28. TONABAT] Impersonal.

58. PULVERIS BOMBARDICI] 'gunpowder.'

62, 3. RIMAS ... SPECULATORIAS] 'loopholes.'

65. ESSET ONERI FERENDO] Dative of Purpose; cf. solvendo esse, to be solvent.

80. LATERIS] _sc_. turris.

107. MEDIUM UNGUEM] The middle finger was regarded as 'the finger of scorn'.

111. CORYBANTES] The priests of Cybele, the mother of the gods, whose worship was conducted with a great noise of musical instruments.

114. NOSTRA TYMPANA] This playful protest indicates that there was a growing fashion of celebrating festive occasions with a din of drums and trumpets. It doubtless embodies also the dislike of the scholar for anything that disturbed his quiet.

ANAPAESTIS] The rataplan and rat-tat of the drum are compared to the metric feet, the anapaest ([Symbols: arsis, arsis, thesis] and the pyrrhic ([Symbols: arsis, arsis]).

121. CELEBRITAS] abstract for concrete.

130. TONITRUI] This form occurs in the Vulgate; but in classical Latin the singular follows the fourth declension.

XXII

[This and the following extract are to some extent coincident, but each contributes something to the picture of Warham which the other has not. Both were written in 1533, shortly after Warham's death, XXII in the first book of the _Ecclesiastes_ (see p. 15[*]), which was begun some time before it was published; XXIII as a new preface for an edition of Jerome which was being printed in Paris.

[* At the end of LIFE OF ERASMUS. Transcriptor.]

William Warham (c. 1450-1532) was an eminent lawyer before he received ecclesiastical preferment. He was Master of the Rolls 1494-1502, Bishop of London 1501, Archbishop of Canterbury 1503, Lord Chancellor of England 1504-15, and Chancellor of Oxford University from 1506 until his death. In the severance of the English Church from Rome he was an unwilling agent to Henry VIII.]

8. IURIS UTRIUSQUE] The two branches of law, civil and canon (or church).

34. VENATUI] Cf. XVIII. 12 n.

48. A CENIS] See p. 157. [ADDITIONAL NOTES at the end of this text. Transcriptor.]

66. IBI] in England.

79, 80. FUIT ... EST] The subjunctive would be grammatically regular, but in both cases the indicative is used to express a fact independent of any condition.

82. ESSET] The subjunctive expresses the ground of the refusal.

84. PRAESTARE] Cf. l. 100 and _oratorem gerere_, XVIII. 47.

93. CUI RESIGNARAM] John Thornton, Suffragan Bishop of Dover, who was appointed to succeed Erasmus on 31 July 1512. Cf. XVI. 145 n.

94. _a suffragiis_] A suffragan. This form was common in late Latin for the designation of an office; cf. ab epistolis, a secretary; a libellis, a notary; a cubiculis, a poculis.

95. IUVENEM] Richard Masters, appointed in Nov. 1514. He was afterwards involved in the affair of the 'Holy Maid of Kent' and was deprived in 1534.

101. METROPOLITANUS] The title of an archbishop as head of an ecclesiastical province. All the bishops in his province are suffragans to him.

XXIII

5. CONCINNATUS] i.e. compositus.

16. CHARTIS] 'playing-cards.' An Act of 1463 forbade the importation of them into England; Foxe's statutes for C.C.C. Oxford (XX. 10 n.), dated 1517, prohibit the use 'chartarum pictarum (_cardas_ nuncupant)'.

24. COMMUNIONEM] Cf. XVIII. 57-8.

32. PRO MORE REGIONIS] The following extracts from Erasmus' writings show the reputation of the English at this time in the matter of entertainment: 'Angli ostentatores': 'miramur si quis videat frugalem Anglum': 'asscribo Anglis lautas mensas et formam.'

33. VULGARIBUS] _sc_. cibis.

38. HOLOSERICIS] _sc_. vestibus. Similarly _byssinis ac damascenis_, l. 44.

40. CONVENTUM] This took place in July 1520, shortly after Henry's meeting with Francis I at Ardres, known as the 'Field of the Cloth of Gold '.

