Part 7 (2/2)

To his joy, however, he found his manuscripts safe on the other side At the castle of Hauest of Mountjoy There, on 7 July, a letter found him, written on 18 April by his superior, the prior of Steyn, his old friend Servatius Rogerus, recalling him to the monastery after so many years of absence The letter had already been in the hands ofperson, before it reached him by mere chance

It was a terrific blohich struck hihest aspirations Erasmus took counsel for a day and then sent a refusal To his old friend, in addressing who, he wrote a letter which he meant to be a justification and which was self-contemplation, much deeper and -point of his life, had drawn from him his _Carmen Alpestre_

He calls upon God to be his witness that he would follow the purest inspiration of his life But to return to the monastery! He reminds Servatius of the circumstances under which he entered it, as they lived in his memory: the pressure of his relations, his false modesty He points out to him how ill ed his love of freedom, how detrimental it would be to his delicate health, if now resumed Had he, then, lived a worse life in the world? Literature had kept him from many vices His restless life could not redound to his dishonour, though only with diffidence did he dare to appeal to the exaoras, St Paul and his favourite Jeronition from friends and patrons?

He enumerates them: cardinals, archbishops, bishops, Mountjoy, the Universities of Oxford and Cae, and, lastly, John Colet Was there, then, any objection to his works: the _Enchiridion_, the _Adagia_? (He did not mention the _Moria_) The best was still to follow: Jerome and the New Testament The fact that, since his stay in Italy, he had laid aside the habit of his order and wore a corounds

The conclusion was: I shall not return to Holland 'I know that I shall not be able to stand the air and the food there; all eyes will be directed to rey man, who left it as a youth; I shall return a valetudinarian; I shall be exposed to the contempt even of the lowest, I, who areatest' 'It is not possible', he concludes, 'to speak out frankly in a letter I a to Basle and thence to Rome, perhaps, but on my return I shall try to visit youI have heard of the deaths of William, Francis and Andrew (his old Dutch friends)

Remember me to Master Henry and the others who live with you; I aedies I ascribe to my errors, or if you like to my fate Do not omit to commend me to Christ in your prayers If I knew for sure that it would be pleasing to Him that I should return to live with you, I should prepare for the journey this very day Farewell, my former sweetest co the iical aspirations, this refusal was doubtless actuated by his ancient, inveterate, psychological incentives of disgust and shah the southern Netherlands, where he visited several friends and patrons and renewed his acquaintance with the University of Louvain, Erasmus turned to the Rhine and reached Basle in the second half of August 1514 There such pleasures of fame awaited him as he had never yet tasted The Gerht of the world--in letters, receptions and banquets They were more solemn and enthusiastic than Erasland and Italy, to say nothing of his co a Ger with Froben, Erasmus permitted himself the pleasure of a jocular deception: he pretended to be a friend and agent of hinized The German environret and shaot to know so late'

Soon the work for which he had co He was in his element oncehard in a large printing-office, surrounded by scholars, who heaped upon hie and kindness in those rare moments of leisure which he perreeable Museon: so !'

Some translations of the lesser works of Plutarch were published by Froben in August The _Adagia_ was passing through the press again with corrections and additions, and the preface which was originally destined for Badius At the same time Dirck Maertensz, at Louvain, was also at work for Erash the town, entrusted him with a collection of easy Latin texts; also M Schurer at Strassburg, who prepared the _Parabolae sive sied on a Seneca, which appeared in 1515, together with a work on Latin construction But Jerome and the New Testament remained his chief occupation

Jerome's works had been Erasmus's love in early youth, especially his letters The plan of preparing a correct edition of the great Father of the Church was conceived in 1500, if not earlier, and he had worked at it ever since, at intervals In 1513 he writes to A Jeroh inspired by some God I have al reat expense' In 1512 he negotiated with Badius about an edition of the letters Froben's partner, Johannes Aed for years on an edition of Jero others, had assisted in the undertaking when Erasmus offered himself and all his material He became the actual editor Of the nine volumes, in which Froben published the work in 1516, the first four contained Erasmus's edition of Jerome's letters; the others had been corrected by him and provided with forewords

His work upon the New Testarowth it had gradually changed its nature Since the time when Valla's _Annotationes_ had directed his attention to textual criticis his second stay in England from 1505 to 1506, at the instance of Colet, made a new translation of the New Testareatly froate Besides Colet, few had seen it Later, Erasmus understood it was necessary to publish also a new edition of the Greek text, with his notes As to this he had ement with Froben, shortly after his arrival at Basle

Afterwards he considered that it would be better to have it printed in Italy, and was on the point of going there when, possibly persuaded by new offers froed his plan of travel and in the spring of 1515other reasons, for the purpose of securing a copy of his translation of the New Testament, which he had left behind there In the summer he was back at Basle and resu of 1516 the _Novu the purified Greek text with notes, together with a Latin translation in which Erasate

From the ards the second, such daring theological works by Erasmus as Jerome and the New Testament, we may say that he had made himself the centre of the scientific study of divinity, as he was at the same time the centre and touchstone of classic erudition and literary taste His authority constantly increased in all countries, his correspondence was prodigiously augroas accomplished, his financial position was not assured The years 1515 to 1517 are a out for every chance which presents itself, a canonry at Tournay, a prebend in England, a bishopric in Sicily, always half jocularly regretting the good chances heabout his pursuit of fortune, la about his 'spouse, execrable poverty, which even yet I have not succeeded in shaking off my shoulders' And, after all, ever more the victim of his own restlessness than of the disfavour of fate He is now fifty years old and still he is, as he says, 'soithout knohat I shall reap' This, however, only refers to his career, not to his life-work

