Ltfe and Letters

LTFE AND LETTERS LECTURES DELIVERED AT OXFORD 1898-4 NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBEER'S SONS 1896 [AN rights reserued] LIFE AND LETTERS OF ERASMUS LECTURES DELIVERED AT OXFORD 1893-4 NEW YORK CHARLESSCRIBNER’S SONS 1896 [AN right8 dl ...\. l . ERASMUS l PREFACE THEfollowing Lectures are published as they were delivered. The references areto the edition of the Works of Erwmus which was brought out at Leyden in 1702. The letters from which I quote are so numerous and so elaborate that it is impossible for me in a mere sketch to givecomplete translations of them. I have been obliged, as the reader will see, to abridge, compress, and epitomise. My object has been rather to lead historical readers to a study of Erasmus’s own writings than to provide an abbreviated snbsti- tute for them. L Erasmus advises students to read only the best boob on the subjects with which they are occupied. He cautions them against loading their memories with the errora of inferior writers which they will aften wards have to throw off and forget. The best de- scription of the state of Europe in the age imme- diately preceding the Reformation will be found iu : the correspondence of Erasmus himself. I can prom- i i ise my own readers that if they will accept Erasmus for a guide in that entangled period,they winill not i wander far out of the way. J. A. FROUDE. July, 1894. LIFE AND LETTERS OF ERASMUS. LECTURE I. THEsubject of these lectures was born at fitter- dam in 1467. Charles the Bold had just beoome Duke of Burgundy. Louis XI. was King of France. Philip de Commines wiU have told you about Charles and Louis. If not De Commines, you will have read about them in “ Queutin Dnrward.” Edward IV. had fought his may to the throne of England. Caxton was just settiug up his printing-press, and Columbus was making adventurous voyagesanywhere between Iceland and the tropics, observing the stars and med- . itating on the shape of the globe. The country in ’. which Erasmus came into the world was the rival of Italyin commerce and art and learning. Antwerp was the mart of Western Europe. The tom in the Low Countries - Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Amster- dam - were great manufacturing centres, inhabited by a dense population of industrious burghers and ar- tisans, subjects of the Duchy of Burgundy, but tena- cious of their liberties, and fierce in asserting them; governed by their own laws and their own representa- tives -a free people in the modernsense. If the mind of a man inherits its qualities from the stook to which he belongs, there was no likelier spot in Europe to be the birthplace of a vigorous independent thinker. The father of Erasmus was named Gerrard, pm 2 L+ and Letters of Erusmt1.u. noun&, I suppose, Gierard, from ++en “to desire,” or “long passionately.” In the son the word was Latinized into Desiderius, and Grajcized afterwards according to the affectation of the time into Erasmus, just as Reuehlin became Capnio. and Swartzerde was turned into hfelanchthon ; affectionate nicknames which hardened into permanence. Lcgcnd says that Erasmus was what is called a love&ild. Tho father was a man of some station, well educated - with a singularly interesting and eveu fascinating character. He fell in love, it is said, with a certain Margaret, daughter of a physician at Sieben Fkrgen. Margaret was equally in love with him. For some unknown reason the relations, either his or hers, opposed their marriage. They were imprudent, and the usual con- sequences seemed likely to follow. At this dangerous time business of some kind required Gerrard’s pres- ’ ence at Rome. He went expecting to return immedi- ately, when the marriage was to be completed, to save the legitimacy of the expected child. He waa de- tained. Communicationswere irregular. The relations sent a story after him that Margaret waa dead. He believed it, and in despair became a priest. His marriage was made thus impossible, and he discovered the trick when it was too late for remedy. Thus the child was horn out of wedlock. So ran the story. It grew up out of tradition when Emmus had become famous,and his enemies liked to throw a slur upon his parentage. It is perhaps a lie altogether ; perhaps only partly a lie. The difficulty is that Erasmus says distinctly that he was a second child, and had a brother three years older than himself. Them is no suggestion of any previous marriage with mother person. The connection of his father and mother muat therefore have been of long oontinu- Lecture I. 3 ance. Eramus’s own letters are the only trustworthy authority