41. UNDECIM] Erasmus' memory for dates was uncertain.

42. EBORACENSIS] Wolsey.

XXIV

[A letter written in 1521 from Anderlecht, a suburb of Brussels, to Jodocus Jonas, a member of the University of Erfurt, and afterwards one of the followers of Luther. Jonas had asked for a sketch of the life of Colet, who had died on 16 Sept. 1519; and Erasmus in reply sent this letter, to convey some impression of the man to whom he felt himself to owe so much. With it he coupled a slighter sketch of another friend, also dead, in whose character he traced much the same features as he had admired in Colet. Very little is known of Vitrarius beyond the information contained in this letter; without which our knowledge of Colet and also of Henry VIII--the 'divine young king', as he was often called in these early years--would not be so full as it is.]

2. PAUCIS] _sc_. verbis.

17. ORDINIS FRANCISCANI] The order of friars founded by St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226).

18. ADOLESCENS INCIDERAT] Here and in l. 38 Erasmus is clearly thinking of the circumstances under which he himself had embraced the monastic life (see p. 8[*]). His strong bias against monasticism, which is very evident throughout this piece, often makes him unjust in his representations of it.

[* At the beginning of LIFE OF ERASMUS. Transcriptor.]

27. SCOTICAS ARGUTIAS] An unflattering allusion to the philosophy of John Duns Scotus (the Scot), who was one of the leaders of mediaeval thought; _fl_. 1300.

30. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (died 397) was--with Jerome, Leo, and Gregory--one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church. Cyprian (died 257) was also one of the Latin Fathers.

50. OFFENDICULO] Cf. 1 Cor. 8. 9.

55. UNGUES] Cf. Juv. 7. 232.

56. DEDISSES] A conditional clause; the condition being expressed by placing the verb first, without _si_. Cf. Verg, _Aen_. 6. 31 'Partem opere in tanto, sineret dolor, Icare, haberes'; or in English such forms as 'Give him an inch, he will take an ell'.

68. DIVIDEBAT] Mr. Lupton, who has edited this letter, gives an example of this chilling method of division and subdivision, from a sermon on the Son of the Widow of Nain. 'Death is first divided into (1) the natural, (2) the sinful, (3) the spiritual, (4) the eternal. Of these 1 is further classified as (_a_) general, (_b_) dreadful, (_c_) fearful, (_d_) terrible. 2 is next compared to 1 in respect of four common instruments of natural death, that is to say, (_e_) the sword, (_f_) fire, (_g_) missiles, (_h_) water; and so on, to the end. This is no exaggerated specimen.'

81. Thomas of Aquino (1225-1274) was, like Duns Scotus, one of the leading mediaeval philosophers.

Durandus (c. 1230-1296) was a French writer on canon law and liturgical questions.

IURIS UTRIUSQUE] Cf. XXII. 8 n.

83. CENTONES] _cento_ is lit. a patchwork, such as a quilt. The term was then applied to a kind of composition which came into fashion in later classical times and was very popular in the Middle Ages. It was made by stringing together detached lines and parts of lines from an author into a complete whole with a definite subject. Such centos were often made from Vergil and on Christian themes; but the term is probably used here for collections of texts from the Bible or the Fathers.

118. Ghisbertus was town-physician of St. Omer and a friend of Erasmus.

119. UTRIUSQUE SCHOLAE] 'of each party, or class.'

122. VIRTUTES] The Vulgate word, which in the English Bible is regularly translated 'mighty works'.

143. SODALI] As a safeguard against scandal the Franciscan rule prescribed that no brother should go outside the monastery without another brother as companion.

152. HILARI DATORE] Cf. 2 Cor. 9. 7.

154. Antony of Bergen, Abbot of St. Bertin's at St. Omer, was brother of the Bishop of Cambray, Henry of Bergen, to whom Erasmus had been secretary on leaving Steyn. This incident occurred in 1502, the only year in which Erasmus was at St. Bertin's in Lent.

157. QUADRAGESIMAE] Lent, the first day of which was roughly the fortieth before Easter. Cf. Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays; where the calculation is again only approximate.

