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PART II.

Indications

afforded by his letters.

Luther on
Erasmus.

CHAP. V. mium Morice pale by the side of the fury and the scorn of the Julius Exclusus. In his letters we naturally look to find the of character man; and however much they may increase our sympathy for him in his career, it can scarcely be said that they tend to raise our respect for his character. The proud, sensitive scholar, easily elated and easily depressed, impulsive, sanguine, resentful, vain, stands out amid all the apparent contradictions of the evidence. He affected the philosopher, but his philosophy was often discredited by a querulousness somewhat below the ordinary measure of manly fortitude. He wished to be thought indifferent to applause, but the praise of others,—the praise, be it in justice admitted, of the best and wisest of his time,-was his most cherished reward for all his toil. 'Erasmus,' said Luther,—who, though unable to appreciate the tolerance and charity that formed one of the best phases of his antagonist's character', clearly saw through his weaknesses,- Erasmus wishes to be thought contemptuous of the world's opinion, but wants the conImpulsive tempt to be all on his own side'.' His temperament was mus's charac- singularly impulsive: a few courteous phrases, a dexterous tribute to his reputation, together with a very moderate amount of substantial kindness, at once gained his good opinion and drew from him profuse expressions of gratitude3. But when the temporary impression thus produced had subsided, and the poor scholar was left to contrast vague assurances with subsequent performances, his resentment at neglect or insufficient aid was proportionably keen. Of all the eminent men who befriended him in England, there are few,

ness of Eras

ter.

1 We may search in vain through Luther's writings for such a truly Pauline sentiment as the following:-'Sacris quidem litteris ubique prima debetur auctoritas, sed tamen ego nonnunquam offendo quædam vel dicta a veteribus, vel scripta ab ethnicis, etiam poetis tam caste, tam sancte, tam divinitus, ut mihi non possim persuadere, quin pectus illorum, quum illa scriberent, numen aliquod bonum agitaverit. Et fortasse latius se fundit spiritus Christi quam nos interpretamur. Et multi sunt in consortio sanctorum, qui non

sunt apud nos in catalogo.' Convivium Religiosum.

2. Pecuniæ studium nunquam me attigit, famæ gloria nec tantillum tangor.' Erasmus to Servatius, Opera, in 1527. 'At ille sic contemnere gloriam voluit, ut contemptus esset non ab aliis sibi illatus sed apud sese cogitatus.' (Luther, quoted by Müller, Leben des Erasmus, p. 296.)

3 Erasmus, whose tongue maketh of little gnats great elephants, and lifteth up above the stars whosoever giveth him a little exhibition.' Tyndale-Walter, p. 395.

PART II.

tory charac

ticisms:

Italy;

-Fisher and Warham being the most notable exceptions,- CHAP. V. of whom, after having spoken in terms of heartfelt gratitude, he is not subsequently to be found complaining as parsimonious and forgetful. Hence the contradictions with which Contradichis letters abound; contradictions so glaring and so frequent, ter of his crithat both the panegyrist and detractor of the men and tendencies of these times, have claimed the sanction of his authority. If we seek to gather his final and deliberate estimate of the scholarship of Italy at this period, we are confronted by the fact, that almost every complimentary phrase in his letters has to be weighed against an equally uncomplimentary criticism in his Ciceronianus. When he left on Rome and Rome, in 1509, his Encomium Morice was mainly dictated by chagrin at the neglect he had experienced at the Roman court'; in letters of a later date, he declares that Rome was of all capitals the one that had extended to him the most flattering recognition,-that Italy was the one land where learning, whatever its nationality, was certain of receiving due honour. His native Holland is at one time stigmatised On Holland; as a country of barbaric ignorance and the grossest sensuality; he would sooner, he asserts, take up his abode among the Phæacians of antiquity; while on another occasion, when repelling the sarcasms of an antagonist, he exalts his countrymen to the skies. On his first visit to England on England; nothing could exceed his delight at the climate, the men, the learning, and the manners: in writing to his old pupil, Robert Fisher, he assures him that he has found at Oxford