In the course of 1515 a new and proe, Chancellor of Brabant, had succeeded in procuring for him the title of councillor of the prince, the youthful Charles V In the beginning of 1516 he was no a yearly pension of 200 florins, which, however, was paid but irregularly To habilitate himself as a councillor of the prince, Erasmus wrote the _Institutio Principis Christiani_, a treatise about the education of a prince, which in accordance with Erasmus's nature and inclination deals rather withcontrast with that other work, written some years earlier, _il Principe_ by Machiavelli

When his work at Basle ceased for the ti of 1516, Erasmus journeyed to the Netherlands At Brussels he met the chancellor, who, in addition to the prince's pension, procured hilish benefice mentioned above, was coreat friends who helped in his support all his life: Peter Gilles, the young town clerk, in whose house he stayed as often as he caures in More's _Utopia_ as the person in whose garden the sailor tells his experiences; it was in these days that Gilles helped Dirck Maertensz, at Louvain, to pass the first edition of the _Utopia_ through the press Later Quentin Metsys was to paint him and Erasmus, joined in a diptych; a present for Thos Erasmus ever knew: this triple friendshi+p

In the suland He stayed with More, saw Colet again, also Warham, Fisher, and the other friends But it was not to visit old friends that he went there A pressing and delicate nities began to be presented to hient than ever that the impediments in the way of a free ecclesiastical career should be permanently obviated He was provided with a dispensation of Pope Julius II, authorizing hi hi the habit of his order But both were of limited scope, and insufficient The fervent impatience hich he conducted this e from the order makes it probable that, as Dr Allen presumes, the threat of his recall to Steyn had, since his refusal to Servatius in 1514, hung over his head There was nothing he feared and detested so much

With his friend Ammonius he drew up, in London, a very elaborate paper, addressed to the apostolic chancery, in which he recounts the story of his own life as that of one Florentius: his half-enforced entrance to the ht him, the circumstances which had induced hiy, pathetic and ornate The letter, as we know it, does not contain a direct request In an appendix at the end, written in cipher, of which he sent the key in sympathetic ink in another letter, the chancery was requested to obviate the iitimate birth placed in the way of his promotion The addressee, Lambertus Grunnius, apostolic secretary, was e[14] So much mystery did Erasmus use when his vital interests were at stake

The Bishop of Worcester, Silvestro Gigli, as setting out to the Lateran Council, as the envoy of England, took upon himself to deliver the letter and to plead Erasust returned to the Netherlands, awaited the upshot of his kind offices in the greatest suspense The matter was finally settled in January 1517 In two letters bearing the signature of Sadolet, Leo X condoned Erasressions of ecclesiastical law, relieved hiation to wear the dress of his order, allowed him to live in the world and authorized him to hold church benefices in spite of any disqualifications arising froreat fame had now achieved The Pope had moreover accepted the dedication of the edition of the New Testaracious tereneral Rome itself seemed to further his endeavours in all respects

Eras hi pointed Louvain seemed to be the most suitable abode, the centre of studies, where he had already spent two years in forhold of conservative theology Martin van Dorp, a Dutchman like Erasmus, and professor of divinity at Louvain, had, in 1514, in the name of his faculty, rebuked Erasmus in a letter for the audacity of the _Praise of Folly_, his derision of divines and also his te the text of the New Testament Eras waged in a reat Hebrew scholar, for whom the authors of the _Epistolae obscuroruels At Louvain Erasarded with the same suspicion hich he distrusted Dorp and the other Louvain divines He stayed during the remainder of 1516 and the first half of 1517 at Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent, often in the house of Peter Gilles In February 1517, there ca offers from France Budaeus, Cop, etienne Poncher, Bishop of Paris, wrote to hi, the youthful Francis I, would present hienerous prebend if he would co tied down, only wrote polite, evasive answers, and did not go

In the meantime he received the news of the papal absolution In connection with this he had, oncethat it would be the last time he should set foot on British soil In Ammonius's house of Saint Stephen's Chapel at Westminster on 9 April 1517, the cereood of the nightmare which had oppressed him since his youth At last he was free!

Invitations and specious promises now came to hih ecclesiastical honours which awaited hi him to remove to France Cardinal Ximenes wanted to attach him to the University of Alcala, in Spain The Duke of Saxony offered hi Pirckheimer boasted of the perfections of the free iain with the labour of writing and editing, according to his wont, did not definitely decline any of these offers; neither did he accept any He alanted to keep all his strings on his bow at the same time In the early summer of 1517 he was asked to accompany the court of the youthful Charles, as on the point of leaving the Netherlands for Spain But he declined His departure to Spain would have reat publishi+ng centres, Basle, Louvain, Strassburg, Paris, and that, in turn, would haveof July, the prince set out for Middelburg, there to take shi+p for Spain, Eraso to this university environh it displeased him in solatinists would follow hiet their poems and letters corrected by him and all those divines, whom he distrusted, would watch him at close quarters But it was only to be for a few months 'I have removed to Louvain', he writes to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 'till I shall decide which residence is best suited to old age, which is already knocking at the gate importunately'