163. OMITTERES] _Si_ must be understood from _nisi faceres_.

165. IUBILAEO] The faithful were encouraged to make pilgrimage to Rome in years of Jubilee, those that did so receiving the Jubilee Indulgence. The offerings made in return for these became so fruitful a source of revenue that successive Popes were tempted to reduce the interval at which Jubilees recurred from a hundred years to fifty, then to thirty-three, and finally Paul II (1464-1471) to twenty-five. Erasmus' statement may be an incorrect attribution to Alexander VI (1493-1503) of the action of Paul II in halving the period of fifty years; or it may be an allusion to the custom of celebrating the Jubilee outside Rome in the second year. In any case the Jubilee of 1500 is referred to here. The practice also grew up of selling the Jubilee Indulgence away from Rome; and bishops used to purchase the rights in their own dioceses for a fixed sum, afterwards reimbursing themselves by collecting what they could through their own agents.

169. SORTEM] principal; the sum given by the bishop for the right to sell indulgences.

182. SIMONIACI] Cf. Acts 8. 18 seq. The sin of selling spiritual privileges was called simony.

188. AFFIXA EST] to the doors of the principal church, or to some equally public place.

195. EPISCOPUM MORINENSEM] The Bishop of Terouenne, whose title, _Morinensis_, was derived from the coincidence of his diocese with the territory of the Morini in classical times.

199. AURI SACRA FAMES] Cf. Verg. _Aen_. 3. 56, 7.

201. COLLEGERANT] _sc_. accusatores.

222. THYNNUM] a tunny-fish caught in their nets, i.e. a rich person from whom gifts might be extracted.

231. GUARDIANUM] Warden; the regular title of the head of a Franciscan community.

244. HUNC] The new warden; _qui cupiebant_ being his former companions.

246. SUBOLESCERET] 'grew up'; i.e. came to be.

249. VIRGINUM] Cf. XVI. 251 n.

261. GEMMEUM] Probably an allusion to the resemblance between _Vitrarius_ and _Vitrum_. The vernacular form of his name is not known. Mr. Lupton conjectures Vitrier; or perhaps it was Vitré.

269. STOICUM] used to denote a morose fellow. The Stoics were a school of Greek philosophers, founded by Zeno in the third century B.C. They practised great austerity of life.

275. PATER] Sir Henry Colet, Kt., was Lord Mayor of London in 1486 and again in 1495.

285. SCHOLASTICAE] of the 'schoolmen', Scotus, Aquinas, &c., who taught philosophy in the mediaeval universities.

287. SEPTEM ARTIUM] A course of education introduced in the sixth century. It was divided into the _trivium_, grammar, logic, and rhetoric; and the _quadrivium_, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

290. Plotinus (died 262 A.D.) was the Founder of Neo-Platonism; which he taught in Rome.

296. DIONYSIO] The reference here is to some philosophical writings, which in the Middle Ages were regarded as the work of Dionysius the Areopagite, who is mentioned in Acts 17. 34 as a pupil of St. Paul. They are now attributed to an unknown writer in the fifth century A.D.

303. Dante (1265-1321) and Petrarch (1304-1374) are evidently mentioned here as masters of Italian poetry, not for their work as forerunners of the Renaissance. Mr. Lupton conjectures with probability that Gower (c. 1325-1408) and Chaucer (c. 1340-1400) are the English poets intended.

309. ENARRAVIT] 'lectured on'.

316. CODICIBUS] manuscripts or printed copies of the Epistles to refer to.

319. DOCTORIS TITULUS] Cf. X. 23 n.

324. COLLEGIO] Chapter.

337. SYMBOLUM FIDEI] the Creed.

366. Erasmus describes a visit with Colet to Canterbury in the _Peregrinatio religionis ergo_, one of the _Colloquia_.

383. St. Paul's School was founded in 1510-1.

389. PRIMUS INGRESSUS] The portion of the room first entered.

CATECHUMENOS] A Greek word denoting candidates for admission to the Christian religion, who were undergoing instruction before baptism: here, pupils just entered.

399. REM DIVINAM] Divine service, with the mass; cf. ll. 551 seq.

437. PARADOXIS] 'unusual.'

438. PROCELLIS] Cf. ll. 597 seq.

449. PUERO] Probably here 'a servant'.

459, 60. SUMPTO ... PUSILLO] This substantival use of a neuter adjective is confined in classical Latin to the nominative and accusative cases.