for his early life. From them we learn that the two children were brought up lie other people’s children under the joint care of theirfather and - mother,and that theyounger was his mother’sspecial favourite, a bright clever little fellow, with flaxenhair, grey-blueeyes, and sharp cleaneutfeatures; very pretty, it is said, and with a sweet-toned voice which seemed to say that Nature meant him for a musician. The mother thought so, and proposed to make a little angel of him, and train him as a chorister. But he had no real gift that way, and no taste for it. In his later years he came even to hate the droning of eccle- siastical music. The chorister plan failing, hewas entered when nine years old as a day boy at a school at Deventer ; hismother removing there from Rotterdam to take care of him. The school had a reputation. The mas- :* ter was a friend of his father: amonghis schwlfel- 1. lows were several who were afterwards distinguished, especially Adrian of Utrecht,tutor to Charles V., r Cardinal Regent of Spain, and eventually pope. The little boy soon showed talent, had FZU extraordinary j memory, learnt Horaoe and Terenoe by heart, and composed verses of his own. He showed a passionate fondnem for books; devoured all that hecould get i r hold of ; got up mi debates ; challenged other boys S i to dispute withhim putsof language or literature i X’ in approved university style. He says that he was ill- i taught, that his master was illiterate, and did not un- derstand him. He once composed what he considered 1 ~ an excetlent Latin letter to the man, for which he ex- j peoted to be complimented. The master only told 1 him to mind his handwriting, and attend to his pane- .L tuation. There was free use of the rod besides, snd 1 4 Life and Letters of Erasmus. Emmw never pardoned his tyrant as Horace pardoned his plagosus Orbilius. One can easily under- stand that a quick forward lad, conscious of superior abilities, may havc been troublesome and insubordi- nate. There is a story of a pear-tree in a convent garden which the boys now and then visited at night, with Emmus for a ringleader, when the rod may have been legitimately called into use. But he says distinctly that he was once severely flogged for a fault of which the master knew that he was innocent, merely ? from a general theory that a flogging would be gwd for him. He could never have been the model good boy of storybooks, who learnt his lessons and never did wrong. It is noticeable,however, that, in spite of this, it was early recognized that he ww no common lad. He was pointed out to visitors as a boy of ex- ceptional promise. When he W= eleven years old, the famous Rudolph Agricolal came to Deventer to inspect the school. Erasmus was brought up to him : the great man patted his hen poll, and said, “This little fellow will come to something by-and-by.” Eraamus hated the master, and perhaps with some reason. We have only Erasuds own story, however, and one would like to hear the other. It is quite certain that the man retained the confidence of Eras- mm’s father in spita of the boy’s complaints. Shortly after the visit of &la the mother died. Her husband was unable to survive her loss. E- mus and his elder brother Peter were now orphans, and were left under the guardianship of three of hia father’e friends, a banker in the tom, a burgher m- who soon died of the plague, and the master of another sob001 at Goude. The hanker was busy with 1 ahem lay it vu zintbisr. Lectum I. 5 his own affairs, and gave the schoolmaster the whole charge. There was some property, in ready money, bills, and land -not much, Erasmus says, but enough to launch his brother and himself respectably in the world. What followed was related afterwards by himself in a letter to Grunnius, a high official at the Apos- tolic Court, and intended of course for the Pope hm- self.' Erasmus never told wilful lies. He detested lies as heartily as Achiiles, but he never forgave an injury, and a fool to him was a8 much a criminal aa a knave. The guardians, hesays, made away with this property. He suggests fraud; but as he adds htit is a common fault of guardians to neglect their wards' interests, he meausno more thanthat they were guilty of culpable negligence. The banker had left all to the schoolmaster. The schoolmaster had been careless ; money, land, and bills werewasted almost to nothing, and to crown their own delin- quency and get their charge off their hands, they agreed that the two boys should be sent into a monas- tery, and so, as the phrase went, he provided for.

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