1 Jortin, 1 35. Knight, p. 137.

2 See quotations supra p. 474. Con. sult also his letter to More, written 1520. Opera, III 614-5. 'Uebrigens sind seine Urtheile über Rom und Italien an verschiedenen Orten seiner Schriften sehr ungleich. Hier nennt er die Italiäner das Volk das ihm am besten gefallen, dessen Umgang ihm am angenehmsten gewesen sei; an einem andern Orte spricht er von ihrem gänzlichen Mangel an Aufrichtigkeit; einmal rühmt er ihre grosse Gelehrsamkeit und ihren glühenden Eifer für die classische Litteratur, und anderswo sagt er, er habe ge

glaubt mehr Gelehrsamkeit, ein le-
bendigeres Leben in den Wissen-
schaften daselbst anzutreffen; ja er
fügte hinzu, er wünschte Italien
mehr schuldig zu sein, als er ihm
sei; denn er habe eher neue Kennt-
nisse und Bildung dahin gebracht
als daraus zurück genommen.' Mül-
ler, p. 195.

3In Hollandia fere bimestres non
sedimus quidem, sed, uti in Ægypto
canes, assidue cucurrimus ac bibi-
mus. Equidem malim vel apud
Phæacas vivere.' Jacobo Tutori, III
35.

4 Müller, p. 222.

PART II.

CHAP. V. such finished scholarship, both in Greek and in Latin, that his motives for desiring to visit Italy have lost half their original force'; in writing to Faustus Andrelinus, he tells him that, if he only knew England, he would long to exchange the boorish society in France for a land so highly adorned with every attractive grace'; and yet within five years later,-before any additional experience of our country could have afforded grounds for a change in his opinion, -he is to be found lavishing, in a deliberately composed oration, pronounced in the presence of a distinguished audience, the most unbounded praise on France and its capital, and ranking Englishmen with the Scythians and Carians of antiquity. Swayed by the mood of the hour, while that mood in turn often reflected only some petty disappointment or delusive hope, he left on record each transient impression; little deeming, we may charitably suppose, how each hasty verdict would be pondered and quoted by distant generations.

In studying the details of his more familiar intercourse, we are struck by the fact that he rarely seems to have added to his reputation by his personal presence. It was not merely that his modest stature, with the blue eyes and flaxen hair that bespoke his Batavian extraction, was not imposing; his timid, vacillating, sensitive spirit faltered in the presence of more robust though far more vulgar natures; and even over those few who could discern the finer traits of his character, much as they envied his attainments and admired his His portrait devotion to letters, his genius cast no spell. Lavater, who by Lavater. carefully compared five portraits of the great scholar, declared that they all indicated with remarkable agreement the same

as analysed

1 See supra, p. 474, n. 3, 4.

2 Tu quoque, si sapis, huc advola-
bis, quid ita juvat te hominem tam
nasutum inter merdas Gallicas con-
senescere?... Quanquam si Britanniæ
dotes satis pernosces, Fauste, næ tu
alatis pedibus huc accurreres et si
podagra tua non sineret, Dædalum te
fieri optares.'
III 56.

3 Annon videmus, ut inter feras,
ita et inter nationes hominum, fero-

Ora

cissimas quasque, maximeque bar-
baras, pugnacissimas esse? sicuti
Cares, Scythas, et Britannos.'
tion to Philip, duke of Burgundy, A.D.
1504 (Jortin, II 171). Jortin under-
stands the reference to be to the
English of Erasmus's own day; but
it is at least possible that Erasmus
meant to refer to the ancient Britons.
See also Knight's observations, p.
121.

PART II.

characteristics. In each there was the same retreating, CHAP. V. timorous, half-suspicious bearing of the head; the furtive humour playing round the well-formed mouth; the quiet half-closed eyes, gleaming with the self-constrained enjoyment of a shrewd observer and skilful, dexterous contriver; the nose, full of refinement and sensibility; the broad wellshaped chin, indicating a meditative nature, equally removed from indolence and from violence. In the lines that crossed the forehead the physiognomist saw traces of a less favorable kind, a want of moral strength; while nowhere could he discern the signs of destructive power, of a bold, resolute, combative nature1.

ture at Cam

reer an exam

dent.