474. ALTERAM ... PARTEM] _sc_. epistolae; i.e. the sketch of Colet.

489. HUNC] The person intended here must be not Scotus but Aquinas, who is the author of the _Catena Aurea_, a continuous commentary on the Gospels. This violation of the ordinary rule that _hic_ refers to the nearer of two persons mentioned is necessitated by the appropriation of _ille_ to Colet.

493. AFFECTUUM] Mr. Lupton translates 'unction'.

511. DECIDIT] 'settled,' 'left.'

516. APUD ITALOS] Mr. Seebohm, _Oxford Reformers_, 3rd ed. p. 22, conjectures that these Italian monks may have been Savonarola and his companions.

519. GERMANOS] Mr. Lupton conjectures that the Order of the Brethren of the Common Life, founded at Deventer by Gerard Groot in 1384, may be here intended. If this is correct, there is significance in the use of _residerent_, marking Colet's opinion, instead of _resident_; which would make the statement Erasmus' own: for Erasmus had been for two years at a school kept by the Brethren in Hertogenbosch and had not a high opinion of them.

542. COLLEGIA] Colet's censure of the colleges in the English universities must apply to the older institutions founded before the Renaissance. Erasmus is probably recalling here some utterance of the days before the foundation of Christ's (1506) and St. John's (1516) at Cambridge, and Corpus Christi (1516) at Oxford.

544. SCHOLIS PUBLICIS] Mr. Lupton rightly interprets this of the 'schools' at the universities, in which public lectures were given; and shows that as the lecturer had to hire the 'school' for his lecture, the competition for fees would necessarily be keen. Cf. also l. 576. The term is also used at this period for a school maintained publicly by a town.

548. UT CONFESSIONEM] Cf. ll. 133 seq.

563. ANSIS OMNIBUS] Like a vessel made with handles on all sides, i.e. more than are necessary: 'at all points.'

570, 1. AD TERNIONES] into groups of three, in a _Breviloquium dictorum Christi_. Mr. Lupton instances the three words to Mary Magdalene in John 20. 15-7. Cf. also l. 619.

574. CULTUM ECCLESIASTICUM] public celebration of Divine Service.

598. EPISCOPO] Rich. Fitzjames, Bp. of London, 1506-22.

605. COLLEGII] The canons and other ecclesiastical officers together constituted St. Paul's a 'collegiate church'.

606. QUIRITABANTUR] 'lamented.' The verb is commonly active; but the deponent form is cited by a grammarian from Varro.

608. ORIENTATE MONASTERIUM] Mr. Lupton shows that St. Paul's was in old times a monastery; and suggests that Erasmus, whose information probably came from Colet, was thinking of a king of the East Saxons, who took the religious habit there. The name Eastminster seems, however, to have been applied not to St. Paul's, but to an abbey near the Tower.

615. CANTUARIENSEM] Warham: see XXII and XXIII.

619. ILLUD EX EVANGELIO] John 21. 15-7.

635. PACEM] Cf. Cic. _Fam_. 6. 6. 5.

636. ID ... TEMPORIS] This attack on Colet may be dated in Lent of either 1512 or 1513; for in each year preparations were being made for a war with France. It is not clear what interval of time is meant by Erasmus to have elapsed between this and the attack mentioned in ll. 655 seq. about Easter 1513.

637. MINORITAE DUO] Edmund Birkhead, Bishop of St. Asaph 15 April 1513--died April 1518)--cf. l. 687--and Henry Standish who succeeded him in the see.

639. IN POETAS] because Colet allowed classical Latin poetry to be read in his new school. The Church had always discouraged the study of the poets of antiquity, on the ground of the immoral character of many of their writings.

656. PASCHA] Easter, 27 March 1513. This incident can only be placed in 1513: because the expedition of 1512 started in the summer.

657. PARASCEVES] Good Friday: Gk. [Greek: Paraskeuae], the day of preparation before the sabbath of the Passover.

666. CONSISTERET] _consistere_ means 'to take a stand with a person', 'to agree.' This impersonal use is not classical.