Such was the man, and such had been his career, who His first lecearly in the October term of the year 1511, saw gathered bridge. round him at Cambridge a small circle of auditors to whom he offered instruction in this same Greek language, the study of which they all had probably heard both violently abused and warmly defended; and, with all his defects, we may yet allow that learning, in that day, could have had no worthier apostle than Erasmus,—the student no more inspiring exam- His past caple. Like some ship,-to use the trite simile under which he ple to the stuoften spoke of his vicissitudes,-driven from its course by violent storms or becalmed in strange latitudes, the poor scholar had many a time been carried whither he would not, and left with no guide save that one dominant resolve which formed the polar star of his career. One he was, whom a cruel fate had bastardised and driven from his native land,whom mercenary guardians had coerced into that very profession which most of all threatened to mar his projects and to break his spirit,—who had been exposed to all that could crush life and high purpose out of a young heart amid the harsh discipline of the friars of Herzogenbusch, to all that

1 Quoted by Müller, pp. 108-9. The portrait by Holbein, now the property of the earl of Radnor, recently on view at the Royal Academy of Arts, has the disadvantage of having been taken when Erasmus was in his fifty-seventh year; but it closely corresponds to Lavater's criticism.

Quippe qui jam annum solidum adversis ventis, adverso flumine, irato cælo navigem.' Opera, III 83.— 'Cum me meus genius pluribus casibus atque erroribus exercuerit, quam unquam Neptunus Ulyssem Homericum.' Ibid. 111 506.

PART II.

CHAP. V. could ensnare and chain down the intellect among the sensual unlettered natures that composed the community at Stein,— who had known the pestilential precincts, unwholesome fare, and merciless floggings of 'Montaceto,'-in whom an excruciating malady, that left him only with his life, marred the very enjoyment of existence, and who yet, triumphant over every difficulty and every disaster, had risen to be an oracle in Europe, to gain the favour of princes and courts, who was finally to inaugurate a new religious era, and to win a deathless fame. Such was Desiderius Erasmus, as, with the little grammar of Chrysoloras in his hand, he stood confronting the gaze, half curious, half reverent, of his Cambridge class,-emphatically one of those who, in a higher sense than the poet's, vitai lampada tradunt.

Uncertain

his Cam

bridge letters.

In endeavouring to connect together the few disjointed chronology of facts that have reached us respecting Erasmus's Cambridge experience, we find an additional source of uncertainty in the doubtful chronology of his letters written during this time'. So far however as the correct dates are to be inferred from the contents, it seems probable that his earliest Cambridge letter is one to Ammonius, written from Queens' College, wherein he speaks of himself as in but indifferent health and even deferring work with pupils until more thoroughly Ammonius recruited. Ammonius of Lucca was a courtly, refined, and kindly hearted Italian, who, by virtue of his attainments as a scholar, was afterwards appointed to be Latin secretary to Henry VIII; and also held the post of collector of the papal dues in England. He seems to have taken a special interest in Erasmus's Cambridge prospects, and throughout the period of the latter's residence there, to have acted the part of a generous and sympathising friend. It is in a second letter to Ammonius, accordingly, that we find the oft-quoted passage, in which Erasmus states that he has already lectured on the

of Lucca. b. 1477.

d. 1517.

Erasmus's first Greek lecture at Cambridge.

1 On the chronology of Erasmus's earlier letters see Prof. Brewer's observations, Letters and Papers of the Reign of Hen. VIII, vol. I, letters 1842 and 1849; and Mr Seebohm's Oxford Reformers, p. 136.

Auditoribus nondum copiam mei

feci, cupiens valetudini inservire.' Opera, III 108.

3 Knight, pp. 132-3; Jortin, 1 35-6; Brewer, Letters and Papers, 11 4, 139. Ammonius was the successor of Polydore Vergil when Wolsey had thrown the latter into prison.

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